One of Blackburn’s finest buildings will be given a new lease of life when it opens up as a public house, the purpose for which it was originally built.
This impressive building at the crossroads of Northgate and Blakey Moor, first opened as a pub in 1897. It has had various names over the years. Originally opened as the Ribblesdale Hotel, it reputedly owned Blackburn’s largest pub sign. It was renamed Gladstone’s when Blackburn’s statue of Britain’s former Prime Minister was moved to a plinth right outside the pub. Old William Ewart still stands there to this very day. He has been climbed on many occasion since being unveiled, most notably when Rovers won the FA Cup in 1928. He was bedecked in a blue and white scarf and had a beer bottle placed in his outstretched hand to celebrate. Ironically, Gladstone’s statue isn’t listed, but an old red GPO telephone box beside the pub is.
This pub was later renamed Baroque. It seemed to be a trend back then, where the word ‘Bar’ prefixed many pubs, including a few in Blackburn. Various nicknames were also inappropriately used with Bar for some of these pubs, including Fly, Stool and Steward. As Baroque this place didn’t seem to last very long. There were lots of complaints from nearby businesses, especially toy shops, about them having strippers strutting their stuff at teatimes. Then a man climbing onto its roof with a meat cleaver probably didn’t help matters either. And so this pub became empty for a long time.
Now the only strippers in here are working on its inside walls. Restoration of this pub is part of the £3.8M Blakey Moor Townscape Heritage Initiative. A project jointly funded by the National Lottery Heritage Fund and our local council. It seeks to regenerate this historic area of Blackburn town centre and entice people to visit our town’s beating heart.
This building’s new tenant will be near neighbour Shh Bar. It will move from its premises across the road on Northgate and relocate to a newly refurbished pub premises. It will continue to keep its present name. Opened in 2017, Shh has brought a refreshing change to Blackburn town centre’s pub culture. ‘Ambience’ is a word often used to describe Shh Bar’s atmosphere. Hopefully this will be transferred across to their new building when they move in. Much interest and anticipation has been generated already by this proposed relocation.
