John Eddleston - Photographer

                                                                                                                                                             
In 1963, a young Blackburnian and keen photographer by the name of John Eddleston, had bought himself a new camera which he was going to take with him on a forthcoming trip to Europe. He decided to familiarise himself with his purchase by traipsing around the town (mainly the centre) taking shots of a Blackburn that would soon disappear in the planned, phased redevelopment. He took hundreds of photos and has left us with a very important archive of that period of Blackburn's history.

In the late 1990's, most of John's photos were published in two small books, which were sold locally and the proceeds used to buy equipment for The Stroke Rehabilitation Ward at Queens Park Hospital (Royal Blackburn as it is now). Quite a few people were instrumental in the publication of these books, Peter Street, Ray Hull, Simon Allen, the printer John Brown and no doubt others too. My personal thanks to them all.

Over the last few years, I have seen John Eddleston's photos crop up on Facebook, Flickr, Twitter, Youtube and other web-sites and rarely, if ever, is the man given a mention. Not only do they fail to mention the photographer, but often, their reproductions of his work are bad, indeed sometimes awful scans that add insult to injury (please see the example below). Here, by giving him his own category, I hope to rectify that.

Over time I will upload all of his published images. They will be in pretty random order, but I will tag them by location, so if you just want to see some photos of a particular street / road, click on the appropriate one in the 'LABELS' list.  If you would just like to view JE's photos, then click on his name in the same list.

Lark Hill and the junction of Regent St - 1963

The same image as it appeared on a Facebook group and hand on heart, I did nothing but download it from that group. As mentioned above, an insult to the photographer.

Courtesy of John Eddleston

Whewell's Victoria Brewery 1963 - John Eddleston

Looking towards the Preston New Rd area in the distance, from the bottom of Montague St, with the tower of Thomas Whewell's Brewery dominating the scene. This photo dates to 1962 /1963, when this area was being redeveloped.

Thomas Whewell bought the brewery in 1874 and introduced the tower system of brewing to the site. His limited company was sold to Nuttall's (Lion Brewery) in 1925 and production ceased. The buildings had various uses from then until they were demolished in the early 1960's.

PHOTO COURTESY OF J. EDDLESTON

INFORMATION COURTESY OF M. ROTHWELL. 

King William Street (Looking south) - 1963

 

Looking south along King William Street from the corner of Exchange Street.

It looks like people have always sat on the benches in that vicinity, mainly pedestrianised now of course. I've sat there on sunny afternoons myself over the decades, just watching the world go by and chatting to friends.

Fantastic old lamps along the front of the old Town Hall.

Photo courtesy of John Eddleston

Higher Eanam - 1963

Looking along Higher Eanam towards the town centre, with the pitched gable of the Victoria Cinema dominant. 

In the far distance, we can see the brewery tower of the Swan Brewery (owned by Dutton's by the time this photo was taken) at Lark Hill.

Courtesy of John Eddleston

Below, looking along the same stretch of Higher Eanam, but in the opposite direction, from Higher Barn St, with The Globe pub in the centre of the photo.
Image courtesy of Cottontown.org.

Richmond Terrace looking towards Sudell Cross / Limbrick -- 1963

 

Looking along Richmond Terrace, towards Sudell Cross, from just below Victoria St, with the boundary wall of St John's Church to the right of the photo and the white tiled gable of the Library/Museum building in the middle distance.

To the left, just off this image, is where there was at one time (1950's - mid 60's?) a clinic, which I think was a pre-fabricated type of building and the doorway visible in the photo, just to the left of the traffic light pole was possibly where the dentist was (or was the entrance to the dentist around the corner, on Victoria St itself?)

Photo courtesy of John Eddleston

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

Whalley Banks looking towards Bank Top - 1963

A section of Whalley Banks and looking across the junction of Pump St towards Bank Top.

The Pump House pub on the corner isn't the one that I knew, this is an earlier, three storey version. All the properties to the right of Pump St, including the pub, have long gone, but the properties to the left, on the other side of Pump St remain.

Photo courtesy of John Eddleston.

Victoria St viewed from Church St - 1963

Looking along Victoria St from Church St, with the Littlewoods store on the left, the junction of Lord St, the open market, market buildings and the rear of the Town Hall in the distance.

Photo courtesy of John Eddleston

Bank Top between Pink St and Throstle St - 1963

Bank Top, between Throstle St on the right of the photo and Pink St, where the pub is on the other corner. That pub on the left was the Wellwisher's Arms and I believe the premises on the corner of Throstle St, was also once a pub (well a beerhouse) called The Unicorn.

Just out of shot, on the other side of Throstle St, you would have The Turners Arms.

Of the three pubs mentioned above, I can personally only remember The Turners, which I think was still open into the early 1980's or so.

Below is a photo of The Turners

  Top photo courtesy of John Eddleston.

Lower photo is unknown.

Brookhouse Lane - A St Alban's Procession - c1963

Of all of John Eddleston's photographs of Blackburn, well the ones that have been published (about 200 of them in total), this is the only known coloured photo (though it appears in the book in Black & White).

Taken in 1963, as far as we know, it shows one of the processions from St Alban's Church, as they make their way up Brookhouse Lane.

The caption in the book reads  ''The Polish community of St Alban's Parish, in procession along Brookhouse Lane''  The traditional dress of the ladies and the children certainly looks Eastern European.

