Category: Blackburn

The Bureau of Blackburn

Posted by Roving Mick on April 5, 2015

Blackburn Town Centre’s oldest building is the Grade 2 listed church of St John the Evangelist.  Built in 1788, you can see a potted history of Blackburn’s 19th century movers and shakers by looking around its graveyard.  But those people who welded Blackburn’s culture from the past are about to be wedded to our culture of the present and future.

Bureau

A new arts centre is gradually taking shape in the old church.  To be known as ‘The Bureau, Centre For The Arts’.  It was the brainchild of Claire Tymon from ‘Blackburn Is Open’, the town’s regenerative agency, set up to put unused space in the town centre back into use.  This followed the Citizen’s Advice Bureau moving from St John’s across to the library.  It was CAB’s connection with St John’s church which brought about this idea for the arts centre’s new name.  St John’s itself is a fascinating concept of Blackburn’s past and present.  You are immediately reminded this was a church when your attention is captured by sun shining through its beautiful stained glass windows.  Another legacy of former ecclesiastical days is its excellent acoustic quality.

The Bureau is setting up as a Community Interest Company, and Alex Martindale is one of the directors.  He said the Bureau will be split up into rooms.  These will be hired out to artists, exhibitions will be held and a corridor gallery will be created.  The centre is allowed to hold twelve events a year where alcohol can be consumed on the premises.  This will mean one-off monthly events will be organised.  Plans are also afoot to host a beer festival in the building.  This will showcase local brewers, including Three B’s and Hopstar.

Alex expects funding for the arts centre to come from the Arts Council of England, Council and Lottery grants.  There has also been interest from commercial organisations to pay to use space and equipment.  The building is also available for hire.  Work on the centre is progressing slowly, due to it being a new venture.  But Alex says its board of directors want everything planned properly and carried out correctly.

Activities are already taking place on a regular basis.  Blackburn Printfest will be holding a two day celebration of exhibitions, workshops, performances and print fairs. This takes place on 15th & 16th May.  Art Space is a monthly meet up for creatives, held every third Thursday.  Drink & Draw hold classes every second Thursday.  They have a full screening of The Rocky Horror Picture Show, with live models in costume, to sketch alongside.  There is a dress code for this event – Drag!  This takes place on Thursday 9th April between 6:30-9:30pm and costs £5.

Alex says he wants the Bureau to become a fully-fledged arts centre, with studios and regular events taking place.  Information can be found by emailing them: info@bureaublackburn.co.uk  or by visiting their website: http://bureaublackburn.co.uk

What the Dickens: Blackburn’s old Cotton Exchange?

Posted by Roving Mick on January 6, 2015

The Last Picture Show?
The Last Picture Show?

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.

Blackburn Museum and Art Gallery

Posted by Roving Mick on October 1, 2014

 

Works of art outside the museum too

Works of art outside the museum too

Working in Blackburn town centre has its advantages. Loads of shops, good transport links, plenty of food and drink outlets and a few remaining good pubs. There are also plenty of things to do. One of which is being able to learn about Blackburn’s culture by going for a look around the museum and art gallery.

When I was young it was both our library and museum, on Library Street itself. But when the old Coop Emporium became Blackburn’s excellent central library, our museum and art gallery copped for all of their building. They even had an unusual occurrence of seeing the name of their road changed to its more appropriate one we now know as Museum Street.

I used to find it rather unnerving as a child seeing how eyes of faces in paintings seemed to follow you around the gallery. Fortunately those people in the paintings were all as dead as the stuffed animals and my childhood favourite exhibit – the mummy. She was one lady who really did give my friends and I the creeps.

Many people consider Blackburn Museum to be our town centre’s finest building. I particularly like the carvings decorating its walls on Museum Street and Richmond Terrace. But not everything is as it seems. You only really see two sides of this story. The museum’s right hand front side is obscured by a back alley. Even worse, when you look at the building from Exchange Street, you are met with a flat blank wall. Just down the terrace you have another even bigger square of blankness. This belongs to Blackburn’s masonic hall, where going back to square one is supposed to be part of their rituals anyway.

Ideally it would be nice one day to see the back end of our museum have an exterior of a similar character in keeping with its other outside walls. Maybe a way of helping to pay for future renovations would be to use this blank wall to help pay for its keep. From Exchange Street, you have a really good view of this wall, apart from it being partly obscured by a couple of trees.

Perhaps a good way of raising money would be to use the wall as a billboard for advertising. Many people pass this way through the town centre every day. On Saturday afternoons there is a steady stream of cars inching their way on to the Shopping Mall car park. No doubt many motorists and their passengers, over the years, have had plenty of time to take in all the views of Richmond Terrace. The museum might as well take advantage of this captive audience.

