RESIDENTS across East Lancashire are being asked to help name a new “festival square” for the county’s premier place of worship.
Church bosses want them to come up with a catchy title for the Covent Garden-style events space included in Blackburn’s £33 million Cathedral Quarter development.
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Already leading local figures have put forward suggestions ranging from “Kathleen Ferrier Square” to “Carnival Plaza”.
The big-city-style “piazza” in the new public gardens is to host fun events, including a Christmas market and ice-rink, outdoor theatre, classical and pop concerts, circus performances and fun fairs.
Dean of Blackburn Christopher Armstrong is looking for title suggestions for the square and a range of buildings in the new Clergy Court and Cloister Garden, England’s first for 600 years.
He said: “Blackburn Cathedral, being Lancashire’s only Anglican cathedral, serves the whole of Lancashire so we hope the new names will reflect it geographically, culturally and historically.
“Help is required to name a library, a seminar room, a break-out room, a new entrance at the east end of the development, a shop, a gallery and the new public square.”
Already the main complex has been named “Clergy Court” and the first floor exhibition space joining it to the main building the “Temple Gallery” after former Archbishop of Canterbury William Temple who was key in creating the Diocese of Blackburn.
Accrington-born and Padiham-raised Bulls Eye presenter Jim Bowen proposed “Celebration Square”, “to celebrate Lancashire with fun and religious significance”.
Blackburn MP Jack Straw suggested: “Let’s name it ‘Kathleen Ferrier Square’ after Blackburn’s most famous daughter who started her stellar opera singing carer in the cathedral.
“My other suggestion is obviously ‘Jack Walker Square’.”
Mall general manager Loraine Jones suggested “Carnival Plaza” to “emphasise fun and bringing people together”.
Blackburn-born design guru Wayne Hemingway, who founded the Red Or Dead fashion chain, said: “Cathedral Square.
“It’s very important the square is well-designed, not full of boring sculptures.”
People with ideas are being urged to contact the cathedral.
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