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Lancaster Leisure Park and GB Antiques and Furniture Centre are owned and managed by the Blackburn Family.
ALLAN BLACKBURN Managing Director of GB Antiques and Furniture Centre and owner of Lancaster Leisure Park
Lancashire born Allan Blackburn & his wife Gloria developed a shared passion for antiques. Having visited hundreds of antiques centres in the UK and abroad, they decided they could do better! In August 1990, they opened GB Antiques Centre & that same year, the couple were featured on Granada's Flying Start programme.
Allan said, "We intended to open only at weekends and run antiques fairs, but we were doing so well, we took the plunge and opened every day - We've never looked back!"
Allan's instincts were right - 21 years later the antiques centre has grown from 8000 ft2 to more than 40,000ft2 and now has 85 individual dealers & 200,000 visitors each year. Allan in takes great pride in owning one of the biggest indoor antiques and furniture centres in the Country.
Allan is a well known throughout Lancashire - He has been chairman of the Governors and hockey coach at Kirkham Grammar School as well as coach for Preston Hockey Club. In 2004 Allan acted as Venue Supervisor at the Manchester Commonwealth Games where teams from England, Ireland, Scotland, India, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa took part.
Allan was approached in 1996 to make a guest appearance on BBC Radio Lancashire's afternoon show. He now features twice each month, giving antiques valuations of listeners' collectables. He also writes a weekly collectables feature for the Lancashire Evening Post and a regular antiques piece for Northern Life magazine.
Despite the success of his own business, Allan was feeling a growing frustration with Lancaster Leisure Park and what he saw as a waste of potential. In April 1998, he bought the site and 13 years later the Leisure Park features factory shopping, a huge 2 acre brewery and visitors centre, a superb farm shop, and high quality tearoom, as well as Marshall Self Drive and Turning Point Dance Studio.
Allan said “I am really happy with how the park looks now. I have always wanted to offer something exciting and totally unique to our visitors. Now with our new attractions open, I can confidently say that Lancaster Leisure Park does just that and I don’t think there’s anything like this anywhere else in the country. But I’ve still not finished! There are plans for further development of the site in my top drawer. Retirement is going to have to wait a bit longer!”
