The Weavers Institute in Charlotte Street, once the hub of Burnleys social life and more, recently suggested as being suitable for an arts centre, looks like being demolished. Burnley Borough Council has lodged a planning application to demolish the building and to replace it with an open space. The Weavers Institute with its eye-catching, if not attractive, white enamel brick walls is one of the best-known buildings in the town and an important link with the history of the cotton industry locally. Unfortunately it has fallen into disrepair and no suitable use has been found for it. To many Burnley folk it will be remembered as a popular meeting place, many local couples first met there in its days as a dance hall.

UPDATE 29 July 1977

Institute now a shambles– In wake of the thief and vandal. The Weavers Institute once very proud social asset is now a gaping shattering monument to the hooligan, the thief, and the vandal. The building which has a proud history since it was built in 1895 as a social centre for the town's weavers is now a virtual shambles and only fit for the demolition hammer. And so will end a chapter which many Burnley folk who remember the 20's and 30's and the immediate past war years up to the 50's will look back on with nostalgia. In Mr Bennett's history of Burnley he says that the Burnley branch of the weavers union broke up soon after its formation in 1859 but was re-established in 1870. They managed in rooms open until 1875 when the committee decided to buy a place of its own and bought older Charlotte Street premises at auction for £485, later demolishing and redeveloping the site in 1894 with a new building opening in 1896.