A recent decision to rebrand Pendle Rooms, the main social building of Pendle College, has led to discontent due to confusion over changes to the building’s signage.
Roger Gould, Principal of Pendle, spoke to SCAN, stating that the college’s strategy with Pendle has been to give each room in their social building a “specific name to suggest its use”, such as the Games Room, the JCR office and so on. This is why the college call their social building Pendle Rooms, rather than just Pendle Bar, opening it up to all students of the university; particularly those “who wouldn’t want to go into the bar, or just wanted to sit and relax somewhere without buying a drink”.
Although this approach has worked well for Pendle Rooms, Gould emphasised that it was important for the bar to be known too; therefore the college invited their students to come up with a new name to rebrand the bar. “The final choice was Bar 74, the year Pendle College was established at the University”, Gould told SCAN, and a new sign was created by Facilities, emblazoned with the new name. However, the old sign for Pendle Rooms was removed in favour of the new sign, which according to Gould, made some of the students “quite cross”, and created confusion for the new students during Fresher’s Week, who could not seem to find Pendle Rooms as the signage was unclear.
Laurence Pullan, JCR President of Pendle College, stated that the Pendle JCR were happy with the decision to rebrand Pendle Rooms and advertise the bar, however, “we weren’t told about the fact that they would rip down our 3D bar sign with a tacky-looking, flat 2D sign… in the least inspiring design I’ve ever seen.” He reiterates that Gould, the college principal, was unhappy with the change and “demanded” that the new Bar 74 sign be taken down and replaced with the old sign.
Gould described the new Bar 74 sign as “very cheap-looking”, and expressed surprise as he did not expect the Pendle Rooms sign to be taken away, he assumed that they would “simply fit the bar sign below.” Thankfully, Pendle college has worked alongside Facilities and have remedied the situation, although Gould admits that “it took longer than we expected, and we’re still discussing how best to advertise the bar now that it has no sign.”
Gould and Pullan both hope to fulfil the request of Pendle students, who seem to prefer the idea of a neon sign advertising the bar which can be illuminated when the bar is open, but Gould adds that “luckily, [the students] still seem to be able to find the bar anyway, sign or no sign.” Both representatives of Pendle have stressed that Pendle’s social area is more than just a bar, Pendle Rooms has a wide range of social areas and this needs to be advertised appropriately.
