Burnley bar to appear on ‘Homes Under The Hammer’

A film crew spent the entire day filming at the old Guys As Dolls building where property developer Ian Walker is turning the premises into five affordable shops and three luxury apartments.

The building, located in Lower St James’ Street, was bought by Mr Walker at an auction in Manchester.

“Homes Under The Hammer were there on the day and they asked if they could come along and do some filming,” he said. “They were really impressed by what they saw and Dion was a really nice chap.”

Part of the building will remain a licensed premises which Mr Walker, who lives in Cliviger, is hoping will become a restaurant.

“The entire project is going to take around 16 weeks but the luxury apartments, which will come with their own rooftop veranda, will be completed before that.

“The shops are all going to have completely new fronts, really modern looking. The owners will be able to turn up on the day, pick up the keys and move straight in. And most importantly, they will be affordable.

“Since we’ve been working down here, I’ve already noticed an increase in the footfall. It’s a nice area of town and hopefully this can be the start of something special. I’ve been in touch with the council to ask them if they can get the charity shops to remove the racks of clothing from the street and I’m going to be looking at giving some of the empty shops around here a lick of paint.

“We’ve already had plenty of interest in the units and I’m not worrying about filling them for one minute.”