Cotten Exchange / Old Cinema Background 2

i have found out more background history about my amazing building.
i went to Blackburn library an searched in the local history section and came across only a few books about my building but they were treasures. i found out soo much i didn't know it was soo interesting and insightful.this building never ceases to amaze me, it just keeps giving.

Blackburn had an important part to play in the trade of cotton yarn and as a centre of the weaving branch of the calico manufacture, and Manchester and other towns in which spinning was popular.  In 1851 a competition for the design of a cotton exchange was set up. The site were this building would be built was the old market cross, where Messrs, Cunliffe brooks & Co’s Bank now stands. However on the opening of the town hall the idea was scrapped and a new idea was thought. In 1860 a company was formed with the sole purpose of building a new exchange facing the Town Hall.  So in 1865 the edifice, based on a prize winning design by Mr. Brakspear, a Manchester architect, was opened.

It was originally designed to consist of two separate blocks, one connected to the tower at the angle of the frontage, but one wing was never completed. The architecture is 14^th century Gothic, made up of a large hall, two storeys of an octagonal tower, forming the main entrance, having two outside doorways formed by pointed arches, recesses and gables, with tracery heads, and a flights of steps. The exterior of the main structure presents a series of projecting bays, the dividing walls buttresses and the front is lighted with the large, mullioned, transomed and tracery-headed windows. The cost was about £9000, a lot of money in those days.

I found in Blackburn Public Library, Chronological notes on the Blackburn exchanges timeline and events that occurs. Some of which are very interesting.

·         1860 August 8^th, premiums for the best designs for the new exchange awarded:-

                1^st. £50 Mr. Brakespear, Manchester.

                2^nd. £30 Messrs. Taylor & Foggett, Blackburn.

                3^rd. £20 Mr. J. Bentley, Kendal.

·         1863 March 10^th. Foundation stone was laid by the mayor, J.B.S Sturdy, Esq.

·         1865 April 26^th. Opening of the Exchange.

·         1866 November 26^th and 27^th. Performance by Christy’s Minstrels.

·         1869 April 19^th. Mr. Charles Dickens gave a reading in the Blackburn Exchange - the last he gave in the provinces.

·         1870 July 2^nd and 4^t. Queens’s minstrels, the Royal Original Christy’s, at the Exchange Assembly Rooms.

·         1878 November 9^th. Lecture by H. M. Stanley, the explorer.

·         1879 October 21^st. Liberal Meeting in the Exchange.

·         1879 November 6^th. Lecture by Mr. Archibald Forbes, the war correspondent.

·         1880 March 17^th. Conservative meeting

·         1880 October 16^th Conservative meeting addressed by the Hon. E. Stanhope, M.P., and Sir H.D. Wolff, M.P.

·         1881 April 18^th. Irish Land Leaguers’ meeting in the Exchange – the platformed stormed.

·         1881 December 17^th Conservative meeting in the Exchange; speech by Sir Robert Peel.

·         1883 December 1^st. Mr. W. E. Briggs, M.P. addresses his constitutes in the Exchange.

·         1896 December 11^th. John Dillon, M.P. leader of the Irish Party at the exchange Hall.

·         1898 July 2^nd. Fire at the Exchange Hall.

·         1899 March 2^nd. M. Louis de Rougemont appeared at the Exchange Hall.

·         1899 October 25^th. Ex-priest Ruthven’s meeting at the Exchange Hall broken up by the Roman Catholics.

·         1900 December 12^th. Mr. Alfred Nuttal, brewer, Purchased Exchange Hall, Exchange Hotel and Adjoining Property for £20,000.

·         1901 June 24^th. Mass meeting of the weavers in Exchange Hall to protest against “driving”.

·         1903 March 10^th. Sousa’s band at the Exchange.

·         1904 April 13^th. Wealeyan Methodist circuit four days bazaar opened in Exchange Hall. Total receipts £2,150.

·         1904 November 15^th. The Kilties Band gave two performances in the Exchange Hall.

·         1904 November 21^st. Madame Albani sang at the Exchange Hall.

·         1910 December 2^nd. Lord Morley addresses Liberal meetings.

·         1919 November. The Exchange hall block of property purchased by a Blackburn syndicate for £35,000 from the trustees of the Nuttall estate.

·         1919 November. The Exchange hall block sold for £70,000 by Blackburn syndicate.

·         1924 March 31^st. New Majestic Cinema formerly the Exchange Hall Grand re-opening.

·         1954 June 7^th. Blackburn’s new Majestic Cinema the first in East Lancashire to turn over exclusively to the showing of the cinemascope. The cost of the installation of the special equipment was about £5,000.

·         1955 December 21^st. the New Majestic Cinema was acquired by a new owner.

After learning all this i appreciated my building more an was soo happy i found the architect, who i will definitely be researching him its the least i could do after his building design inspired me to create my final piece. i was amazed to learn that he won a competition an isn't even from Blackburn but Manchester. you can never beat a good book. and the fact that Charles Darwen came to Blackburn to lecture, that's just amazing.it was also interesting to hear about the fire i shall try an research about that more.

at one point i was wanting to get inside of the building but i couldn't see a sign an i went to the town hall but the women at the desk was no help, and she didn't even try. then i saw recently saw a real estate sign an decided to ring them but the only appointments i could get to see my building from the inside were for after the my exhibition so there wasn't a point. and some of the building was off limits because of the age of it; at least i tried and its the thought that counts. even tho it would have been amazing to go see inside. i have actually watched a few films in that cinema when i was primary school. i went with my classmates to watch Harry Potter and Nanny Mcphee.