Wigan Album

A great picture Ron. I love it.

looking at today, it seems that the Kings Head Inn is now Galloways and Liptons is now Yorkshire Building Society

This is probably early 1900's, electric tram wires are visible in the photograph and electric trams only started in Wigan around 1906.

I agree this is a brilliant photo of the time. There always seemed to be good shoe shops on that block. I remember Dolcis in the eighties and Stylo shoe shops. If I’m not mistaken I think Craddocks were still there in the fifties.

I was taken there for my shoes in the fifties when I was at primary school. They used to send me a birthday card.

Veronica I remember that so well Lipton’s tea and Craddocks for shoes. Was there also Page’s dress shop got some nice things from there?

Yes I remember Page’s dress shop Linma in that block. There was no shortage of dress shops in the sixties. You could spend all Saturday afternoon trying clothes on until you found the one dress you really liked. I used to make my own as well, the simple shift dress at that time. I haunted the fabric shops .

We're have all the shops gone? Long time passing We're have all the shops gone? Long time ago. Sad.

As I've said previously in comments I have made on other photographs, pictures like these show how much character there was in the town centre in years gone by.

Market Place feels like a shadow of its former self now, and with the Royal Bank of Scotland due to close in the next few weeks, we will see yet another empty premises gracing the town centre.

Absolutely CJ Alan. No garish signs either they weren’t needed. There’s so much horrible signage now with takeaway foods mainly, that everywhere looks tacky and rough for want of a better word. It wasn’t needed in those days the windows were dressed with art and imagination.

Veronica wander how many of the the pit brow girls on the photo shopped there

I bet they only had one dress for best and perhaps another for the
week time after work. Plus a shawl instead of a coat…They certainly wouldn’t have had a wardrobe full of clothes that we have today. Everything would have been dark and drab I suppose. They probably walked past those shops in their clogs window shopping.

The Craddocks I remember was much larger, twice the width of the one above. There is a photograph on Wigan Facebook. It shows a double fronted shop. You don’t have to use Facebook to view it

The Craddocks I remember was much larger, twice the width of the one above. There is a photograph on Wigan Facebook. It shows a double fronted shop. You don’t have to use Facebook to view it

I remember the old bus station with the newsagents,the single & double Decca Ribble& corporation buses that used to be 343 &333 dangerous corner , Tom Hughes cycle shop ,the silocks fair, little arcade, oxleys where I got my train set, Roy Hurst ,commercial yard Horner's cafe ,Pendleberrys ,Dawson's music shop.

I am thinking The Kings Head Inn might have been just up Coopers Row on the right. The old building at the back of Galloways next to and just before John Bull Chop House looks to have once been a pub?

Colin yes that's the location It's shown on old maps.

The mock Tudor frontage above Galloways must have been added later with horizontal beam across the top window which states 1759.

The brickwork on the Lipton's building has been tastefully cleaned and repointed by The Yorkshire Building Society which is nice to see.