The world famous Bluecoats helped launch the careers of Shane Ritchie, Bobby Davro and Bradley Walsh.
But Pontins, once a beloved British family holiday destination, is now in deep crisis.
During its heyday in the 1970s and 80s, the business flourished and hordes of British families eagerly piled into their cars to drive to one of the 30 parks dotted around the country.
There are now only three left trying to survive.
If owner Britannia had any doubts about public opinion of Pontins, a recent survey that voted it the worst holiday resort in Britain will come as a shocking wake-up call.
The Pontins at the Spanish Riviera Hotel in Weymouth on a warm sunny day in 1987
The famous cabaret artists in blue jackets at a Pontins Holiday Camp around 1993
People watch a beauty pageant at Middleton Tower Holiday Camp near Morecambe in the 1950s. The Pontins site closed in 1993
A man and a woman take to the dance floor during a Pontins ‘Rhythm Riot Weekend’ at the now-closed Camber Sands venue in Sussex
Sir Fred Pontin launched Pontins in 1946, offering half-board and self-catering holidays with entertainment in resorts across the country
The Pontins in Pakefield, Suffolk (pictured in 2009) is today one of three remaining parks
The results of the Which? survey will come as an unpleasant surprise to the company’s multi-millionaire boss, Andrew Langsam.
Customer service, cleanliness, quality of accommodation, food and drink and value for money all received only two stars.
It’s a harsh assessment for a place that many Britons will have fond memories of, and it stands in stark contrast to Langsam’s promise to sprinkle the parks with some Disney-esque magic dust.
“It’s not a question of Britain’s brains,” the tycoon boasted to The Guardian in 2011, after spending £20m to oust Pontins from the board.
“I’m going to put some spectacle in it,” he cheered, as he set aside £25 million to breathe new life into the parks.
But in the nearly 15 years since Britannia took over, things have gotten crazier than Mickey Mouse and the hotel chain has failed to halt its decline.
Family accommodation at a holiday camp in Pontins in the 1980s, when the brand was a competitor to Butlins for UK holidays
Britannia Hotels Group bought Pontin’s out of bankruptcy in 2011 for a reported £20m
A group of partygoers on the balcony of a chalet during the Rockabilly Weekend at Pontins, Camber Sands, East Sussex, in June 2013
Members of Bluecoat Cabaret take part in a balloon show at one of Pontins’ holiday parks in the 1980s
Guests outside the chalets at Pontins Holiday Camp, Osmington Bay, Dorset, in 1958
Prestatyn in North Wales and Camber Sands in Sussex were closed without warning at the end of November last year.
Two months later, Southport, in Merseyside, was added to Pontins’ graveyard, with bosses blaming flooding caused by Storm Henk for the closure.
Employees said they were told at the last minute via text message that their jobs no longer existed.
With EDF staff based at Brean Sands park in Somerset for the next three years while work on a new nuclear power station continues, families have a choice of two parks: Pakefield in Suffolk and Sand Bay in Weston-super-Mare.
The descent is as shocking and swift as one of Pontins’ water slides.
There were also rumours online that Prestatyn and Camber Sands parks would be home to 1,600 migrants instead of happy families enjoying their holidays.
The Home Office strongly denied the rumours, insisting to MailOnline that there were no plans to use them.
Langsam, dubbed the ‘Asylum King’, has built an estimated £248m fortune with Britannia Hotels and has lucrative taxpayer-funded contracts to house asylum seekers at his 60 properties, of which at least 17 are said to be fully booked.
Tycoon Alex Langsam has built an estimated fortune of £248 million through Britannia Hotels, which has secured lucrative taxpayer-funded contracts to house asylum seekers
The owners of the Southport park, pictured in 2020, said in a statement: ‘After assessing the future viability of the park, we have come to the difficult decision to close our doors’
The derelict former Pontins Holiday Park in Hemsby, Norfolk, was eerily photographed in 2014, six years after its closure was prompted by declining visitor numbers
The once beloved British holiday destination has been plagued by a series of closures in recent decades
The hotel magnate founded the company in 1976 with the purchase of the Britannia Country House Hotel in Didsbury, Manchester.
The entrepreneur has previously boasted about Britannia’s role in securing the future of some of Britain’s most historic hotels, including the Adelphi in Liverpool (which was used by passengers on the Titanic) and the Grand in Scarborough.
But Britannia is now known for its Basil Fawlty-esque service, having been voted the worst hotel chain for eleven years running.
Its entry in the Which? rankings of the country’s best and worst hotels also makes for poor reading: ‘Rundown, filthy and yet again the worst hotel chain in the UK. Avoid at all costs.’
Sir Fred Pontin founded Pontins in 1946, offering half-board and self-catering holidays with entertainment in resorts across the country.
In the 1960s the business flourished and Sir Fred’s eyes began to wander abroad. In 1963 he founded Pontinental and with it came a series of holiday villages in Spain, Mallorca, Sardinia, Ibiza, Greece, Morocco and Yugoslavia.
In 1978 Pontins was sold to the Coral Group for £56 million. Since then it has had a number of new owners, until it was rescued by Britannia in 2011 when it went into receivership.
MailOnline has asked Britannia Hotels for comment.