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Old Pharmacy in Burnley
Posted: Tue Aug 01, 2023 8:46 pm
by ClaretTony
Does anyone remember this building?

- Barlows.jpg (218.7 KiB) Viewed 2839 times
Re: Old Pharmacy in Burnley
Posted: Tue Aug 01, 2023 8:50 pm
by giveusaB
I think it was at the mitre Accrington Rd/Padiham Rd junction.
Re: Old Pharmacy in Burnley
Posted: Tue Aug 01, 2023 8:52 pm
by ClaretTony
giveusaB wrote: ↑Tue Aug 01, 2023 8:50 pm
I think it was at the mitre Accrington Rd/Padiham Rd junction.
It was and was just about to be demolished 50 years ago. It was an iconic and well known building in town. Spotted it in an old Burnley Express this morning from October 1973.
Re: Old Pharmacy in Burnley
Posted: Tue Aug 01, 2023 9:01 pm
by giveusaB
Loads of great pictures around Burnley in the 60s & 70s
http://oldburnley.blogspot.com/p/padiham-road.html
Re: Old Pharmacy in Burnley
Posted: Tue Aug 01, 2023 9:01 pm
by DCWat
ClaretTony wrote: ↑Tue Aug 01, 2023 8:52 pm
It was and was just about to be demolished 50 years ago. It was an iconic and well known building in town. Spotted it in an old Burnley Express this morning from October 1973.
Not more iconic than the floodlights though, surely!?
Re: Old Pharmacy in Burnley
Posted: Tue Aug 01, 2023 9:09 pm
by jsclaret
I seem to remember the chemists used to have very large bottles of coloured liquid in the window
Re: Old Pharmacy in Burnley
Posted: Tue Aug 01, 2023 9:12 pm
by ClaretTony
jsclaret wrote: ↑Tue Aug 01, 2023 9:09 pm
I seem to remember the chemists used to have very large bottles of coloured liquid in the window
I think it did
Re: Old Pharmacy in Burnley
Posted: Wed Aug 02, 2023 6:26 am
by longhair
Did this chemist have anything to do with Barlows herbalist on Standish Street,still there but under third? Owner
Re: Old Pharmacy in Burnley
Posted: Wed Aug 02, 2023 7:48 am
by MeeActon1
jsclaret wrote: ↑Tue Aug 01, 2023 9:09 pm
I seem to remember the chemists used to have very large bottles of coloured liquid in the window
Barlow’s from the inside looking out.
Picture from Burnley Civic Trust Archive
Re: Old Pharmacy in Burnley
Posted: Wed Aug 02, 2023 7:58 am
by gawthorpe_view
There was a doctor's surgery very close by.
A stone detached house facing the Barracks Station.
Dr. P.C. Lala was the last in residence I think.
Re: Old Pharmacy in Burnley
Posted: Wed Aug 02, 2023 8:38 am
by Rowls
jsclaret wrote: ↑Tue Aug 01, 2023 9:09 pm
I seem to remember the chemists used to have very large bottles of coloured liquid in the window
https://www.1900s.org.uk/1900s-chemists.htm
Re: Old Pharmacy in Burnley
Posted: Wed Aug 02, 2023 8:49 am
by Clovius Boofus
Here in the UK, many pharmacies struggled when the 1920 Dangerous Drugs Act was brought in. Before the Act, you could walk in and buy a whole host of concoctions that were primarily made up from opium, cannabis and cocaine. There were no restrictions. I once read a book about 'high' Victorians/Edwardians. It's certainly an interesting history.
Re: Old Pharmacy in Burnley
Posted: Wed Aug 02, 2023 8:57 am
by Claretnick
gawthorpe_view wrote: ↑Wed Aug 02, 2023 7:58 am
There was a doctor's surgery very close by.
A stone detached house facing the Barracks Station.
Dr. P.C. Lala was the last in residence I think.
In the early 60's my mum worked as a receptionist in that surgery/house for Dr Gray before he emigrated to Tasmania.
I have memories of being in the back garden of the house watching the steam trains pull out of Burnley Barracks Station.
Re: Old Pharmacy in Burnley
Posted: Wed Aug 02, 2023 9:00 am
by ClaretTony
gawthorpe_view wrote: ↑Wed Aug 02, 2023 7:58 am
There was a doctor's surgery very close by.
A stone detached house facing the Barracks Station.
Dr. P.C. Lala was the last in residence I think.
I read the first line of your post and the name Dr Lala came straight into my head, and I'm sue you are correct. His son was in the same year as me at Burnley GS and there were lads called Nazar Shar and Richard Lee in our year too. Was it the Small Faces who sang Shah Lala Lee?
