Former iconic 80s bar Bo Jangles that became Blu Bar and Harvey's has new lease of life as Hidden Burnley

When the ‘20 somethings’ grew up it later morphed into Blu Bar and Harvey’s and was ran by the late Mark Jones, a popular and well known figure in the town. Harvey’s hosted a number of functions and events as a supplement to its place within the late night economy of town.

Mark sadly passed away March, 2022, and Harvey’s closed its doors.

Over the following months, John and his business partner, Darren Taylor, explored expanding on the successful hire business that their friend Mark had introduced to Harvey’s. Following a full refurbishment, Hidden opened its doors in June, 2022, as an exclusive private hire and events venue offering a place dedicated to parties, celebrations and private events, covering everything from birthdays for all ages, engagements, christenings, gender reveal parties, works parties and other company events.

John said: “We are pretty much full every weekend. We never imagined it would be such a success. Every party is different and people want different things, people have full control over what entertainment they have, what drinks are stocked for them behind the bar or who does the catering.

" It’s their party, they should get to eat, drink and dance to whatever they like.”

Following the success in 2022, plans were fulfilled to develop the outdoor area into a terrace with bespoke benches and outdoor bar. It’s a real sun trap when the weather is favourable and is a great addition to the venue.

Alongside Hidden’s private events, the venue hosts a number of ‘one off’ public events, covering different music genres working both with local and national promoters, bringing something different to the nightlife economy in Burnley. This September the venue will host a reunion weekender for former Burnley nightclub Posh, an event that sold out within hours.

“I have never seen an event as popular on this scale in Burnley, “ said John. “It shows that people who don’t necessarily come into town anymore are keen to catch up with old friends and re-live some happy times.”

John has no real interest in opening the bar to the public on a regular basis for a variety of reasons. “The nighttime economy is not great at the moment and numbers of customers are very unpredictable. Our venue hire business model works well to counter the uncertainty, people give us an idea on numbers expected and we can staff accordingly. The public events we host are advertised months ahead, often with earlybird tickets and payment options.“