Blackpool Middle and Lower Walk colonnades including associated retaining walls and pillar in Jubilee Gardens

Blackpool Middle and Lower Walk Colonnades

These colonnaded structures form a monumental sea-front development built between 1923 and 1925, designed by J C Robinson of the Borough Surveyor's Department. Built in reinforced concrete, they extend for approximately one kilometre south from Gynn Square, standing on the sea-front facing west between the lower walk path and the upper promenade.

The Lower Walk Colonnade

The northern (lower walk) colonnade has a segmental plan and neoclassical style, with a granite plinth and reinforced-concrete structure. Splayed stairs with solid balustrades descend the plinth at either end, providing access from the lower walk to a ten-bay colonnade of paired Tuscan columns. The first and second bays from the left are blind, with blind windows. The flanking walls are rusticated, with the right-hand wall continuing as a retaining wall for the ramp down to the middle walk from the promenade. This wall contains several original openings and a modern café shopfront (not included in the listing). The wall behind the colonnade is blind except for a portal opposite the north stair, which provides access to steps leading down from north and south. A simple balustrade runs at promenade level. At the left end, this terminates in a giant pillar with pronounced cornice, mouldings and decorative cartouche. An identical pillar stands in the sunken gardens, bearing a plaque recording the deaths of three police officers in a sea rescue attempt in January 1983 (the plaque is not included in the listing).

The Middle Walk Colonnade

The southern (middle walk) colonnade is a cantilevered promenade above a walkway that runs alongside and mostly raised above the level of the middle walk itself, with various surface finishes to the sloping surface between the path and the covered walkway. The colonnade comprises five bowed bays (segmental on plan) alternating with six flat bays, flanked by walls at either end where the path ramps up to the main promenade. The bowed bays contain structural columns and slab-and-beam roofs, forming portals between the promenade and middle walk via balustraded ramps. The flat bays have cantilevered roofs with non-structural pillars and edge beams.

At its north end, the walk ramps down from Gynn Square adjacent to the lower walk colonnade. The retaining wall mimics rusticated stonework with moulded pillars and a pierced neoclassical balustrade, with modern railings on top (not included in the listing). The covered walkway has a northern terminal pillar with Greek key frieze and an arched niche. Bay 1 (from the north) contains a regular rhythm of seven similar pillars comprising twin columns joined by a capital matching the terminal pillar. The retaining wall and cantilevered roof have regularly-spaced supporting ribs with chamfered edges. Between the pillars runs a moulded non-structural edge-beam with neoclassical railings bearing a casting mark identifying the makers as T Blackburn and Sons Ltd of Preston. To the front of the bay is a sloping margin. Some original low dry-stone walls survive flanking paths that cross this margin, though much of the margin slope is covered with later rockery work and paving (not included in the listing).

The junction between bay 1 and bay 2 is marked by a pillar like the terminal pillar but without the niche. Bay 2 comprises a segmental bowed colonnade of 16 round Tuscan columns with flanking pavilions each containing two pairs of similar columns (the outer column at either end being square). A solid balustrade above a moulded cornice fronts the promenade level. Parallel with the colonnade, the curved ramp rises from right to left with plainer square pillars running up from the ramp's solid balustrade to the roof. Ribs run across the soffit from these pillars to the front columns. The ramp slot has a low solid balustrade at promenade level.

The remainder of the colonnade is of similar appearance. Due to an increasing rise from the adjacent path to the colonnaded path towards the south, the other bowed bays have rusticated risers and railings between the columns matching the parapet railings on the straight bays. Bays 3 and 5 have six pillars, whilst bays 7, 9 and 11 have five. None of these contains the ribs present in bay 1. Bay 7 has concrete terraces in place of much of the margin slope (not included in the listing). Bay 11 has walls between the last two pillars and the colonnade terminal, creating two rooms for lifeguard use (not included in the listing). The retaining wall at the south end steps down to the entrance to the middle walk and terminates with a short pillar matching the design of those at the northern entrance to the middle walk and the base of the extant massive pillars at Gynn Square.