Re: Old Pharmacy in Burnley
Posted: Wed Aug 02, 2023 9:22 am
by gawthorpe_view
Prescriptions from Dr Lala were dispensed at Barlow's chemist, and I remember clearly the bottles of coloured water around the inside of the pharmacy as well as in the windows.
Glass jars with liquorice root and coltsfoot also, plus a large wire stand with every variety of Heinz baby food imaginable.
Strange what sticks in your memory sometimes.

Re: Old Pharmacy in Burnley
Posted: Wed Aug 02, 2023 9:24 am
by Guitargeorge
Check out our website BCTHIC.org. Many more old photos of Burnley including many unseen images of BFC. Please remember that images cannot be used for commercial purposes and if you do use any, please acknowledge Burnley Civic Trust. We are a charity and volunteers work hard to digitise the photos from old negatives.
Re: Old Pharmacy in Burnley
Posted: Wed Aug 02, 2023 9:44 am
by sjb
In that 2nd picture down there is a shop named 'Gordon Haigh.' I imagine that may be the same Gordon Haigh who played 18 times for The Clarets after the 2nd World War? I know he returned to the area after spells with Bournemouth & Watford and died in Nelson at the age of 90.
Re: Old Pharmacy in Burnley
Posted: Wed Aug 02, 2023 9:59 am
by J_Grimshaw
our family lived in the flat above that chemist for a short while in the mid fifties before moving south. I subsequently grew up in west London, acquiring a west London accent and have spent the rest of my life explaining why l am a Burnley fan talking like wot l do.
Re: Old Pharmacy in Burnley
Posted: Wed Aug 02, 2023 10:35 am
by FigSlice
Is there a scene in the film "A Kind of Loving", where the Alan Bates character goes into a chemist to buy "something for the weekend" but is too embarrassed to make the purchase because he is served by the shop girl? My mum said that was filmed at Barlow's chemist.
Re: Old Pharmacy in Burnley
Posted: Wed Aug 02, 2023 10:48 am
by sjb
FigSlice wrote: ↑Wed Aug 02, 2023 10:35 am
Is there a scene in the film "A Kind of Loving", where the Alan Bates character goes into a chemist to buy "something for the weekend" but is too embarrassed to make the purchase because he is served by the shop girl? My mum said that was filmed at Barlow's chemist.
Very possibly - the scene where Bates & June Richie go to look at a flat with a shared bathroom was filmed on Ormerod Road.
Re: Old Pharmacy in Burnley
Posted: Wed Aug 02, 2023 12:02 pm
by Summerseat Claret
You've made my day posting that: those pictures were taken by my grandad, William Green. Apparently he realised that the town was going to undergo massive changes in the 60s and 70s and he wanted a record of the town that he knew growing up.
My dad transferred them from slides to pictures a few years ago and one of his old school friends, a chap called Bill Stuart, posted them on YouTube where they have had over 60,000 views.
Re: Old Pharmacy in Burnley
Posted: Wed Aug 02, 2023 12:09 pm
by Eloise Laws
When talking about the town centre works/roundabout with my 80+ year old mum the other day, she was saying before the roundabout was there, there was a large pub that split the road in two??? but she couldn’t remember the name of it? Can anyone??.
The roundabout has always been there in my memory
TIA
Re: Old Pharmacy in Burnley
Posted: Wed Aug 02, 2023 12:13 pm
by MeeActon1
Eloise Laws wrote: ↑Wed Aug 02, 2023 12:09 pm
When talking about the town centre works/roundabout with my 80+ year old mum the other day, she was saying before the roundabout was there, there was a large pub that split the road in two??? but she couldn’t remember the name of it? Can anyone??.
The roundabout has always been there in my memory
TIA
It was the Yorkshire Hotel. My parents had their wedding reception there in 1958, not long before it closed.
Re: Old Pharmacy in Burnley
Posted: Wed Aug 02, 2023 12:37 pm
by Eloise Laws
Ah brilliant. Thanks, I can show her the photograph too.
I love that you can get answers to most things on this board
Thanks MeeActon1
Re: Old Pharmacy in Burnley
Posted: Wed Aug 02, 2023 1:24 pm
by ClaretTony
I just saw the Barlow's pic yesterday - what a brilliant thread it has been
Re: Old Pharmacy in Burnley
Posted: Thu Aug 03, 2023 11:43 am
by sandy richardson
Yorkshire Hotel might be on this footage from late 1940s:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jf0J7y9oxSU
Well worth a look anyway.