But what could be more fitting than Blackburn’s museum and art gallery advertising itself? They have the strategic location, they have a large flat surface and they have plenty of space for a billboard.

River Blakewater – Blackburn’s Hidden Artery

Posted by Roving Mick on July 3, 2014

Our two old and new bus station building sites in the town centre have one thing in common.  They both have the River Blakewater flowing underneath them.  This has brought out a few talking points about Blackburn’s hidden river.  The main issue is should it be open or should it remain covered as it flows through the town centre? 

Strangely enough, the Blakewater is a mysterious watercourse to many people.  It seems to be out of sight to most of us throughout its journey from a trickle at Guide to its confluence with the River Darwen at Witton Park.  Also not many Blackburners even realise a river flows through the town centre, or indeed other areas of the town.

Interestingly enough, this river – the Black Burn – which our town is named after, actually has three names.  It starts off from its source, up Guide, as the Knuzden Brook.  It skims round Shadsworth, down to Intack, where for a short stretch it is known as Abbott Clough.  But Whitebirk is where its familiar River Blakewater name comes into use.

Here is Blackburn’s other, albeit less well known, aqueduct.  Our river flows underneath the Leeds Liverpool canal on its way through Greenbank, Cob Wall, Bastwell and Brookhouse, before going underground on Brookhouse Lane itself.  From here to where it emerges on Bridge Street could be classed as one of Britain’s widest bridges.

I can remember the river flowing open to Blakewater Street, near the lowest point of what is now Barbara Castle Way.  My great aunt lived on nearby Anvil Street.  Sadly the river at the time was polluted and was used as a dumping ground by all and sundry.  Unfortunately this should prove to be a warning to those harbouring the romantic idea of opening up the river as it flows through the town centre.  Even after all the culverting and drainage work on the river, it still floods in some places.  Darwen Street traders will endorse this.

But the one place it doesn’t flood is where it has been covered over in the town centre.  Perhaps some plan could be thought up to enhance the use of the river as a tourist attraction.  A branch of the canal, incorporating the river, from Whitebirk to Witton is not as far-fetched as some of the original canal ideas.

But after exploring Liverpool’s fascinating Williamson Tunnels, maybe something could be done to try and link up the underground river and its tributaries with our town’s Victorian sewers.  Maybe then the council could organise boat trips down Blackburn’s own Tunnel of Love.

Roving Mick Joins Foster Campaign

Posted by Roving Mick on June 11, 2014

Dave and Edith

Dave and Edith

Following my photographic debut as an ageing male model in the Adoption campaign, I’m now adorning the pages of Blackburn with Darwen’s Fostering recruitment drive literature.

I’ve been given a different name in this campaign – I’m called Dave and my fellow model is a different lady (called Edith – not her real name), than the one who was with me in the Adoption posters. This has brought a great deal of micky-taking and hilarity in my direction. I’ve been accused of adopting women, while encouraging people to adopt and foster children.

But it’s all good fun for a really important cause. More foster carers are urgently needed in our area to provide a temporary or permanent home to children who can’t live with their families, for various reasons.

Fostering is a professional role with extensive training and ongoing support. Blackburn with Darwen Council provides a generous weekly allowance plus expenses. You will be helping local children and can be sure of regular placements, especially if you’re considering fostering as an alternative to traditional employment.

Foster carers can be from any race, culture, religion or linguistic background and can be gay, straight, single, married, widowed, divorced, disabled, employed or unemployed.

There are many different types of fostering, from providing short breaks for children with disabilities to longer term placements for children from small babies to teens.

Want more information? Check out details below:

THE FOSTERING TEAM

Blackburn with Darwen Borough Council

Fostering Service

Floor 2, Duke Street

Blackburn, BB2 1DH

Call Freephone: 0800 328 6919 for an informal chat or

Email: familyplacement@blackburn.gov.uk

Visit the website:

http://www.letsfoster.co.uk/

Bye Bye Blackburn Bouly

Posted by Roving Mick on April 19, 2014

End of the road for Blackburn Boulevard

End of the road for Blackburn Boulevard

Work has now started on Blackburn’s new Cathedral Quarter.  It brings to an end over a century of use by Blackburn Boulevard as the town’s main bus station.  All that is left of our old bus station is a building site, surrounded by wooden boards.  But we have been told a phoenix will soon be rising from its ashes.

