So many happy days of my childhood were spent watching films in the old cinema on King William Street. I even remember the last film I saw there before it closed as a picture place in 2005. For the record it was ‘Lord of the Rings’. Sadly there has been no wizard round the corner to save this magnificent Grade 2 listed building from growing dereliction.
The Cotton Exchange and Newsroom opened in 1865. As its name suggests, it was built to serve the town’s cotton traders and manufacturers. It was meant to be two wings and a central tower, but only one wing and the tower was completed. On the bright side, in 1869 one of Britain’s greatest writers, Charles Dickens, gave his last public reading performance in the Exchange.
In 1918 it became a full-time cinema, known as the Exchange Picture Hall. At one point it had a seating capacity of 1,500. But various alterations, changes of owners and names of the venue, more than halved this capacity. By the time it closed, due to the opening of the new Vue multiplex cinema, it had been split into five screen rooms, the largest seating less than 300.
Since the closure, a restaurant, dodgy bar and now a barber’s has used the lower part of the building. Sadly it has remained empty upstairs. Unfortunately it is coming up to ten years of idleness for the majority of this building. So it’s about time some use was found to bring it back to life and stop the onset of further dereliction.
Blackburn town centre has many empty premises, so retail use can be ruled out. So can office use, due to the scale of development required. But the building has been used for leisure purposes for over 100 years and this looks the likeliest future outcome. All sorts of rumours have been banded around about it becoming a nightclub or a scaled down theatre. But one of the larger pub chains taking over is probably the most realistic venture. But not in Blackburn in the current economic climate.
At the moment the best we can do is keep the discussions going about the old Cotton Exchange, not letting people forget about it. It has been ten years since the curtain went down on the silver screen. Hopefully this beautiful building may still one day resume its place as one of Blackburn’s most visited venues.
