Billionaire brothers apply to bulldoze final Thwaites building
Blackburn-based Issa brothers have applied to demolish the former brewery’s visitor centre.
Monte Blackburn, the brother’s property company, owns the nearly half-acre site off Penny Street in Blackburn.
The demolition is to “avoid the site attracting anti-social behaviour,” according to the application.
Should permission be granted, demolition would begin on 9 September and would take four to five weeks.
Born in Blackburn, the Mohsin and Zuber Issa first made their fortune after conceiving Euro Garages – now known as EG Group.
The earmarked building was last occupied by The Bureau Centre for the Arts, but has been empty since the Bureau’s departure.
The building sits next to the former Thwaites Brewery site, which has been empty since its demolition in November 2019.
This demolition will be a final step in clearing what was once an iconic Blackburn building.
The Thwaites Brewery Tower was loved by locals and was a mainstay of the town’s skyline since the 1960s.
The brothers have yet to submit any plans for redeveloping the site.
The larger brewery site is part of Blackburn with Darwen Council’s £250m town regeneration plan.
Proposed is the creation of an innovation district, comprising two four-to-five storey buildings with 48,000 sq ft and 93,000 sq ft of floorspace, both facing a landscaped urban park.
The application can be viewed on Blackburn with Darwen Council’s planning portal with the reference number: 10/24/0701.
Lots going on in Blackburn
By George
This building has a lot of history and is pleasing to the eye. Why would you want to destroy it? Don’t allow this please.
By Anonymous
No doubt it will be approved
By Neil
Please don’t let them do that
By Patricia linley
Waterloo! Great pub, fantastic place in the 70’s too great a place to demolish, some company will take it on and preserve the icon building!!
By Ged
Blackburn’s history is being slowly, but surely removed. Ratchet system is working well.
By Stuart
The building is a good solid building, which could be put to better use, not knocking it down, which would be awful.
By D. Livesey
How about putting the £250M into the schools in BWDBC!!
Lots of schools in need of the money. Especially the SEND children in the borough!
By Helen
Thought this was a listed building.
By Jennifer Eckersley
Why destroy a perfectly good & beautiful building. Could plans not be drawn around it.
By Allan Duckworth
Surely if that’s their reason then they should make use of the building instead of leaving it to become derelict. It’s a beautiful building that should be used, but then Blackburn Council don’t seem to care about things like that, these brothers will no doubt get what they want!
By Anonymous
I have opened the application on the planning portal and cannot find a link to make comments. I want to object on environmental grounds (for a sound building to be demolished and put into landfill creates a negative environmental impact), destruction of an historic building with no equally beneficial plan in place is a loss to English history that cannot be replaced. I’m sure that Blackburn can incorporate historic buildings into new development like most towns in the country. This much more important than the council making a few pounds in the short term.
By Shannon Ledbetter
Maybe they should concentrate on fixing Asda first.
By Paul Richards
I share the thoughts below, this is an absolutely pointless demolition and could be used in a wider scheme; these brothers do not have a clue.
By Heritage Action
A retrogressive proposal. Weave the building into any new development.
By Anonymous
The application currently submitted is under permitted development and therefore there does not seem to be any options to leave comments, objections etc. Having looked through the ‘very brief’ set of application documents there is no real reason given to why they need to demolish this. The local newspaper has reported the building needing to be demolished because of anti-social behaviour which if true, seems excessive. The Monte group (Eurogarages) have a history of poorly designed schemes across Blackburn
. It is a shame, once again, another site of historical or aesthetic significance in Blackburn, is under the ownership or control of Monte (EG). If they used proper architects for a start, they may have come up with a scheme that would preserve this building and simultaneously develop the area. As per usual, great site but wrong developer.
By AK