Not an uncommon image of Church Street, as this postcard has been reproduced a few times in various books, but quite unusual to see a coloured version. On the extreme right, the ivy covered house, was for many years the home of Dr W. R. Pollard. On the same side, amongst the various shops, can also be seen the Royal Commercial Hotel and the Golden Lion Hotel, before the junction of Victoria Street. On the opposite side of the street, almost facing Victoria Street, can be seen the premises of Boots Cash Chemist and at the top, on that side of the street, the outline of the gable end and chimney's of the very large Old Bull Hotel.
In the foreground of the photograph, almost central, are the underground toilets, which remained there until 1962.
A very busy and animated scene, well worth enlarging, if you have the facility / programme on your computer, to do so.
The black & white photo (not a very good one, admittedly) is just here for comparison and dates from the mid 1950's.
The bottle is a 19th century Whisky or Spirit Flask. These were sold at many pubs and hotels throughout the land. Usually embossed with the name of the establishment and sometimes the name of the landlord, they could be purchased and filled with your desired spirit, to be consumed off premises, then returned to the pub at a later time. This one, as you can see, was for the Golden Lion - Blackburn. Probably hundreds of them around at the time (1870 - 1920), but now quite a rarity. An interesting relic of Blackburn's past.
COURTESY OF THE CP COLLECTION
It's interesting to see how the building next to the White Bull (which looks to be a nice frontage in the 1906 postcard) was re-faced between the 1906 scene and the present day scene, into an equally if not more ornate facade, unlike the building that used to be Boots, and is now the Rovers Cafe, which has at some point been refaced in a slightly less spectatcular way.
ReplyDeleteI had never really noticed that Lorcan. You can see it pretty clearly in the third card down (when you click on the 'Church Street' label) and I've made a guess at that card being the 1930's or 40's. So it must have got the new facade in the first half of the last century.
ReplyDeleteCould you tell me what year the colour photo is please.
ReplyDeleteHi
ReplyDeleteIt's at the top of the post ;)
It's circa 1906.
Cheers
Colin