Furness Building Society

Barrow-in-Furness Town Hall is a Gothic Revival style municipal building in Barrow-in-Furness, Cumbria, England. The building, which serves as the base of Barrow Borough Council, lies within a Conservation Area with Grade II* listed status.

The 2002 Barrow-in-Furness Legionnaires' disease outbreak was a fatal outbreak of Legionellosis which occurred in Barrow-in-Furness, Cumbria, England. It was and still remains among the worst such outbreaks in history. The first fatality occurred on 2 August 2002. The source of the bacteria was later found to be from steam coming out of a badly maintained air conditioning unit. The system was located in the council-run arts centre Forum 28, with the vent emitting the disease over a busy alleyway in the town centre. Ultimately seven people died and 172 cases were reported (a case fatality rate of around 4%), ranking as the second worst in British history and seventh worst globally by death count.The coroner for Furness and South Cumbria criticised the council for its failings with regard to health and safety at the conclusion of an inquest into the seven deaths. In 2006, council employee Gillian Beckingham and employer Barrow Borough Council were cleared of seven charges of manslaughter. Beckingham, the council senior architect, was fined £15,000 and the authority £125,000. The authority maintained that Beckingham was not responsible for the building or the defective plant and dismissed the building Technical Manager Kevin Borthwick. He was later re-instated to his position following a challenge by his union. The borough council was the first public body in the country to have faced corporate manslaughter charges. Beckingham maintained that a contract to maintain the plant was in place but failings of others meant that the work was never undertaken, nor was the lack of adequate maintenance pursued by those responsible for the building. Following the trials, the contractor responsible for maintaining the defective plant, Interserve, settled a £1.5 million claim by the Council for damages.

The Forum (formerly Forum 28) is a theatre, media and arts centre located in Barrow-in-Furness, Cumbria, England. The complex is currently home to a large theatre and stage, several conference and function rooms, Barrow's main tourist information centre and a Costa Coffee outlet. The Forum is situated in Central Barrow, opposite the town hall and perhaps is most famous for being the source of one of the world's worst Legionaires outbreaks in 2002. The Forum is one of the area's main cultural and art centres and has hosted many musical artists, comedians and other performers, as well as hosting such events as the local multicultural festival and various career conventions. Many local and international theatre groups have used the Forum for their productions, plays and pantomimes.

The Imperial Hotel (formerly Hotel Imperial) located on Cornwallis Street in Barrow-in-Furness, Cumbria, England is a 4-star Grade II listed hotel built in 1875. The iconic five storey building was designed by architect Thomas Bennet and, like many Barrow buildings, constructed of red brick and sandstone. Other notable features of the building are the balcony located directly above the main entrance and the two decorative lamps standing in front of the hotel, which are also Grade II listed.The hotel underwent a £1 million renovation in 2012 by businessman Stuart Bowes, owner of the nearby Majestic Hotel. It now contains 49 rooms, a rooftop terrace and the Aspire cocktail lounge.

The Hindpool Retail Parks are a set of four conjoined retail parks in the Hindpool area of Barrow-in-Furness, England, United Kingdom (with the exception of one which straddles the border with Central Barrow). Some thirty stores and leisure facilities contain a total of 43,000 m2 (460,000 sq ft) of retail space (around one quarter of the borough's 199,000 m2 (2,140,000 sq ft) of retail floorspace). The four retail parks are Cornerhouse Retail Park, Cornmill Crossing, Hindpool Retail Park and Hollywood Park. The largest and only other retail park in Barrow is Walney Road Retail Park - Pound Stretcher, Argos Extra, Asda, Home Bargains, Matalan and Stollers.

Duke Street is a road running through the town centre and Hindpool area of Barrow-in-Furness, England. Stretching almost one mile from east to west it connects two major A roads as well as intersecting Abbey Road roughly midway. Designed by Sir James Ramsden as the centrepiece of the 19th century planned town of Barrow, Duke Street is home to three squares (Ramsden Square, Town Square and Schneider Square) alongside many listed buildings including Barrow Town Hall and the Main Public Library. The Forum performing arts centre and Craven Park Stadium (home of the rugby league side Barrow Raiders) are also located on Duke Street.

Portland Walk is a shopping centre in Barrow-in-Furness, Cumbria, England. Constructed in 1998 on the site of the former Forshaw Street, it was designed as a modern extension to Dalton Road; Barrow's principal shopping district. Barrow Indoor Market is also located adjacent to the southern entrance of the centre. Portland Walk has a total retail floor area of around 200,000 sq ft (19,000 m2) and contains over 30 stores and services. The complex is entirely open-air, however, there has been unsuccessful proposals to cover it with a roof. A 500-space multi-storey car park provides direct access to the centre. National retailers with a presence in Portland Walk are Boots, British Heart Foundation, Card Factory, Clarks, Clintons Cards, EE, Game, Goldsmiths, JD Sports New Look and Sports Direct.

