I went back to Blackburn after 12 years - I couldn't believe how much it's changed

I was 27, had just finished working in the town centre, I had a leaving drink in the Adelphi, and got on the train home to Preston. For no particular reason, I haven't been back in 12 years.

But almost to the day, I made a trip down memory lane. In recent months, my work has taken me to look back at East Lancashire, and I can't help but have an affinity for the place. It's where I cut my teeth as a trainee reporter, immersed in the people, the traditions, the stories.

Over the years, I've heard murmurings of goings on, developments here and there, but I have never seen them for myself. When I left, things were starting to change in the town. The Mall had been built, the new market had opened, as had the Wainright Bridge. But I couldn't have imagined what would happen in the next decade.

My visit

I took my typical route in, along the M65, off at junction 3, then all the way down Preston Old Road. Save for a new mini Sainsbury's, nothing much seemed to have altered. I parked on the railway station car park, just as I had done all those years ago, and walked into the town centre through the station. Almost immediately, I glimpsed a change in the skyline. What was that grey building next to the Cathedral?

Walking through the station - with new security stations and pay stations - I had no idea what this Cathedral Quarter I'd heard about, would actually be like. But wow. Almost unrecognisable. Instead of a shabby-looking bus station with green shelters, here are some properly swanky, city-centre type buildings. Glass fronted, neon signs, bang up-to-date, and right next to the Grade II-listed Cathedral. I have no idea how they got planning permission, but I'm so glad they did.The whole area has been opened up.

When I stood on the junction of High Street and Railway Road, just where I used to work in Newspaper House, it was so much cleaner, more welcoming, green, and fresh. It felt like the cathedral had been given a proper entrance, and I wondered why it hadn't been thought of earlier.

The famous statue of the parent and child and teddy had been moved though - I eventually found them across from the railway station. The Adelphi was closed and in a sorry state - soon to become flats - and Newspaper House - in all honesty an eyesore of a building - is only Newspaper House in name now. I've heard it's also flats.

I walked up to the Cathedral and not a lot had changed there, then down some steps to the side entrance of the market in Church Street. Pretty much the same, and I'm glad to report that the Chippery was still going in Astley Gate. Then off I went into the town centre. There's quite a lot of empty shops in and around King William Street - but that's not a Blackburn problem, that's an every town problem. From what I could see, it was busy enough, and Marks and Spencers is still hanging on, despite plans to move it out into a retail park.

What was an eye-opener, however, was when I went wandering over to King George's Hall and saw all the redevelopment in the Blakey Moor area. Where the legendary Waves once stood is a new leisure centre (I say new, it opened in 2015), to be surrounded by an under-development Cultural Quarter. There's a Reel Cinema, new car park, and loads of new eateries and bars to come. All against an Alfred Wainright quote in tiles: You were made to soar, to crash to earth, then to rise and soar again." Quite right, sir.

Down where the old market used to stand, more changes still. The old building has come down, and yet again, the area has been opened up. I remember an old ‘60s subway, well that's gone, and now there's a sparkly, modern, glass building which appeared to be busy, but I had no clue what it was. I'm later informed that it's the new bus station. Well, if that's the case, they need to make it more obvious.

All in all, it was a strange trip. The Blackburn town centre I remember is still there - but it's changed, and in some areas massively. Whoever is masterminding this clearly has a vision, and it's coming together. It's fusing the old and the new, and it's trying, very, very hard, to draw people back into the town centre. And look, it worked.