I attended St Alban's School and took part in similar processions (well at least one) when I was about 6 years old.

This procession is going in the opposite direction to the route we took. We left the church / school, walked up Whalley New Rd to Bastwell, turned left along Whalley Range and then left again down Brookhouse Lane and back to the starting point.

Lots of these processions used to take place each year, most churches and their associated schools had them. 

Photo courtesy of John Eddleston

Eanam - Now the site of Thwaites Brewery - c1963

Yet another shot of the lower part of Eanam. This is the section / stretch between The Veteran pub (which is out of the photo to the left) and The Bowling Green, the gable of which can be seen towering above the other properties, towards the top right corner of the picture.

If today, you stood where the photographer was, you would just see the side of Thwaites Brewery and the roundabout at the end of Barbara castle Way.

Photo courtesy of John Eddleston.

Eanam - 1963

Following on from the previous post of The Bowling Green Inn, here's a photo taken a little higher up Eanam. The shops look derelict in this 1963 photo, but I believe the premises on the extreme left of the photo were used by Thwaites as some kind of canteen for its workers.

In the background is the Thwaites tower under construction. Maybe when the tower and the rest of the 'new' Thwaites complex was built, they got another canteen and stopped using the little buildings pictured. I'm only surmising here, so if you know better, I'll be happy to amend.

Photo courtesy of John Eddleston.

The Bowling Green Inn - Eanam

The Bowling Green Inn on the corner of Eanam and Syke St.

The pub probably takes its name from a bowling green that was once on Cicely Hill. In fact I think it was where the Blackburn Subscription Bowling Club was based before they moved to the bottom of Shear Bank Rd (based at the green I mean, not based at the pub).

Next door to the pub, just lower down, is the premises of what was a pawn shop, where in February 1960, 56 year old pawnbroker Frederick Bridgewater Gallagher was murdered by 25 year old Hungarian refugee Milhaly Polce.

Polce was traced after he sold a yellow banded wristwatch (which he had taken from the body of Mr Gallagher) in South Wales. He was sentenced to death for his crime in June 1960, but this was later commuted to life imprisonment.

Photo courtesy of John Eddleston.

Murder info courtesy of Christine Wilks. 

King St - Upper section - 1963

Two shots of the top part of King St. 

The upper photo is looking down the street from Astley Gate, with Mincing Lane going off to the left and the lower photo is looking up the street towards Astley Gate.

Fine three and four storey Georgian buildings on view and thankfully, the ones on the right of the street, in the upper shot, are still standing, but sadly all of the properties seen on the left in the same photo are long gone.

Both photos courtesy of John Eddleston

King Street - 1963

Looking up towards the top section of King St. I think the photographer would have been about level with the Kings Head Inn, perhaps just slightly above there.

On the right, the large, light coloured property is the place that many people remember from the 1960's and 1970's as the Employment Exchange. It was originally built as The Hotel, back in Georgian times (very late 1700's or very early 1800's I think it was built) and was used as the Assembly Halls, where many important decisions regarding the town's future were made. By 1851 we had our first elected town mayor (Hornby) and by 1856 a brand new Town Hall, so all political affairs and meetings were then moved to there.

Photo courtesy of John Eddleston

Whalley Banks - 1963

Whalley Banks and the bridge over the Blakewater.

Photo courtesy of John Eddleston

Whalley Banks looking towards King St - 1963

Looking down Whalley Banks into King St, with the old Roxy Cinema on the right. Nice lamp post on the left, possibly adapted from one of the old tram standards (or whatever they were called), as this was one of the tram routes that radiated from the town centre. The Cherry Tree route, I think it was called, as that is where it terminated.

Photo courtesy of John Eddleston

Northgate between Lord St and New Market St - 1963

 

Two shots of the same stretch of Northgate, the section between Lord St West / Lord St and New Market St / Blakey Moor. One looking north and the other looking south.

There have been many shops and businesses along here over the decades, over a couple of centuries I suppose, but probably the best remembered from the 20th century and into the 21st, has to be Mercers.

Though best known as an ironmongers, they sold much more besides. A great shop, over two floors, where you could browse for hours.

The name is still carried on, by the toy shop now on Darwen St.

Photos courtesy of John Eddleston

Salford - 1963

This is Salford, towards the bottom end, with the ornate building on the left (the one the vehicle is emerging from) that was once owned by James Pickup Wine Merchants, who were later taken over by Thwaites and became their wine and spirits department. The tall building further along, with the sign on its gable, was Rice's Printers, which had formerly (long, long ago) been The Peel Hotel, or Leach's Peel Hotel I think it was known as, because it was run by a Mrs Leach back in the olden days.

Towards the top right of the photo, on the end of that stretch, the Salvation Army Citadel can be seen, which is the only surviving building of those in this view.

Photo courtesy of John Eddleston

Town Hall Street from Northgate - 1963

This is Town Hall St viewed from the Northgate end. On the left are various shops and Tony's Empress Ballroom. On the right hand side, but not really visible, is the side of the Co-op Emporium. The entrance would be approximately where the people are. It is now of course, the central library.

In the distance at the bottom of the street, can be seen some of the market stalls / units on King William St, where we would now see Hornby's statue by the old Town Hall and perhaps the corner of the British Home Stores.

Photo courtesy of John Eddleston