ISSUE 15 - SEPT 2016
Blackpool Heritage News is created by Blackpool Heritage Champions to celebrate and promote Blackpool’s heritage, Blackpool Heritage News is about you, your past and your present. We want your stories and your pictures. Love heritage and discover Blackpool.
John Charles Robinson the man who designed Blackpool
As the Twentieth Century recedes into memory, it is possible to look at it as a whole. The first half can be characterised by the two World Wars and the second by consumerism, computers, congested roads, motorways, jet travel, pop music, etc. It can be seen that in certain respects particular parts of the century have special significance. The period comprising the two decades separating the World Wars may be regarded as special for many reasons; it saw, for example, the rise of Fascism, radio, a revolution in women’s dress and the spread of modern design, which transformed the appearance of our towns, everyday objects and many homes. At a local level, too, the inter-war period was special; there was an unprecedented number of civic schemes in Blackpool and, despite the depression, throughout the 1930s civic pride and confidence seem to have known no bounds. By the end of the period, Blackpool no longer promoted itself through its Victorian pavilions but by neo-classical concrete colonnades and streamlined faience façades. The town’s civic schemes were carried out by the Borough Surveyor’s department and the three holders of the post during the period, Francis Wood, Henry Banks and James Drake
are credited with seeing them through. However, under the Borough Surveyor was the post of Chief Architectural Assistant, later known as Borough Architect. Throughout the period, one man occupied that post and, because of the enormous amount of municipal building work carried out in Blackpool between the wars, he was in a unique position to make his mark on the resort – for the good or the bad. Blackpool was fortunate in having a particularly gifted Borough Architect at this time in John Charles Robinson, who occupied the post from 1920 until 1944. Many of his buildings survive, but they were once so omnipresent that they can be said to have characterised the resort’s mid-century appearance. Robinson was born in Shropshire in 1879 and began his career in an accountant’s office, but studied art and architecture in his spare time. He entered the office of the Charles E. Ponting, FSA, Diocesan Surveyor for Wiltshire & Dorset, and Surveyor to Marlborough College. He remained in Marlborough for about eleven years, gaining extensive experience in domestic, municipal and ecclesiastical architecture. For three years before the outbreak of the 1914-18 war, Robinson was the managing assistant to Sir Banister Fletcher. In September 1914, he joined the Artists’ Rifles and went out to France as a private, before being transferred to the Royal Engineers with a commission and serving in Mesopotamia and India. Following demobilisation, he served in HM Office of Works before being appointed Chief Architectural Assistant to Blackpool in 1920, within the Borough Surveyor’s office. The same year he became a Fellow of the RIBA, of which he had been an Associate since 1912. In Blackpool, Robinson designed many of the features of the Promenade, including the open-air baths at South Shore, the lift tower on the cliffs, colonnades and shelters. He also designed Stanley Park Café, Derby Baths, the Technical College, Municipal Offices, St. John’s Market, Talbot Road Bus Station, the Collegiate School for Girls, the Crematorium Chapel and many other schools, clinics, shops, houses and shelters. In the 1920s he had designed a house for himself on Beaufort Avenue (no. 28) but, during the 1930s, he built another, 50 Newton Drive, where he continued to live after his retirement in 1944. His buildings of the 1920s and early 1930s
were often neo-classical in style, the main exceptions being Claremont and Marton libraries and Stanley Park Golf Clubhouse, for which he reverted to the Arts & Crafts tradition of the early 20th century. Like other local architects, from the mid-1930s he was under the spell of modernism, although elements of neo-classicism were still to be found in his work in the style. In his buildings, JCR, as he was known to his colleagues, paid particular attention to decorative details and specified good quality fittings. When budget restraints precluded the latter, it was not unknown for him to buy them out of his own pocket. From 1938 he was engaged in Blackpool’s most ambitious civic scheme. This involved the removal of Central Station to Chapel Street and the demolition of the terraced housing on the Bonny Estate, all to be replaced by a new civic centre. There was to be a boulevard with fountains, a new town hall, shops and theatre. The War intervened and the scheme was not revived afterwards. Instead, we now have Coral Island and car parks there. Robinson was at various times president of Blackpool & Fylde Art Society and the now defunct Blackpool Literary & Scientific Society. But, in the late 1940s, his eyesight began to deteriorate rapidly and for the last three years of his life he was totally blind. He died 4th. March 1954 aged 75. Ted Lightbown
