Royal Vist - King George V - 10th July 1913

A royal visit to Blackburn.

King George V and his entourage were here on 10th July 1913 to lay the foundation stone of the public halls, now better known to us as King George's Hall. Here the cavalcade can be seen crossing the Boulevard in the direction of the Railway Station.

It would be October 1921 before the halls were finally opened, the main delay being the Great War of 1914 - 1918.

Sadly I would estimate that a proportion of the people in this crowd, especially the men, would not have survived to see the completion of the halls. Although many would do and as with future generations of Blackburn folk, they would in later decades have attended ceremonies, dances, concerts, pantomimes, plays and a variety of other performances, functions and events held there.

Courtesy of the CP Collection

Darwen St looking into King William St - 1963

 

Looking along Darwen St and into King William St, with the junction of Church St to the right and Higher Church St to the left. The Old Bank, pretty central in this photograph, dominates the scene and just in the centre of the crossroads, you can see the policeman in his white coat, directing the traffic.

The building on the other corner of Higher Church St was originally the Prince of Wales Hotel, but by the time this photo was taken in 1963, it had long been an outlet of Burton's (gents outfitters).

Photo courtesy of John Eddleston

Cathedral (and later extensions)

A couple of shots of the Cathedral, one pre extensions and one taken while the work was ongoing. Work commenced on the South extension, on 7th October 1938, but was then shelved during the Second World War. Not certain when they resumed work, but the lower photo (black & white one) was taken in 1950. They were still on with the extension, well into the 1960's, as I can personally remember builders on the site. As kids, we used to run up and down those sloping parts when no-one was around. Apparently, an outdoor pulpit was built into this extension. Was it ever used? The Freemasons paid for the South porch, according to a little booklet I have (published in 1968).

That bus shelter had long gone by the 1960's. It was replaced by those concrete ones, with the rails down the middle. The concrete ones were then replaced by the metal framed, glazed ones, we have today.

In about 1966, my younger brother Tony fell off Queen Vic's statue, while clambering about (he was around 7 or 8 years old at the time) and he cracked his head open. Someone took him to the Hake Boat, where they patched his wound up a bit. I can remember my mum going down to collect him. We had a late tea that evening, fish & chips I think. 

COURTESY OF THE CP COLLECTION

The Cathedral viewed from the Church Street / Darwen Street corner

This view of the cathedral, resembles something out of a Hammer Horror. Some of those monuments were still in place when I was a child, in the early 1960's.  I don't know the date of the postcard, but as you can see from the text on it, they were still calling it the 'Parish Church', so it must pre-date 1926, as that is when the church achieved its cathedral status. Prior to being known as just 'the cathedral' it was known as The Parish Church of St Mary the Virgin and it is believed a place of worship has stood on this spot since the reign of Ethelred the Unready (978 - 1016). I don't like walking through the cathedral grounds after dark nowadays. I think I would have been even more reluctant, back when this photo was taken.  It looks spooky !

COURTESY OF THE CP COLLECTION