The Roxy Cinema (later known as the Odeon and the Classic) on Cavendish Street in Barrow-in-Furness, Cumbria, England is a former cinema, and one of only two remaining original cinema buildings in the town (the other being Salthouse Pavilion). Built in 1937 in the Streamline Moderne-style it replaced a late 19th-century theater also called the Roxy. The cinema was purchased by Odeon in 1943, and again by Classic Cinemas in 1967. Throughout its various forms, the cinema only had one screen, although it could seat up to 1,200 people. Its days as a cinema ended in 1976 when it was soon converted into a nightclub.The Champers nightclub closed in 1984 and the Roxy Cinema building lay vacant until 1991 when a new nightclub named Manhattans opened. Mahattans ultimately met a similar demise a decade on, although 2011 saw the rejuvenation of the Manhattans brand which reopened a venue within the building. An American themed restaurant/diner and bar 'Hollywood' is also located on the ground floor in the cinema's former foyer. Whilst in the basement 'Broadway' a popular weekend nightclub is located.

The Majestic Hotel (formerly Hotel Majestic) located at Schneider Square in Barrow-in-Furness, Cumbria, England is a 3-star Grade II listed hotel constructed in 1904. The building was designed by JY McIntosh and contains elements of Edwardian and Jacobean architecture. It is also noted for its striking rounded Flemish gables. £1.7 million was spent on refurbishing the hotel in 2008 by developers One Leisure, although ownership of the Majestic, and its nearby sister hotel the Imperial, have since been transferred. The majority of the building's ground floor level is occupied by an Italian restaurant named Francesca's.

Craven House (also known as Fisher House) is a large office building in Barrow-in-Furness, Cumbria, England located on Michaelson Road close to the eponymous bridge. Constructed in the 1960s the building is noted for its length of roughly 90 m (300 ft) and consists of seven floors making it one of the tallest storied buildings in the town. The gross floor area stands at around 8,100 square metres (87,000 sq ft). Craven House is owned by the Department of Work and Pensions through Barrow Borough Council and currently houses the town's principal Jobcentre alongside leasing office space to the headquarters of successful shipping company James Fisher & Sons - the only Barrow based company listed on the London Stock Exchange.In 2003 the entire external fabric of the building was recladded and a further £1.7 million was spent in 2013 on refurbishing the inside of the building and installing a new roof. Craven House generates around £176,000 for Barrow Borough Council per annum, making it the largest individual commercial asset under the council's possession.

Barrow-in-Furness is a port town in Cumbria, England. Historically in Lancashire, it was incorporated as a municipal borough in 1867 and merged with Dalton-in-Furness Urban District in 1974 to form the Borough of Barrow-in-Furness. At the tip of the Furness peninsula, close to the Lake District, it is bordered by Morecambe Bay, the Duddon Estuary and the Irish Sea. In 2011, Barrow's population was 56,745, making it the second largest urban area in Cumbria after Carlisle. Natives of Barrow, as well as the local dialect, are known as Barrovian.In the Middle Ages, Barrow was a small hamlet within the parish of Dalton-in-Furness with Furness Abbey, now on the outskirts of the town, controlling the local economy before its dissolution in 1537. The iron prospector Henry Schneider arrived in Furness in 1839 and, with other investors, opened the Furness Railway in 1846 to transport iron ore and slate from local mines to the coast. Further hematite deposits were discovered, of sufficient size to develop factories for smelting and exporting steel. For a period of the late 19th century, the Barrow Hematite Steel Company-owned steelworks was the world's largest.Barrow's location and the availability of steel allowed the town to develop into a significant producer of naval vessels, a shift that was accelerated during World War I and the local yard's specialisation in submarines. The original iron- and steel-making enterprises closed down after World War II, leaving Vickers shipyard as Barrow's main industry and employer. Several Royal Navy flagships, the vast majority of its nuclear submarines as well as numerous other naval vessels, ocean liners and oil tankers have been manufactured at the facility. The end of the Cold War and subsequent decrease in military spending saw high unemployment in the town through lack of contracts; despite this, the BAE Systems shipyard remains operational as the UK's largest by workforce (9,500 employees in 2020) and is now undergoing a major expansion associated with the Dreadnought-class submarine programme. Today Barrow is also a hub for energy generation and handling. Offshore wind farms form one of the highest concentrations of turbines in the world, including the second largest offshore farm, with multiple operating bases in Barrow.

The National Westminster Bank building in Barrow-in-Furness, Cumbria, England is located at the intersection of Abbey Road and Duke Street. It was designed by Paley and Austin architects and built between 1873–74 and has been designated a Grade II listed building by English Heritage. Built for the Lancaster branch of the National Westminster Bank it was a major component of the Ramsden Square scheme, one of the planned town's two main squares and focal points. It is one of three former 'Nat West' properties with listed building status in the Borough and currently houses a carpet shop in the lower floors.