Edited sentence: Anonymous blocks of flats are replacing proud Victorian merchants' houses.Chapel Street has long since seen the elegant station frontage knocked down to be replaced by poor quality 1960's style retail buildings.Recently the Palace Cinema on Lord Street, an outstanding piece of English theatre/cinema architecture, was replaced by an unattractive hotel building.Southport is a fine, if now somewhat faded, example of a 19th century northern English seaside town.The arrival of the railways from Manchester, Liverpool and Preston in the 19th century created a housing boom in the town and in its then neighbouring borough of Birkdale.The original, and elegant, Victorian buildings at both the landward and seaward end of the Pier have long since gone.The ugly and brash modern buildings conflict with the Pier's Victorian origins.This role was combined with its strategic location as a dormitory town for both Liverpool and Manchester.This was reflected in the large Victorian redbrick houses, the elegant tree-lined and canopied boulevard, Lord Street, and in the size and architectire of Chapel Street Station, the town's main railway terminus.Unfortunately modern development is gradually eroding the significant 19th century heritage of the town.Unfortunately the modernisation process has seen the removal of the large wooden big-dipper which was one of the largest of its kind in the UK and also one of the last remaining examples of this form of early 20th century pleasureground entertainment