John Whinnerah Institute, Abbey Road, Barrow-in-Furness

The John Whinnerah Institute is a Grade II listed

Art Deco Art Deco, short for the French ''Arts Décoratifs'', and sometimes just called Deco, is a style of visual arts, architecture, and product design, that first appeared in France in the 1910s (just before World War I), and flourished in the Unite ...

building and former educational establishment located on

Abbey Road ''Abbey Road'' is the eleventh studio album by the English rock band the Beatles. It is the last album the group started recording, although '' Let It Be'' was the last album completed before the band's break-up in April 1970. It was mostly ...

Barrow-in-Furness Barrow-in-Furness is a port town in Cumbria, England. Historic counties of England, Historically in Lancashire, it was incorporated as a municipal borough in 1867 and merged with Dalton-in-Furness Urban District in 1974 to form the Borough of B ...

, England. Having been constructed between 1937 and 1938 on the site of the demolished Jute Works it is the newest listed structure in the town, despite this it was drastically altered in 2004 when the entire interior was demolished to accommodate new retail units leaving only the Abbey Road and Hindpool Road facades. The building was constructed post the

Unemployment Act 1934 The Unemployment Act 1934 was an Act of Parliament in the United Kingdom, reaching statute on 28 June 1934. It reduced the age at which a person entered the National Insurance scheme to 14 and made the claiming age 16 years. It also separated bene ...

specifically to house the Barrow Women's Institute and Junior Instruction Centre which had been using temporary premises since founding in 1925. The building is a major success story of early 20th-century attempts to improve educational facilities for young people and women from the poorest areas of major industrial towns and cities in the UK. The John Whinnerah Institute was ultimately described by the President of the

National Union of Teachers The National Union of Teachers (NUT; ) was a trade union for school teachers in England, Wales, the Channel Islands and the Isle of Man. It was a member of the Trades Union Congress. In March 2017, NUT members endorsed a proposed merger with ...

, as 'the finest Women's Institute in this country'. The building was named in honour of John Whinnerah, the Mayor of the

Borough of Barrow-in-Furness Barrow-in-Furness is a local government district with borough status in Cumbria, England. It is named after its main town, Barrow-in-Furness. Other settlements include Dalton-in-Furness and Askam-in-Furness. It is the smallest district in the ...

between 1928-1929 and 1929-1930. The original footprint of the John Whinnerah Institute is now occupied by a

Next Next may refer to: Arts and entertainment Film * ''Next'' (1990 film), an animated short about William Shakespeare * ''Next'' (2007 film), a sci-fi film starring Nicolas Cage * '' Next: A Primer on Urban Painting'', a 2005 documentary film Lit ...

and

Cancer Research Cancer research is research into cancer to identify causes and develop strategies for prevention, diagnosis, treatment, and cure. Cancer research ranges from epidemiology, molecular bioscience to the performance of clinical trials to evaluate and ...

store, which form part of Hindpool Retail Park.

References

{{coord, 54.1133, N, 3.2336, W, type:landmark_region:GB-CMB, display=title Art Deco architecture in England 1938 establishments in England Buildings and structures in Barrow-in-Furness Defunct schools in Westmorland and Furness Educational institutions established in 1938 Grade II listed buildings in Cumbria