Blackburn town centre’s oldest building, the former parish church of St John the Evangelist, was devastated by a fire in April.
It was home to a gallery, studio, cinema, theatre workshops and various local community groups. These were all thriving, along with the Bureau – Centre for the Arts. Four years of hard work went into getting this fine project up and running. Thankfully, those people behind the Bureau are not the kind who give up without a fight and are continuing with this good work they have been doing, since setting up the centre, in other locations. They are now based in the former Waterloo pub.
St John’s has a lot of affection from my point of view. When Rovers were Premier League Champions, I was unemployed and enrolled on a scheme in here. Blackburn’s Ethnic Minorities Development Association published a newspaper called Aawaz. And this is where I learned all about desktop publishing. It was also the place were my first book was typed out from my spidery longhand hieroglyphics and transcribed into a format for publishing. A year later my book was published and on the shelves.
My book was never going to be everybody’s cup of tea, but it is just one example of how this building has encouraged and developed creativity and culture in our town. All sorts of projects and activities have been started up and assisted in what became the Bureau of Blackburn.
Sadly, this fire has put the building out of action for now, but it raises questions over what future does St John’s church have after this terrible inferno? From looking at the structure, its outer walls look intact, though its interior remains a burnt out shell. Perhaps this building could be repaired and rebuilt and then brought back into use one day. Blackburn may not be Paris and St John’s may not be Notre Dame. But it is still our town centre’s oldest building and up to the fire, was serving our people like it had done since the 18th century.
Many Blackburn people have been helped in some way by this building. Whether it be through religious comfort and counselling or by calling into the Citizen’s Advice Bureau and Council for Voluntary Services, which were both based there for many years. It would be nice to think this building may one day re-open and continue to serve the people of Blackburn once again, for many more years to come.