Do Something New Heritage Open Days: 8 – 11 September 2016
Once more many buildings and places of historical interest and importance in Blackpool, Fylde and Wyre will be thrown open to the public – free of charge – for four days beginning Thursday, 8 September. Residents and visitors will once again have the opportunity to discover the many hidden and not so hidden places of architectural and cultural interest in this part of west Lancashire. Without doubt, there is something for everyone to enjoy this year. One of this region’s few Grade I listed buildings, the Georgian Lytham Hall, will have its parkland buildings open to the public along with many excellent buildings of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries including the cellars at the North Euston Hotel, Fleetwood and the Imperial Hotel, Blackpool. The Town Halls of Blackpool and St Anne’s will be open along with the Fylde’s many notable churches and religious buildings. The Blackpool World Healing Crusade building, the Central Mosque, the White Church in Fairhaven, the Methodist churches in Blackpool town centre, in North Shore and in Lytham, and the many Anglican foundations such as St Stephen on the Cliffs, All Hallows, Bispham, and St Mary’s, St Peter’s and St Wulstan’s in Fleetwood and St Anne’s Parish Church – all will be opening their doors to the public over this long week-end of cultural and artistic importance. In many cases it is just a matter of turning up during the opening times as listed in the Heritage Open Day brochure - which is available upon application to the Heritage Team at the Volunteers’ Centre, Stanley Park. It is important to note, however, that some of the more popular venues have limited places available and places need to be booked in advance. Please check the Heritage Open Day brochure for details. There will be fifty-seven places open to visit this year. New venues and events for 2016 include Blackpool Pleasure Beach, Matlock House, St Anne’s and the Decimus Burton Exhibition, Fleetwood.
The residents of Blackpool, Fylde and Wyre can be justly proud of their rich and varied heritage. The organisers of the Heritage Open Days extend a warm welcome to all who will visit one or more of the interesting places of interest which will be open, and they sincerely thank all those individuals and organisations without whose help this annual event would not take place.
Heritage Open Days What’s On Guide Blackpool
Lytham St Annes
Fleetwood & Wyre
Blackpool Town Hall The chance to learn the history and significance of the different rooms in the Town Hall, including the Council Chamber. Saturday 10th September 9.30am – 3pm (last tour 2.15pm)
AKS Lytham Independent School New for 2016, discover the history of this 108 year old school building and the archive collection. Saturday 10th September 11am – 3pm. Tours at 12 and 2pm.
Decimus Burton Exhibition at North Euston Hotel, Fleetwood An exhibition on the life and work of the London Architect who designed Fleetwood. Thursday 8th to Sunday 11th September 11am – 3pm
Central Mosque Tour of the mosque and introduction to the Islamic faith and culture. (Please dress modestly) Saturday 10th and Sunday 11th September 2- 4pm Little Marton Windmill Learn the history of an 1838 mill with a tour and exhibition. Refreshments provided. Sunday 11th September 11am – 3.30pm (last entry) Grand Theatre A behind the scenes look at ‘Matcham’s Masterpiece’. A must for fans of heritage, theatre and architecture! Sunday 11th September 11am – 3pm Layton Cemetery Tour the resting place of many famous Blackpool residents at this 140 year old cemetery. Thursday 8th to Sunday 11th September at 10am, 11am and 2pm.
Lancastrian Transport Trust Enjoy a free heritage bus tour from Fairhaven Lake to St Anne’s Pier. Sunday 11th September 10.30am – 4pm Lytham Windmill Museum and the nearby Old Lifeboat House Windmill open Thursday 8th to Sunday 11th September 10.30am – 1pm, 2 – 4.30pm and Old Lifeboast House open Saturday 10th and Sunday 11th September (same times) St Annes Parish Churchyard War Memorial Trail The churchyard comprises 44 WW1 and 11 WW2 memorials honouring those who died for our country. Thursday 8th to Saturday 10th September 10am – 6pm and Sunday 11th September 12 -6pm. Trail guide can be found on www. stannesparishchurch.org
For the full brochure visit www.blackpoolheritagenews.co.uk Follow us on Facebook and Twitter. Make sure you send us your HOD selfies!
