Blackburn College gears up for £25m Victoria Building refurb
Main contractor BAM is set to begin work in August on revitalising the 135-year-old structure, creating a modern adult learning hub and community events space in the process.
The Victoria Building was the main building for what would become Blackburn College when it was constructed in 1888. Subject of a national design competition, the grade two-listed building counts Samuel Taylor Smith, John Henry Woodhouse, and George Harry Willougby as its architects.
The building sits by the corner of Blakey Moor and Nab Lane in Blackburn’s town centre. Currently, it holds a mixture of offices, storage rooms, classrooms, and several spaces that are unusable due to water ingress and damage.
The Department for Education has contributed £25m from its Further Education Capital Transfer Fund to repair, restore, and reinvigorate the building.
The project includes constructing additional lecture theatres, converting offices back into their original uses as classrooms and meeting areas, and creating a live performance area on the building’s top floor.
Stained glass windows, decorative panelling, and ornate coving will also be restored, and false ceilings removed.
Under designs by ADP Architecture, the wood-panelled headmaster’s office will be transformed into a room available for private hire or for meetings.
As work starts, the Victoria Building will be covered in scaffolding and protective building wrap. When the construction work completes in 2026, observers will note that the original elaborate terracotta carvings will have been restored – courtesy of Blackburn-based Darwen Terracotta and Faience.
Mott MacDonald is the technical advisor for the project, which featured the work of Silcock Leedham Consulting Engineers in its planning process. RPS Group secured planning permission for the project in November last year.
Dr Fazal Dad, principal and chief executive of Blackburn College, described the work to the Victoria Building as “much more than just an upgrade of learning facilities”.
He continued: “It is an ambitious and bold project which will bring a magnificent community and civic asset back to life and create new opportunities for everyone.
“It will also become a symbol of both Blackburn’s proud industrial heritage, and its dynamic economic, cultural, and inclusive future, in the very heart of the town.”
Dad also discussed how the Victoria Building refurb fits in with Blackburn College’s ambitions.
“It will act as [a] gateway to the wider Blackburn College campus which is also enjoying a significant multi-million-pound investment in new learning facilities, classrooms, and equipment,” he said.
“And just as the Victoria Building was built to facilitate the skills and education requirements of the Industrial Revolution some 135 years ago, so the whole of Blackburn College is now gearing up to meet the demands of today’s employers.”
Blackburn with Darwen Council deputy leader Cllr Quesir Mahmood praised the work being done to what he described as an “iconic” part of the town.
“Preserving our heritage buildings is important to the council and this is a fantastic commitment by the Department for Education and Blackburn College – a welcome boost for our town,” Mahmood said.
Those interested in learning more about the project can search 10/22/0913 and 10/22/0921 on Blackburn with Darwen Council’s planning portal.
One of Blackburn’s finest buildings I reckon. Looking forward to seeing this rejuvenated.
By SW
Somewhere just inside of the entrance area under the carpets (are they still black carpets?), somewhere close to what was originally a caretakers office on the right, there’s a tiled mosaic of the Blackburn Coat of Arms. No idea what condition it will be in, as I never saw it, it had been carpeted over a while before I worked there. Also in one of the rooms on the very top floor (used to be an Art studio when I worked there), you’ll find a hatch in the floor (also carpeted over, inadvertently, at some point in the 2000s). Lift the hatch and there’s a metal ladder which takes you down to a small ‘room’ for want of a better word and you will find the plant for the air conditioning that supplied cooled air to the larger lecture theatre. I went down into the ‘room’ a handful of times with contractors brought in to service the A/C. Looked to be a more modern addition, possibly 1960s/1970s. I was foreman site supervisor there for a decade and caretaker for that building for a few years prior to becoming foreman, so been in nearly every nook and cranny in the place, from the sub basement to the roof. Colin
By Colin