Two shelters on Princess Parade, Blackpool

The two promenade shelters on Princess Parade in Blackpool were built in 1904 and relocated in 2012. They were created by Walter MacFarlane and Co of the Saracen foundry in Glasgow, with some castings produced by Browns Foundry Company of the Nelson ironworks in Derby.

These shelters are made of cast-iron columns, brackets, dormers, gutters, and finials, complemented by wooden screens and lead-covered roofs. The benches are made from steel castings. Each shelter has an almost-square plan and features slim columns at the corners, some of which bear marks from Browns casting. The columns are linked by screens at each end and have an axial screen aligned north-south. The round columns have scroll capitals and are adorned with 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 oval dormer on each side and a depressed-ogee cap topped with a needle finial, although the northern shelter is missing this finial as of 2021. The ogee gutters discharge rainwater via the columns. The screens feature tongue-and-groove lower panels and unglazed upper panels. The axial screens have concave tongue-and-groove panels that accommodate a curved bench on both sides, while the ends have straight benches.

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