The Mall Blackburn

Blackburn ( ) is an industrial town and the administrative centre of the Blackburn with Darwen borough in Lancashire, England. The town is north of the West Pennine Moors on the southern edge of the Ribble Valley, 8 mi (13 km) east of Preston and 21 mi (34 km) north-northwest of Manchester. Blackburn is the core centre of the wider unitary authority area along with the town of Darwen. It is the second largest town (after Blackpool) in Lancashire. At the 2011 census, Blackburn had a population of 117,963, whilst the wider borough of Blackburn with Darwen had a population of 150,030. Blackburn had a population of 117,963 in 2011, with 30.8% being people of ethnic backgrounds other than white British.A former mill town, textiles have been produced in Blackburn since the middle of the 13th century, when wool was woven in people's houses in the domestic system. Flemish weavers who settled in the area in the 14th century helped to develop the woollen cottage industry. The most rapid period of growth and development in Blackburn's history coincided with the industrialisation and expansion of textile manufacturing. Blackburn's textile sector fell into decline from the mid-20th century and subsequently faced similar challenges to other post-industrial northern towns, including deindustrialisation, economic deprivation and housing problems. Blackburn has had significant investment and redevelopment since 1958 through government funding and the European Regional Development Fund.

Blackburn Town Hall is a municipal building in King William Street, Blackburn, England. The town hall, which is the headquarters of Blackburn with Darwen Borough Council, is a Grade II listed building.

Blackburn with Darwen is a borough and unitary authority area in Lancashire, North West England. It consists of the towns of Blackburn and Darwen but covers a wider area which includes the villages of Lower Darwen, Feniscowles, Brownhill and Hoddlesden.

BBC Radio Lancashire is the BBC's local radio station serving the county of Lancashire. It broadcasts on FM, DAB, digital TV and via BBC Sounds from studios on Darwen Street in Blackburn. According to RAJAR, the station has a weekly audience of 162,000 listeners and a 5.7% share as of September 2023.

Blackburn Cathedral, officially known as the Cathedral Church of Blackburn Saint Mary the Virgin with St Paul, is an Anglican (Church of England) cathedral situated in the heart of Blackburn town centre, in Lancashire, England. The cathedral site has been home to a church for over a thousand years and the first stone church was built there in Norman times.

The Blackburn Museum and Art Gallery is the local museum service for the borough of Blackburn with Darwen Borough Council. It is a museum with collections of Christian icons, Egyptian hieroglyphs, and local history, as well as those of the former Lewis Textile Museum.

The Lewis Textile Museum was bequeathed to the people of Blackburn by a local cotton industrialist, Thomas Boys Lewis (1869–1942). The Lewis Textile Museum was closed in 2006 and a new gallery with its collection of looms and textile machinery was moved to Blackburn Museum and Art Gallery. The gallery which now houses the exhibits at the main Museum & Art Gallery was named CottonTown and opened in April 2007 by Jack Straw, the local Labour MP. The closure of the Lewis Textile Museum caused surprise which the local paper, the Lancashire Telegraph reported.In 2006 the building of the Lewis Textile Museum, was planned to become a drugs centre although this was met with local uproar.

Blackburn was a large parish in Lancashire, England. The parish had numerous townships and chapelries, which were administered separately from the core Blackburn area, and became recognised as separate civil parishes in 1866. The parish formed part of the Blackburn hundred. The other parishes were:

Blackburn Hundred (also known as Blackburnshire) is a historic sub-division of the county of Lancashire, in northern England. Its chief town was Blackburn, in the southwest of the hundred. It covered an area similar to modern East Lancashire, including the current districts of Ribble Valley (excluding the part north of the River Ribble and east of the Hodder, which was then in Yorkshire), Pendle (excluding West Craven, also in Yorkshire), Burnley, Rossendale, Hyndburn, Blackburn with Darwen, and South Ribble (east from Walton-le-dale and Lostock Hall). Much of the area is hilly, bordering on the Pennines, with Pendle Hill in the midst of it, and was historically sparsely populated. It included several important royal forests. In the 18th century several towns in the area became industrialized and densely populated, including Blackburn itself, and Burnley.

The diocese of Blackburn is diocese of the Church of England in North West England. Its boundaries correspond to northern Lancashire with the exception of the eastern part of the Forest of Bowland, which is part of the diocese of Leeds. The diocese contains 211 parishes and 280 churches. Blackburn Cathedral is the seat of the bishop of Blackburn, currently Philip North, and the diocesan offices are also located in Blackburn.What is now the diocese of Blackburn was historically part of the diocese of York. It became part of the newly-created diocese of Chester in 1541, and part of the diocese of Manchester when it was created in 1847. The diocese of Blackburn was in turn established on 12 November 1926 from the northern part of Manchester.

The Cotton Exchange is a grade II listed building in Blackburn, England. It is located on King William Street, opposite the Town Hall. The building was used briefly as a cotton exchange, then a performance hall and cinema, before closing in 2005. It was bought by the Re:Source charity in 2015, and is currently used by community groups and as an event space.

Blackburn Boulevard bus station served the town of Blackburn, Lancashire, England. The bus station was situated adjacent to the Blackburn railway station and the town's Cathedral in the town centre. The main operators from the bus station were Lancashire United; the company acquired the formerly municipal company Blackburn Transport in January 2007. Other services were operated by Stagecoach North West, Rosso, M&M Coaches, Holmeswood Coaches, J&S Travel and Darwen Coach Services. There are also infrequent coach services of National Express. Buses travelled from the bus station around the Blackburn with Darwen area and went as far afield as Burnley, Rawtenstall, Bolton, Manchester, Preston and Clitheroe. On 22 September 2013, the Boulevard closed, to pave the way for the redevelopment of the Cathedral Quarter. All bus services served an interim bus station on the former market site, pending the opening of the new bus station, which officially opened on Sunday, 1 May 2016.Construction began in March 2014, and the first windows were installed in March 2015. Originally, the bus station was due to open in January 2015, as announced in October 2014. It was then delayed to June 2015, then later to December. In September 2015, it was delayed again, this time to 2016.