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Panopticons - Colourfields

 

Plan Your Visit

Plan your visit

From the M65 J6 take the A678 exit to Blackburn N Cent - At the round about take the third exit onto Whitebirk Dr/A6119 - Turn left onto Whalley Old Rd - At the roundabout take the second exit onto Beech St - Turn left onto Plane St - Turn right onto Whalley New Rd/A666 - Turn left into St James's Rd - Turn right on to Shear Brow/B6232 -  Turn left onto Revidge Rd

Project location
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Panopticons - Colourfields

Colourfields - based in Blackburn's Corporation Park

Designed by Jo Rippon Architecture with artist Sophie Smallhorn.

Blackburn's Panopticon, Colourfields, is a dramatic transformation of the former cannon battery in Blackburn's Corporation Park, originally installed for the Park's opening in 1857 to house two Russian cannons captured during the Crimean War.

The battery had since fallen into disrepair, and the design and construction of Colourfields enabled part of this important structure and its associations with Blackburn's history to be preserved rather than dismantled, as would otherwise have been necessary owing to deterioration.

Whilst Colourfields uses the base of the former battery, it adds a new dimension of space, height and - of course - colour with its raised viewing points and candy stripes created from pastel-coloured tiles.

From the top of the structure, the panorama of the Park below, the town beyond and distant views out towards Lytham, Southport and Fleetwood, is simply breathtaking.