Blackburn town centre brewery, Daniel Thwaites, was invaded by travellers over the Spring Bank holiday weekend.

Several parched itinerants, on their way to Appleby for the annual horse fair, said they were desperate for a pint of Original Bitter.  But they couldn’t find a pub in Blackburn town centre which sold it.

They thought it would be a good idea to start searching for nearby pubs around the brewery itself, so decided to park their caravans, cars and other vehicles on Thwaites’ car park.  Their first choice at looking for a pint was Uncle Tom’s Cabin, for obvious reasons, but they found it wasn’t being used as a pub any more.  Their luck was tried around the other side of the brewery, at the Veteran, but this pub had been closed down too.

Things were starting to get desperate when they next found the Fleece Inn boarded up.  And the last straw, which broke the Shire horse’s back, was finding out Daniel’s was now a training centre.  Out of sheer desperation the travellers decided to invade Star Brewery and try and get in touch with a bloke called Crafty Dan, whose name they liked and they had heard was based somewhere inside.

But it wasn’t to be for these travellers this bank holiday weekend.  Crafty Dan was nowhere to be found and neither were the famous dray horses, who they had also wanted to meet – with their jam jars at the ready.  After all, they were on their way to a horse fair and it wasn’t just the system they wanted to milk.

And so these travellers had to settle for a night in their caravans watching telly, having to settle for cocoa and Horlicks.  They proved they couldn’t manage to organise their own piss-up in this brewery.  These unhappy wanderers were told Thwaites do still have outlets in Blackburn town centre and they could get a pint of Original in the Sun.  But they declined this offer, saying they had heard this pub might be a bit too rough for them.

Thwaites, quite rightly, are angry about what happened to their brewery over the bank holiday weekend.  Taking away people’s jobs and livelihoods is very unfair and drinkers should be given the opportunity to enjoy beer in their local pub.

On the bright side, at least we now know not all of Thwaites’ licenced premises have a restrictive covenant in place.

Blackburn town centre has a new nightclub.  Switch is its name and it could be one of the final pieces in this jigsaw of improvements to our town centre’s pub and club scene.

I first went in an earlier incarnation of this club as a 16 year old. It was known as the Mecca and was the venue for my student freshman’s ball. Most 16 year olds looked older back in those 1970’s days.  But not me, I looked like a street urchin out of Oliver Twist.  Amazingly, I still managed to get served that night. Those three pints of bitter finished me off.  Fortunately my sobriety had recovered enough by the time I got home, enabling me to sneak off to bed without disturbing my parents.

At the time, Blackburn’s Mecca, or to call it by its proper name, the Golden Palms, was one of a number of town centre nightclubs we had available when I first called in.  This building was built in 1909 and started out as stables for the Old Bull pub.  Its use changed to a skating rink a couple of years later.  It then became the Olympia Theatre for ten years, before being converted to a cinema, though still keeping its Olympia name.  This closed down in 1957.  Mecca then bought it two years later to turn it into a dance hall and it became the Locarno Ballroom.

Many of us will have stories to tell about the Mecca under its various different guises.  But now we have a brand new nightclub known as Switch.  It has all of today’s latest technology on offer and should help fill a generation gap which has emerged in Blackburn town centre over these last few years.  Daytime drinking seems to have become the norm down town, but there looks to be a demand out there from younger people who want to have a good time at night.

Security is a big issue with nightclubs and Switch is determined it won’t become a 3D nightclub.  It has put measures in place to prevent Drugs, Drunkenness and Disorder taking place.  Over the years this place, like our town centre, has had its ups and downs, but always seems to come back again.  Hopefully this tenacity can bring it success and reflect the good work going on in Blackburn town centre and its continuing pub, club and nightlife rejuvenation.

Blackburn’s former Jubilee pub has now re-opened as the Lemon Tree.

On April Fool’s Day last year, I asked the question:  What next for Blackburn’s Jubilee Pub?  This followed its recent closure at the time.  Sadly for this pub, not only had it been dying a slow death commercially, structural damage was also blighting the building.  So things looked bleak and there seemed little possibility of it ever opening as a pub again in the present difficult economic climate.

But this is Blackburn and things are happening.  They are certainly happening on Blakey Moor and an opportunity arose to do something with the Jubilee.  This is where James and Katy Quayle stepped in.  With their other pub, the Drummer’s Arms, they have turned a derelict jeweller’s into Blackburn town centre’s jewel in the crown.  What was stopping them doing something similar with the Jubilee?

A decision was taken to rename the pub.  This was down to its intention to sell food and attract students from nearby Blackburn College and its University Centre.  Their next job was to sort out building problems and refit and decorate the pub throughout.  This included providing catering facilities and turning the Lemon Tree into one of only a handful of Blackburn’s town centre pubs to have food available.

The Lemon Tree opened its doors in December and looks very nice and clean and bright.  My only worry was being shocked by these old school desks which act as tables.  They brought back nightmare memories of my own school days, back in the 1970’s.  I sat at one which looked like my old school desk, but fortunately it was empty when opened.  There was no sign of my catapult or pea-shooter inside.  Neither was there any sign of the material we used to read under our bedsheets with a torch while listening to the wandering wavelength of Radio Luxembourg.

