Wigan Album

I seem to remember Boots chemist had a side door which brought you out into the arcade. So the shop next to it was it taken over by Boots and extended? It seems so long ago and there has been so many changes it is difficult to remember.

Looks like late 60's.

Vb - Yes, Boots did have an entrance/exit in the Makinson Arcade, but they didn't extend into the shop on the corner of the arcade.

Definitely pre 1972 or so, when the parade of shops on Standishgate opposite what is now Primark were built . The old Electricity Board showrooms are still standing and the gap next to it where the small car park was is still there. You are right vb in remembering that Boots was extended and with another entrance at the top of Royal Arcade.

Sorry vb, in my previous comment re Boots other entrance, should have said Makinson and not Royal arcade.

Caught sight of my first love outside Boots in the big arcade (as we called it). Boy! Was that break up painful. Cheers for the picture Eddie

Thank you for the info. I know it seemed a lot bigger inside than it does looking at the picture there.

Does anyone remember the Lending Library on the first floor of Boots?I used it in the 1940s,It was high class,carpeted

It looks like late the 1960's for me too, because the street lighting was still those fluorescent tubes, but as I remember they had been replaced by more modern street lighting by 1970/71

Although too young to remember Boots' Lending Library, (and there's not much I'm too young for these days!), I DO remember when Boots SOLD books upstairs in their Standishgate Branch, and I have a set of Milly-Molly- Mandy books that were bought for me from there as a child. Boots' Lending Library is mentioned in the film Brief Encounter and I actually have a Boots' Lending Library book which I picked up from a car-boot sale many years ago.

Irene. Upstairs in Boots also sold records, Practically every other shop in Wigan in the 60's seemed to sell records. Woolworths did as well.

Does anyone also remember Boots temporarily opening an extension right at the back of the ground floor at Christmas for the sale of Christmas cards, calendars etc.?

I remember buying cards in Boots DerekB they were sold loose- not in packs as they are now. I loved going in there it was a little like the old Smiths used to be in Mesnes St. A bit more on the quality side.

Carolaen, I remember Woolworth's used to sell records on the Embassy Label, (my much-older brother and his wife had some), which were cover-versions sung by people other than the original artistes. Looking back, they sounded fine to me as a child, but I believe a lot of people wished they had paid the extra money for the originals! I can see the paper covers in my mind as clearly as if it were yesterday. Derek B, I can't recall the extra bit of Boots' selling the calendars etc. I worked for Boots' for 17 years but it was after they had left Standishgate and moved to Market Street, before eventually moving to The Grand Arcade.

During your time working at Boot's Irene, did you ever have anyone asking for 'something for the weekend' ?. I used to spend my weekends roller skating and as Boots didn't stock roller skates , I ended up having to go to Oliver Somers.

Anyone remember Boots 'Scribbling Diary'?

You little tinker, Eddie! Tony G, Yes, I remember Boots' scribbling diary. They were still sold in the early 1990s but don't know if they are still going.