THE first ‘Clergy Court’ to be built for 600 years is now catching up with the office block and hotel as Blackburn’s £33 million Cathedral Quarter continues to rise rapidly in the town centre.

The internal wall cladding for the suite of residential buildings complete with cloister garden is now being applied to the main steel superstructure by John Turner Construction.

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The new 60-bed Premier Inn Hotel just in front now has masonry covering the rear opposite the railway station with the glass frontage all-but complete.

Next door, the majority of the yellow stone cladding is on the office block, sold last month for £91 million.

Glass panels covering its frontage that faces the new square central area next to the re-opened Railway Road, is now almost complete.

Eric Wright Construction, responsible for the hotel, office block and ‘public realm’, will soon start on the landscaping of the gardens and squares on front of, and around the cathedral.

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All is on track for an October handover of the buildings for fitting out and a pre-Christmas opening.

Blackburn Cathedral Canon Andrew Hindley said: “It is going well.

“The contractors are putting on the internal wall facings on the clergy court and the stonework will start to go on in the next few weeks.

“Soon you will really start to see what the completed ‘Cathedral Court’ development will look like .

The £6 million Cathedral Close buildings and cloister garden will put Blackburn Cathedral on a par with its great Medieval counterparts like Durham and Chester.

It will wrap a new suite of church buildings, housing clergy and staff accommodation, offices and function “State Room” around a “Cloister Garth”.