Historic building's £1.5m revamp to improve access

The £1.5m redevelopment of a town's landmark building, which dates back more than 160 years, will be opened to the public.

The redevelopment of the Exchange in Blackburn includes a new spiral staircase, lift and toilet facilities, and the restoration of features including stone tracery with its original stained glass, hidden for decades.

The work is the latest ambitious phase of the restoration which has transformed accessibility and the visitor experience throughout the historic building on King William Street.

Among the guests at the reopening will be Rebekah Newton, who hit the headlines in 2002 when she was unable to access the building in her wheelchair, when it was operating as a cinema.

Rebekah's parents raised concerns about the lack of wheelchair access to the building back in 2002 just after she had got out of hospital following a car crash.

Now Rebekah who lives in Burnley has been invited back to become one of the very first people to use the building's new lift.

The public will also be able to discover hidden histories uncovered during renovation including a tunnel once used to access the "cheap seats" at the opening celebrations plus step free access to all three floors of the site from one entrance for the very first time.

The building first opened as the town's cotton exchange in 1865 and then became a cinema in 1908.

The Apollo cinema was closed in 2005 but the building was rescued in 2016 by volunteers who formed the Re:Source charity, determined to create a new cultural venue for Blackburn.

The reopening weekend will also feature a unique artistic collaboration between Steve Guinness, creator of the Lego typewriter and winner of Lego Masters on Channel 4 and celebrated artist Gosha Gibek of Gosha Gosh Art.

Together, they will create a large-scale Lego mosaic inspired by Gosha's much-loved artwork of the Exchange, which will be recreated brick by brick, with members of the public invited to help assemble it.

Re:Source trustee Dr Alastair Murdoch said: "This redevelopment represents far more than bricks and mortar.

"It is about opening this incredible building to everyone, preserving its heritage while creating new possibilities for future generations."

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