Station Square, as it was originally called, was actually triangular.  But this just about sums up Blackburn town centre – it’s never been known for getting its geometry right.  At least it was right in the centre though.  Even better, it was adjacent to our railway station, making Blackburn one of few large towns and cities with its own transport interchange.  Unfortunately, things were spoiled by it having a trunk road running through.  This often brought traffic to a standstill at peak times.

Our old Bouly was never a place for the faint-hearted.  I can remember it being populated by skinheads in the late 60’s.  Punk Rockers in the 1970’s and beggars and winos up to its final closure.  It also saw many a fracas between Rovers fans and visiting supporters from other football clubs.

Rowdy and violent behaviour will hopefully be a distant memory for this new cloistered enclave.  Ceremonial wine will be far more appropriate in the Cathedral Quarter than White Lightning and Frosty Jack cider.  Although the Adelphi will be keeping its eye on building work and hoping to benefit from any spin-offs from a new clerical community.

No doubt the finished product will be captured on film.  In 1905, pioneering Blackburn film makers:  Mitchell & Kenyon caught the unveiling of Queen Victoria’s statue.  This was probably much to the bemusement of WE Gladstone nearby.  His statue had already been there 6 years before her arrival.  They famously detested each other and the ‘Grand Old Man’ was subsequently shunted off to Blackburn College, before ending up in his present Blakey Moor home.  He has been climbed on many occasions over the years, having bottles and cans of beer placed in his outstretched hand and Rovers scarves draped around his neck.

Queen Vic seems to have got off lightly, only being left to the mercy of passing graffiti artists.  No doubt she would have banned the felt-tip pen and aerosol spray if they had been around in her day.  Let’s hope the new Cathedral Quarter will meet the Royal Approval and Blackburn’s people don’t end up saying:  “We are not amused!”

Virgin On The Ridiculous

Posted by Roving Mick on March 22, 2014

More unwanted junk mail

More unwanted junk mail

Every day I when come home from work, there is usually some junk mail waiting for me in my porch.

Virgin Media are installing fibre optic cabling for their broadband service in my area.  As expected, they want to let everybody know about it.  This has led to a never-ending supply of their junk mail landing on my door mat.

At first I would chuck their letters in with my pile of other papers, leaflets and junk mail and bin them.  But after a while I saw it as a form of bullying, as well as an annoying invasion of my privacy.

I contacted Virgin’s Social Media team (socialteam@virginmedia.co.uk) and they said they would stop all marketing going to my address.  But it still continues to this very day.

After a good dig on the internet, various ways can be found of stopping some junk mail being delivered to your address.  First amongst these is the ‘Mailing Preference Service’.  They will stop most items directly addressed to you.  But those annoying ‘To the Occupier’ letters give it the slip.  This because the latter is a loophole, as it is classed as unaddressed mail.

The opposite effect comes with Royal Mail’s ‘Door-to-Door Opt Out’ scheme.  This stops items without a postal address.  But it has a legal duty to deliver all mail with a ‘delivery point’, meaning to the address, rather than the addressee – which it sees as irrelevant.  Therefore it considers ‘To the Occupier’ as addressed mail.  So you can’t win!

The big problem seems to be direct marketers are self-regulating.  They take the attitude that their industry keeps a lot of paper, printing and distribution workers in employment.  They claim their industry contributes around £20M to the UK economy.  Royal Mail gets half of its business from this source too.  So they aren’t going to be very helpful in killing the goose which lays the golden egg.

On the other side of the coin, how much does it cost to dispose of the average household’s 455 items of junk mail a year? And how does it affect recycling targets this country is obliged to meet?  It seems very irresponsible to waste so much paper on something most people clearly don’t want.  It also begs the question, what kind of service can you expect from a company which refuses to comply with the simple request to stop delivering their junk mail to your home?

What Virgin doesn’t seem to realise is their junk mail is actually not serving the purpose it was set up for.  Instead, it’s having the opposite effect.  Many disgruntled people like me are so fed up with them, we wouldn’t subscribe to their service even if it was free.  They can carry on being a virgin – they certainly won’t be touched by the hand of this man.

Roving Mick Joins Adoption Campaign

Posted by Roving Mick on March 6, 2014

letsadopt paintMany people visiting this website won’t have met me.  But a lot of you will have seen my face in Blackburn town centre.

This is down to me being the grey-haired bloke in the latest poster being used by Blackburn with Darwen Council’s Adoption Team.  I jumped at the chance of doing my bit for the recruitment campaign and hope it will encourage some of you to consider finding out more about becoming adopters.