Another worry which also turned out to be a red herring was the price of real ale in the pub.  Rumours about its cask beer being too expensively priced have proved to be totally unfounded.  It costs the same for real ale in the Lemon Tree as it does in the Drummer’s Arms.

And so another pub re-opens in Blackburn town centre, continuing the good work being done by a lot of people and organisations.  This pub might be aimed at students, but it’s looking like it’s going to be a class act for the rest of us to follow.

Blackburn town centre’s nightlife is starting to go places.  Hopefully it will bring people here from other places.  But this hasn’t been an overnight improvement.  Various factors have led to this resurgence in its fortunes.

A low water mark had been reached just over a year ago and there was talk at the time of even more pub closures.  Fortunately we were saved from boring nights in front of the telly or expensive trips out of town by things starting to happen in our own town centre.

The turning point seemed to be when two major events happened in 2016.  These proved to be a catalyst for starting the ball rolling in this resurgence of Blackburn’s town centre pub scene.  Yet both were so very different in how things panned out.

Thwaites’ decision to close their Sir Charles Napier pub angered many regulars of Blackburn’s only rock pub.  They were determined this pub wasn’t going to die and a spirited campaign was organised.  This gained support from Judas Priest lead singer, Rob Halford, and rock concerts with groups giving their services for free.  There were also those tee shirts and the Napier being awarded an asset of community value.

A year-long struggle eventually led to a famous victory for this gallant band of Napier regulars.  And it also put across the message that things can be done if enough people are prepared to try.  Almost a prophetic overture to what was going to happen in the rest of our town centre.

Around the same time as the Napier came back from the dead, a brand new pub was born.  The Drummer’s Arms was a result of James and Katy Quayle noticing a demand for real ale in Blackburn while working during events in the museum and at the Bureau of Blackburn.  The Drummer’s Arms opened and was joined by its nextdoor neighbour, Tiki Monkey, which is bringing a taste of Hawaii to our town centre.

Another major player in this town centre revival came back from temporary closure.  The Adelphi reopened after various issues were resolved by its management.  It has gone on to re-establish itself as one of the town centre’s well known hostelries.  Things have been helped in its location by all these new developments on the former Boulevard site and an emergence of a new Cathedral Quarter.  This has attracted new high quality restaurants to the area, something which Blackburn needed badly.

Since these exciting new developments, Blackburn’s town centre boozer bandwagon has kept on rolling.  New pubs have opened, including the Bees Knees and Shh! Bar.  There is also another reopening in the pipeline with Blakey Moor’s Jubilee becoming the Lemon Tree.  Plus, The Squire, which was formerly Molloy’s, has been secured.  If this had closed down, it would have been a crucial loss to Blackburn town centre’s pub scene.

What has also been crucial in helping bring about this revival of Blackburn’s town centre pub scene and nightlife are those people who decided to do something about changing things for the better.  These have included Richey Pull and his ‘Closed Pubs of Blackburn’ Facebook page.  Alex Martindale and his tenacity in the Save the Napier campaign.  The Quayle family for opening the Drummer’s Arms and soon to be Lemon Tree.  And of course, Blackburn Nightlife Project for never giving up on our town centre and helping to promote all the new developments.

Things have not been entirely plain sailing.  We have still had some pub closures, just like everywhere else across the country.  But it’s been a case of two steps forward and one step back in Blackburn.  In these difficult economic times, it’s definitely a step in the right direction.

Blackburn town centre’s latest addition to its pub scene, the Bees Knees, opened up in the old TSB Bank, in November.

The building, on Lord Street West, first opened as a bank in 1863, costing £1834.15s.  There was a cotton famine going on at the time, due to it being during the height of the American Civil War.  This meant many Blackburn people were feeling the effects of unemployment and poverty.  So no grand opening of this new building took place at the time.

Over 150 years later it wasn’t a grand opening for the Bees Knees either.  This was down to decorations running late and paintwork still being wet.  So a decision was correctly taken by management of the pub to postpone its opening Friday night until next day.  I managed to get in the pub a day later, early on Sunday dinnertime.  As the pub’s name suggests, it was a hive of activity, with lots of punters calling in to check the new pub out.

My only problem was wearing a pair of suede boots with crepe soles.  This led to my feet sticking to their polished floor while walking to the bar.  Other people made similar squelching sounds, so a mop and bucket was found and this sorted things out.

No doubt, like me, those punters would have liked what they saw.  The pub is big and roomy, with lots of seats and tables.  It reminded me a bit of Blackburn’s former Blob Shop on Church Street.  For the real ale fans there were three cask beers on sale.  Much to my surprise was their reasonableness of price, with real ale around £2 a pint.  Plus, they gave me a reward card which would bring another pint my way once it was filled.

This pub looks like it is aimed at all ages.  Their WIFI works very well and so do the vast array of TV screens throughout the pub.  There is also a varied collection of lighting and sound equipment which gives the place a nightclub effect.  This should bring plenty of young people in.  Whereas the decent beer prices should attract a good afternoon and early evening trade from the middle aged and older clientele.

Hopefully the Bees Knees will help boost this growing revival of Blackburn’s town centre pub scene.  Apart from the opening night, things are looking good in here and going to plan.