Blackburne House
| Blackburne House | |
|---|---|
Blackburne House
|
|
| Location | Hope Street, Liverpool, Merseyside, England |
| Coordinates | 53°24′00″N 2°58′14″W / 53.3999°N 2.9705°WCoordinates: 53°24′00″N 2°58′14″W / 53.3999°N 2.9705°W |
| OS grid reference | SJ 356 897 |
| Built | 1788 |
| Built for | John Blackburne |
| Governing body | Blackburne House Group |
|
Listed Building – Grade II
|
|
| Designated | 14 March 1975 |
| Reference no. | 1356293 |
 Location in Liverpool
|
|
Blackburne House stands on the east side of Hope Street, Liverpool, Merseyside, England. Originally a private house, it became a girls' school and, after a period of dereliction, it is now used as a training and resource centre for women. The house is recorded in the National Heritage List for England as a designated Grade II listed building.
The house was built in 1788 for John Blackburne, at a time when this was in the countryside outside Liverpool. Blackburne originally came from Warrington. He was a wealthy salt refiner and a supporter of the slave trade. In 1760 he had been Lord Mayor of Liverpool.
In 1844 the house was bought from Blackburne by George Holt. Holt was a cotton broker and merchant, and an abolitionist. He was also a supporter of women's rights, and on 5 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." Blackburne House was the first school for girls in Liverpool, and was sited directly opposite the Mechanic's Institute, a school for boys on the other side of Hope Street. 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.
In 1905 it came under the management of Liverpool City Council, and continued as a school until it closed in 1986.
The building lay empty until 1994 when the Women's Technology and Education Centre commissioned its conversion into a training and resource centre. Amongst other things the building is used as an examination centre by the Open University. The building is currently a Social Enterprise, running businesses (cafe, nursery, construction company, conference centre, graphic design company) whose profits support a women's college - providing education for local women, including hard to reach and disadvantaged students.
...
Wikipedia