Two shelters on Princess Parade, Blackpool

The two promenade shelters on Princess Parade in Blackpool were built in 1903 and relocated in 2012. They were created by Walter MacFarlane and Co of the Saracen foundry in Glasgow.

These shelters have cast-iron columns, brackets, dormers, gutters, and finials, along with wooden screens and lead-covered roofs. The bench castings are made of steel. Each shelter has an almost-square plan, featuring slim columns at the corners that are connected by screens at each end, with an axial screen aligned north-south. The round columns are topped with foliate capitals and have three foliate brackets in an open arabesque pattern, which support the diagonal timbers of the roof soffit. The roofs are emphatically ribbed and swept, with a blind round dormer on each side and a depressed-ogee cap topped with a needle finial. The ogee gutters discharge through the columns. The screens have tongue-and-groove lower panels and upper panels that were originally glazed but are now unglazed. The axial screens feature concave tongue-and-groove panels, accommodating a curved bench on both sides, while the ends have straight benches.

Many components of the shelters closely match designs found in a MacFarlane catalogue from around 1890, including dormers, columns, brackets, and finials. The bench castings also correspond to a specific type listed in the catalogue.