Shelter on Queen's Promenade, Blackpool

Summary

Cast-iron promenade shelter of 1904, relocated between 1924 and 1930, by the Lion Foundry Company of Kirkintilloch, near Glasgow.

Reasons for Designation

The shelter to the west of Queen’s Promenade, Blackpool, opposite Wolverton Avenue, a promenade shelter of 1904, relocated between 1924 and 1930 and with later alterations, is listed at Grade II for the following principal reasons:

Architectural interest:

* an increasingly-rare survival of a good-quality Edwardian street shelter, particularly redolent of the seaside, and retaining many of its original design features.

Group value:

* as one of a chain of ten listed shelters of three similar types and dates, between Wolverton Avenue and Norkeed Road.

History

The order book for the Lion foundry in Scotland (Lions) records an order by Blackpool Corporation for ten promenade shelters, in April 1904. The corporation also ordered shelters in 1903 and 1904 which were designed by Glasgow iron-founders Walter MacFarlane and Co (MacFarlanes). The Lions shelters were similar in style to the MacFarlanes shelters, also having swept roofs and foliate brackets, but they were rectangular in plan rather than square, and had zinc roofs with prominent ridge rolls, upper portions imitating fish-scale tiles, and lower portions imitating lead roofing.

In 1909 when the 1912 1:2,500 map was surveyed, four shelters of this size and shape stood on the middle walk, opposite: Regent Square (now Cocker Square); the north end of Warbreck Road; Wilton Parade, and Warley Road. Historic photographs confirm that these were four of the Lions shelters. Another two structures of the same plan are marked, but not labelled as shelters, abutting each other on Queen’s Promenade near to Gynn Square, and these are also thought to have been part of the same order. The other four shelters have not been located on the 1912 map.

Relocation
Between 1923 and 1925 the middle walk colonnade was built. Committee minutes record that in May 1924 ‘the two shelters’ were to be removed from the middle walk. This is thought to refer two square MacFarlanes shelters which were sited there. Four shelters ‘formerly’ on the middle walk were also to be relocated to Bispham at the same time, and this is thought to refer to the Lions shelters of which this is one. The shelter appears to have been in this location by the time of the 1930 survey for the 1936 1:2,500 OS map.

Alterations
The roof of this shelter has been replaced in glass-reinforced plastic (GRP) and no longer has its decorative finials or the tiling pattern, which has been replaced by rolls imitating lead roofing, matching the lower pitch. Each of the north-east and north-west columns has one damaged bracket. It retains some traditional joinery and more might survive beneath ply overboarding. All glazing is absent and its cast-iron gutters have been replaced in plastic. The benches are non-original and not included.

Lion Foundry Company
In 1880 three former staff of MacFarlanes established a rival foundry at Kirkintilloch near Glasgow. They were joined in 1881 by William Cassells, a designer and draughtsman from MacFarlanes. In 1885 this firm changed its name to the Lion Foundry Company. Operating until 1984 the company made large volumes of ironwork, including for Frank Matcham’s London Hippodrome (NHLE 1066287) and County Arcade, Leeds (Grade II*, NHLE 1256197), and the parapets, lamp standards and other ornament for London’s Lambeth Bridge (NHLE 1393007). More than 50 cast-iron listed structures in England are attributed to them, including telephone kiosks, urinals and bandstands. Other examples are known but unattributed, and the true number is probably several hundred.

Details

Promenade shelter of 1904, relocated between 1924 and 1930, by the Lion Foundry Company of Kirkintilloch, near Glasgow.

MATERIALS: cast-iron columns, brackets, and roof beams with wooden screens, and glass-reinforced plastic roof.

DESCRIPTION: of rectangular plan, with slim columns at the corners and centres of the long sides (most bearing Lions foundry marks), linked by screens at each end, and cruciform central screens. The round columns have scroll capitals and each has three sweeping foliate brackets supporting the beams of the roof. The emphatically-ribbed double-swept roof has a prominent ridge crest. Ogee gutters above the eaves cornice discharge via the foot of the corner columns. The screens have tongue-and-groove lower panels and (now unglazed) upper glazing panels (partially boarded in plywood).

Sources

Websites
Information on Browns Foundry Company, Walter MacFarlane and Company, and Lion Foundry from Grace's Guide to British Industrial History, accessed 05/03/21 from https://www.gracesguide.co.uk/
Information on Blackpool shelters by Lion Foundry and Walter MacFarlane, from Scottish Ironwork Foundation, accessed 05/03/21 from https://ironworks.scran.ac.uk/database/results.php?QUICKSEARCH=1&search_term=blackpool

Other
Richard Wilson conservation, The Siamese Promenade Shelters (conservation statement), 2019

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