Two shelters on Princess Parade, Blackpool

Two promenade shelters of 1904, relocated in 2012, by Walter MacFarlane and Co of the Saracen foundry, Glasgow, with some castings by Browns Foundry Company of the Nelson ironworks, Derby.

MATERIALS: cast-iron columns, brackets, dormers, gutters and finials with wooden screens, and lead-covered roofs. Steel bench castings.

DESCRIPTION: each of almost-square plan, with slim columns (some bearing Browns casting marks) at the corners, linked by screens at each end, and with an axial screen aligned north-south. The round columns have scroll capitals and each has three foliate brackets in open arabesque pattern, supporting the diagonal timbers of the roof soffit. The emphatically-ribbed swept roofs have a blind oval dormer on each side, and a depressed-ogee cap with needle finial. Ogee gutters discharge via the columns. The screens have tongue-and-groove lower panels and (now unglazed) upper glazing panels. The axial screens have concave tongue-and-groove, accommodating a curved bench on both sides. The ends have straight benches.

Many components are identical to, or very closely match, designs in a MacFarlanes catalogue of approximately 1890, including: dormers (type 40 on p644); brackets (type 53, p549) and finials (type 423, p119). The bench castings match type 11, p402.