Marsh Mill, Thornton Cleveleys Enjoy an introduction to milling of a bygone age, guided tours available on arrival. Saturday 10th and Sunday 11th September, 10.30am – 4.30pm NCI Rossall Point Meet the volunteers who keep a watch over the sandbanks and beyond, into Morcambe Bay and assist in the protection and preservation of life at sea. Thursday 8th to Sunday 11th September, 11am – 4pm St Mary’s Church, Fleetwood Learn the history of this fascinating church, the foundation which was laid on 17th May 1866 by the Bishop of Liverpool. The church was given grade ll listed status in 1978. Thursday 8th to Saturday 10th September, 8am – 6pm and Sunday 11th September, 7.30am – 1pm
THE MAN WHO LIVED IN THE TOWER The laying of the foundation stone of Blackpool Tower (or Blackpool Eiffel Tower as it was initially referred to) on Friday 25th September 1891, was a most lavish affair. Processions and speeches were followed by ‘a sumptuous banquet’ for about 150 people, with the whole town en féte. Amongst the many esteemed invited guests, which included 27 mayors and their ladies, was ‘The Manager of The Aquarium and Lady’, Mr and Mrs J Walmsley. James Walmsley, known to all as Jim, was the manager of The Aquarium, Aviary and Menagerie which had been created by Dr W H Cocker in 1874. He had been born in Blackpool in 1849 in a cottage close to The Athenaeum Club. Although he was apprenticed to his father, a plumber, Jim was also associated with the aquarium from his youth. He assisted Dr Cocker in building up the enterprise, eventually becoming a permanent employee. By 1891 he was the manager and had been living on site in Hygiene Terrace for at least 10 years with his wife Hannah and their daughters. They would continue to live there as the tower was constructed around them. Within Blackpool Tower the Walmsley rooms were adjacent to the menagerie and monkey house on the first floor. Being available day and night, Jim was known as a devoted keeper with ‘a wide knowledge of wild beasts and various kinds of fish’. In addition to being a plumber, coming from a family of plumbers and decorators, he was an energetic, resourceful man able to turn his hand to almost anything. In fact so adept was he at dealing with gas engines, electric lighting plants and hydraulic machinery that he was often described as an ‘Engineer’, as well as a ‘Superintendent of Wild Beasts’, as in the 1901 census. His greatest skills, however, were with the animals in his care. He was described in The Blackpool Gazette as ‘never so happy as when he had a litter of lion cubs in his kitchen’ and became renowned for the breeding of lions and tigers in captivity. According to an account of Jim Walmsley’s life in the July 1915 edition of ‘Hamlyn’s Menagerie Magazine’, during his tenure ‘at no other menagerie in the country have more lion cubs been born and successfully reared than at The Tower’. John Hamlyn of Hamlyn’s Zoological Trading of London knew Jim Walmsley some thirty years and accompanied him and the Tower Company directors, amongst them Dr Cocker, on the first expedition to Antwerp to buy new stock. There were many later trips to Hamburg made by Jim in pursuit of lions, tigers, leopards and other exotic animals on behalf of The Tower Company. Newspaper advertising at the time described The Tower Aquarium, Aviary and Menagerie as ‘The Finest Show of Animals in the United Kingdom’, a claim probably not far from the truth and undoubtedly due in no small part to Jim Walmsley’s dedication. Ailing animals were quickly ‘detected by Jim’s practised eye’ and sent to the hospital zoo in Lytham Road where the sick or ‘spare’ animals were also kept for the Tower Circus,
and where it was said he brought about some wonderful cures. It was here in 1905 that a strange tragedy occurred. On August 14th 1905 Jim Walmsley was called to give evidence at the inquest into the death of one William Livesey who was found mauled and partially eaten by Towerbred lionesses. Mr Walmsley stated that Livesey, although employed as a carter by The Tower Company ‘had absolutely no right in the lions’ den’ and added that the lionesses were ‘rather quiet beasts, but one can never tell when these animals will turn upon you’. It was never satisfactorily explained why Livesey, who had been drinking in The Dunes pub but was apparently ‘far from drunk’, came to enter the lioness enclosure and meet his end there. A verdict of accidental death was the conclusion. Almost ten years later, another mysterious tragedy unfolded on the morning of 17th June 1915 when Jim Walmsley’s body was discovered in the filter beds below the aquarium tanks in the basement of Blackpool Tower. Without boots, hat or coat he had gone to the filter beds upon waking, in order to take a drink of the salt water. Believing in its qualities as a medicine he went most mornings to lean over the tank to take a drink, and it was assumed that on this morning he had fallen in. The inquest into his death was held the next evening. Amongst the witnesses called was one of Jim’s daughters Jane, who had been awaiting her father’s return to their apartments on the fateful morning to supply him with his cup of tea.