Every year, there are around 50 young children in Blackburn with Darwen who need adoptive parents. They range from babies and toddlers to children up to the age of 8 – and occasionally older.

The good news is that most people are able to adopt and with Blackburn with Darwen, you’ll be supported by one of the best adoption teams around.

They have introduced a quicker adoption process, which takes around six months to complete and includes training in child development, forming families and the special issues involved in adopting.

Find frequently asked questions about adoption on their website:

www.letsadopt.co.uk 

For more information or an informal chat, get in touch with their friendly and professional team.

Blackburn with Darwen Council
Children’s Services Department,
Floor 2, 10 Duke Street,
Blackburn BB2 1DH

T: 01254 666 806
E: info@letsadopt.co.uk

 

Sally Sticky Fingers

Posted by Roving Mick on January 21, 2014

Not this time!

We had a recent case in the news of an admin worker stealing money from the bank account of a resident of a local hostel.  The worker was in a trusted position and they abused their role over a lengthy period of time.  The resident had mental health issues, making the crime even more despicable.

Coverage in the local media was scant.  Only a small inside page column with an unidentifiable photograph.  Their article was mainly coverage used in their previous report.  There was not even a mention of this case on any of the local radio stations.

It seemed like everybody got the result they wanted.  The police, the bank and the hostel were all able to slap themselves on the back and brush this case under the carpet, saying justice had been done.  After all, a thief had been sent to prison and the victim would get back what money they all thought had probably gone missing.

Unfortunately our victim has mental health problems.  He has no idea how much money has been stolen because he put his trust in the admin worker for many years.  They will probably serve a couple of months in prison and return to their pious life and everything will soon be forgotten.

Our swindler used to be a pillar of the community.  Partaking of religion on a Sunday and praying for the kind of unfortunate souls they were to commit this heinous offence against.  Whereas our victim was despised by the community because of his circumstances.  Yet our victim has never harmed a fly and is often seen by many of us carrying out voluntary work in the town centre.

Maybe we should all shoulder some of the blame over what has happened to our victim.  We treat the mentally ill with disdain, blaming them for their own reduced circumstances.  In our area there used to be hospitals where they received professional care.  These were sold off for their land and property value, leading to many vulnerable people expelled into a society which saw them as an unwelcome burden.

Sadly we have seen terrible cases of exploitation by others, including the admin worker, currently inside.  Unscrupulous people will always home in on vulnerable people with mental health issues.  Perhaps the case of our victim is just the tip of the iceberg.  Perhaps this appalling case will make society look at exploitation of the mentally ill.  Or will everybody carry on regardless and have as much interest as the authorities have shown?

Opening Time At Blackburn’s Morri’s

Posted by Roving Mick on December 25, 2013

Off our Trolleys

Sometimes on my way to work, and most Saturday mornings, I can be found doing an early shop at Blackburn’s Morrison’s. 

My most convenient time for shopping is their eight o’clock opening time.  It’s a strange surreal experience, joining the throng of workers and pensioners on a week day.  But the other way round on Saturdays and Sunday.

Around ten to eight a gathering begins to build up.  It’s always the same old faces, some of whom can be seen at this time seven days a week.  People start looking at their watches and peering through the glass as eight approaches.  A flash of white flannel comes walking down from the other end of the store.  It is a chap with his key to open these glass doors.  Everybody then files in, heading towards the aisles.

This where almost a line in the sand is drawn.  Nobody enters these aisles until the eight o’clock bell rings.  It is like Wildebeest on the edge of a crocodile-infested river.  Shoppers stand on this edge, as though a killer weather balloon is about to rise up from around the aisles to smother them if they cross the threshold.  Nobody dares set foot into this shopping area.  Figures in green can be seen walking around.  Nobody wants to be told not to enter the forbidden zone.

I watch all this from one of the benches across from the shopping trolleys.  Unlike the majority of Morrison’s early morning shoppers, I generally slip in via their Salford sliding door.  This always seems to be opened before those Railway Road and car park entrances.  It means I get to sit down and watch all this drama.

When the 8.00am bell clangs, it’s straight to the sell-by counter for me.  My legs get me there before the majority of Morri’s punters.  Most of them are unhappy about shelves being swapped around again.  And then it’s a quick walk round the store, before landing at an open till.  My timing is usually good at this time of day.  I often catch them as they just open.  Staff are still tipping bags of coins into their till trays and are nice and friendly.

I hate shopping, even worse than that – I hate paying for it.  So my visits here are as quick as possible.  Sadly, it’s a necessity for me.  But for a lot of other people, it’s what gets them out of bed and the highlight of their day.