Historic Liverpool Dwellings - Blackburne House

 

Pictured in 1900

 

Blackburne House was built in 1788 for John Blackburne, at a time when this was in the countryside, outside of Liverpool. He was the second son of John Blackburne, an English businessman, landowner and renowned amateur botanist who established a large exotic plant collection in Warrington in coal-fired hothouses, amongst which were some of the earliest English specimens of pineapple, coffee, tea and sugarcane. He lived in Hanover Street, in the centre of Liverpool, where he was a neighbour of John Ashton. John Blackburne and John Ashton were not only two fellow Liverpool salt merchants they also both had slave trading interests which involved another 'triangular trade'. John junior, was also an investor in slave ships and was wealthy as the owner of the Liverpool salt refinery and a supporter of the slave trade. Following in his father’s footsteps, John junior served as mayor of Liverpool in 1760 and was to become a founder member of the Athenaeum Club, near the Bluecoat, along with many of Liverpool’s slave traders and abolitionists. In 1788 he built Blackburne House as his country residence.

The house located on the east side of Hope Street, on the corner of Falkner Street, is constructed in brick with stone dressings and a slate roof. It has two storeys, a basement and an attic. Its Hope Street front has seven bays. The central bay projects forward and is surmounted by a domical roof with a clock face and an iron railing on its crest. The ground floor contains a rusticated round-headed entrance flanked by paired columns supporting an entabature and a pierced balcony. In the first floor is a three-light window with a tympanum and rusticated quoins. In the attic floor are three round-headed windows, flat pilasters and a segmental pediment. The second and sixth bays consist of two-storeyed canted bays containing sash windows with architraves. In the attics are two round-headed windows. The other bays have three-light windows with pilasters and tympani containing carvings of foliage and busts in the ground floor. The windows in the first floor of these bays are surrounded by pilasters, entablatures and pediments. On the right side of the building is the entrance to the original house. It has four bays and includes a portico with four Ionic columns.

In 1844 the house was bought from Blackburne by George Holt, a cotton broker and merchant, and an abolitionist. He was also a supporter of women's rights, and on the 5th of August 1844 he opened the house as Blackburne House Girls' School with a Latin motto which translates as: "Born not for ourselves alone but for the whole of the world." It was the first school for girls in Liverpool and opened as sister school to the Liverpool Institute Boys’ Schools (Mechanics Institution, renamed as Liverpool Institute High School for Boys in 1856) and was sited directly opposite on the other side of Hope Street. George Holt was the director and president of the school until he died in 1861, when the school was taken over by the Mechanic's Institute. The building was extended in 1874–76 by W. I. Mason, who added a wing to the north and a central tower.

 

Now home of the Inspire Programme

 

On the 14th of March 1975 the beautiful house was designated it as a Grade II listed building. In 1905 it had come under the management of Liverpool City Council and continued as a school until it closed in 1986. Some well-known faces had passed through its doors, including former MP Edwina Currie, actress Tina Malone and journalist Gillian Reynolds, who was awarded an MBE in 1999 for her services to broadcasting.

Also now open for venue hire

 

It reopened its doors to a totally transformed Blackburne House in 1994, following an extensive programme of regeneration when the Women's Technology and Education Centre commissioned its conversion into a training and resource centre. After a period of dereliction, it is now used as a training and resource centre for women. Vicky Kennedy joined Blackburne House's 'Inspire Programme', a move which she said: "Has been life changing." The inspire Programme was initially developed to meet the needs of women being referred to the charity's 1-1 counselling with anxiety and stress in November 2021. But due to growing demand the service has widened for women from outside its student base who experienced mental health decline during the covid lockdown. It is also available to employers for a fee to enable them to support staff with their mental health and wellbeing. The programme improves sickness days and can mitigate staff attrition rates. Today, Blackburne House is a vibrant and thriving organisation and one of the country’s leading education centres for women.

see also :- http://www.thefootballvoice.com/2023/03/historic-liverpool-dwellings-royal.html