Blackburn is not one of the most glamorous cities in the UK. Although it is mentioned in the Domesday Book (1086), most of the modern townscape is a mixture of, unfortunately unplanned, nineteenth century industry and, unfortunately planned, twentieth century shopping mega-structure. Despite this there is some architecture that, while not necessarily of the first rank, is worth reporting.
The Technical School dates from 1888 and was designed by Smith, Woodhouse & Willoughby. The façade is a riot of terracotta sculpture, involving swags, putti and a menagerie of grotesque creatures. There are numerous vignette scenes representing the applied arts, which were of great importance in Victorian society. In his guide book Pevsner comments “The style is a kind of free French Renaissance; or what else is it?”. Well, it is certainly confusing: a lesson in how to put so much detail into one building that it becomes impossible to focus on any one thing! The result is certainly jolly, but not a viable model for today’s architects.
The detail repays close exmination.
King George's Hall with the Technical School in the background.
King George’s Hall looks quite calm after its near neighbour. The hall, along with the adjoining court buildings, was part of a scheme, built between 1912 and 1921, designed by Briggs, Wolsternholme & Thornely. Pevsner describes the hall as “conventionally classical”; but why should it not be? There are nicely varied sculptural groups framing circular windows on the front and side elevations, and more sculpture on the parapet of the court building.
The entire scheme employs the three most important orders: Corinthian, Doric and a form of the Ionic order that will look familiar to readers of this site!
The vista of the combined facades on Northgate is unfortunately interrupted by the bridge link added to tie the building into an urban mega-structure in the 1970s.
As a Gothic building, Blackburn Cathedral may lie outside the remit of the Grand Tradition website; however the oldest part of the building dates only from 1820 – a time when some architects were still treating “Gothick” as an exotic variety of “Classic”.
It was not uncommon for nineteenth century industrial towns to replace their mediaeval parish churches, which they considered to be too small, dark and damp, with brand new buildings in the latest styles. The new parish church for Blackburn was designed by John Palmer in a very refined, but archaeologically inaccurate, Gothic style. The nave has beautiful slender columns and refined details in stone - and plaster painted to look like stone.
In 1926 the Parish Church of St Mary’s was raised to the rank of Cathedral and a new phase of building undertaken. The architect, W. A. Forsythe, envisaged the old building becoming the nave of a huge new church with a long choir and a tall central tower. As with Lutyens’s Liverpool Roman Catholic Cathedral, work was slowed by the Second World War and only the transepts and part of the choir were built. As at Liverpool, an attempt was made in the 1960s to find a swift solution and the result was Lawrence King’s octagonal “corona”. This feature, though effective from the interior, employed a variety of novel materials including exposed concrete and acrylic “stained glass” – these materials of course failed.
Model of Lawrence King's design in the Cathedral Crypt
1820s to the left, 1930s-50s to the right, 1960s-90s above.
Bibliography
Pevsner, Nikolaus (1969), North Lancashire: The Buildings of England, ISBN 0-14-071037-
X.
All photographs are by the author.