A Doctor Richardson, who had been called to examine the deceased, announced a case of drowning with no apoplexy, though the Coroner questioned whether a man of 5’ 6” ‘if he had had his wits about him could get himself out of 3’ 4½”of water’, or did he mean ‘to destroy himself?’ It was reported that nothing was troubling Jim and he had been cheerful enough the evening before. After a short consultation the jury returned a verdict of accidental drowning. Jim Walmsley was 65 years old. The funeral took place the following day, the route from Jim’s home in The Tower to the cemetery lined with people and almost all blinds were drawn. A company of employees from The Tower, The Palace and The Grand Theatre headed the cortege, with more uniformed employees standing in front of The Tower and The Palace ‘paying a last tribute of respect to a departed and much esteemed comrade’. The menagerie where Jim Walmsley had ‘tended to the animals as though they were his own children’ would close in 1973 following the opening of Blackpool Zoo, preceded by the closure of the aviary. The old aquarium would last until 2010. Louise Thornton
Paintings, Catalogues and Secol Sleeves: Volunteering with the Grundy Collections
Heritage Champion, Cath Woodcock, volunteers with several very different heritage collections – old postcards for the Local History Centre, tourism memorabilia for the town council, for Lightworks a collection of illuminations objects and a photograph project connected with the forthcoming Blackpool Museum. Cath very kindly took time out from her hectic schedule to speak about her latest heritage experience, a project at Blackpool’s Grundy Art Gallery, where she is among the first group of volunteer cataloguers. Under the direction of Caroline Hall, the Collections Manager for Blackpool Council, Cath has just started to learn about the Grundy’s historic collections, the roles volunteers can play in recording its extensive material and supervising others accessing the collections of paintings, sculptures and objets d’art. One of Caroline’s responsibilities is running training for volunteers and staff to work sensitively with local arts projects so that these attract funding and participants can gain accreditation. Cath’s love of art comes from childhood visits to the Grundy Art Gallery while a primary school pupil at nearby Sacred Heart. Cath’s personal enthusiasms, however, lie in textile conservation – hence her in-depth research for and absorption in the conservation of a medieval chasuble in 2012 at the Lancashire Museum Service Conservation Studios in Preston. When asked why she had chosen to focus on the Grundy paintings, Cath said she was naturally curious and that she had a strong desire to assist with this engaging project at the Grundy Art Gallery. Attending a course at the Museum of Lancashire, Cath has learned about cataloguing conventions, correct methods of handling artefacts and general conservation issues. Fascinated to hear of alternative ways for considering artworks to determine their medium, she heard about the harmful effects of ‘wear and tear’ and became aware throughout the course to some conservation methods which she is applying to her present cataloguing practice. For this project, the Grundy prefers to use one sheet per item as a single catalogue record. One side of each sheet includes an accession number, a small photograph, a short description of the work, its medium and a brief assessment of the condition. The reverse has space for adding information on provenance. Cath continued with some delight to spill the beans on the wider, intriguing process. Apparently, when considering the condition of a painting, light, damage, age and materials are all carefully taken into account. Local knowledge is helpful in composing accurate descriptions of urban scenes, as is
the ability to write captions correctly and create concise descriptions. At the Grundy, volunteers can learn a little more about some of the major issues facing arts professionals today. Collections Manager, Caroline Hall, trained all volunteers and staff on good practice and how to protect themselves and the art objects while working with the collections. Important features of collections management are secure storage, wearing gloves and using Secol sleeves to avoid objects meeting harmful dust and germs or leaving physical traces on the items by human handlers. While catalogue records can easily be kept inside loose-leaf folders or binders, the Grundy had encountered problems with store-rooms which forced the temporary removal of its artworks to a separate location. At the time of interview, most of those collections were due to return to the gallery. Careful labelling of objects according to cabinets, shelves and locations inside spacious drawers had contributed towards Caroline’s plan to teach volunteers to use resources with care, control access to records and supervise others; she had previously created consistent systems for easy storage and access to objects usually hidden inside secure storage rooms, such as Illuminations promotional posters in the Lightworks building at Squires Gate. Volunteers and staff hope to make the collections available online in the future. Cath explained that courses were taught to volunteers by Caroline in the expectation of raising the quality of skills demonstrated by volunteers and gallery staff. According to Cath, Caroline has said that she is “looking to achieve a high standard of skills among all staff and volunteers”. This pilot project, which has so far proven successful with people volunteering at the gallery, has “years of work in all collections still to do”. Lynne Charoenkitsuksun
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