Nice

Video of the past/good old days

link

Will have a good look at this later. All the good things WW was set up for. Thanks BB.

Nice one,I think this should be very interesting.

If only the planners had left well alone. Refurbishment of the market hall was all that was really needed. The bus stop arrangement should have stayed as it was with other traffic barred from the market place. A fortune saved by not building the galleries and the bus station.

Thank you Basil..I enjoyed that.

Gaffer

Exactlly, all that was needed was for a modernisation of the market hall which had lasted longer than the thirty five years of the Galleries and the outdoor market given a roof over the market stalls like you see in other towns.

p.s. This morning I went past the site and stll could not see any building rising as it should be by now!

Eyup, ...... Baz 's earnt hisel' some Brownie Points!

But, beware the Trojan Horse!!

Hello, siesta time has finished again!

I really enjoyed that. Thanks for sharing it

I watched half in one sit in, then I watched the other half the following day.
It was very enjoyable as there were shops and market stalls in Wigan town centre that I'd forgotten all about!

It certainly brought back memories. All happy ones I hasten to add

Apparentlly. the steelwork is being delivered for "Fettlers" and the new Market Hall, but when the plans were first announced, I understood that new Market Hall was to be on the same corner as the existing Market Hall.

If true, has the plans been altered and a new Market Hall will be built on the opposite corner of the site and when completed, the exisiting Market Hall wil be demolised to make way for the "Fettlers".

Why is the Council wasting money in this way when a re-furbished Market Hall together with the Centre Arcade would be adequate to meet the needs of todays level of shopping in Wigan?

The term "Lunitic's running the asylum" appears to be very appropriate for those elected and run Wigan Council!

As far as I'm aware it has always been the intention to relocate the new Market Hall to the top of Wigan in Marketgate.

And also as far as I'm aware there wasn't anything in the building plans to suggest a refurbish of the existing Market to allow it to continue as one?

They said the only thing that would not be demolished was the Makinson arcade. And that seems to be the case.

cheshire cat

No person has ever said that re-furbishing of the present Market Hall was in any of the plans for the re-development where the Galleries stood.

Only that with the present level of shopping in Wigan and the boom in Internet shopping, it has been suggested by some residents which have included Gaffer and myself that all that was needed was a re-furbishment of the existing Market Hall and not waste money on a new one and the cost of demolition of the present one!

I agree with you entirely about the existing Market Hall.
It could have been refurbished at a fraction of the cost of building a new one.

Cheshire Puss

Gaffer was on about the old Market Hall, the 1877 one, if that had been refurbished, then there would have been no need to build The Galleries, thus saving a lot of money

a proud latic's supporter

Indeed he was and I admit to my mistake, but many others in Wigan are of the same opinion of the present one!

Are you?

It was a crying shame what happened to the old Market Hall.
When that was brought to the ground it was the beginning of the end of the town centre in my opinion.

To be fair though when the Galleries were first built most of the retail units seemed to be occupied. However, along came the dot com era and people preferred to shop on line thus sounding the death knell for the market trader and retail outlets

A lot of those people who preferred to shop on line are now the ones complaining vociferously about the current state of their local town centre whatever town it may be!

There will be no need for 'another' Market hall as a lot of the traders say they aren't moving. They will just pack in. That's why the butchers packed in. Wigan Council wouldn't pay for the relocation of their freezers.

Building a second indoor shopping centre like the Centre Arcade in a small town centre like Wigan killed off the outside Gallaries and the building of the Robin Park Retail Park so near to the town centre did not help!

As for the buying of goods on the Internet, that only boomed as a result of the Covid pandemic and it's lockdown which also has not helped town centrs.

On line shopping was booming well before covid?

OC
Amazon stated selling books on the internet in the USA in 1995, the UK was the first country outside the USA to introduce online sales of books via Amazon.

cheshirecat

One of my grandson's was a manager of one of the more well known carrrior companies at the time of Covid and a while ago he told me that online shopping went up dramatically during the pandemic and even more so afterwards.

Owdcoger.
I'm not disputing the fact that online shopping went up dramatically during the pandemic? It was bound to do!

I'm saying that On line shopping was already booming well before covid

Books were being sold online, by a British-based company before Amazon was created. Amazon bought that British-based company, dissolved it, and started selling books to that company's existing UK customer base under the "Amazon" banner.
The UK doesn't sell books, through Amazon or otherwise. Kind of thing!

Tonker, you should have done a video of your shop, I can picture in my head now of ,My Dad coming in for 6 mars bars,,,,,

"Tchhhhhh, pfffffft, Aye, Reet"!

I did't get a Mars bar, he had 8 kids, Me and my Big sister had left home then, Thats the story of my life, He never went in your shop when i was a wom,,, then again, I'd want a can of that chep lager and a pkt of the , under the counter, ciggies,,,,,

I loved the original Market Hall. It and its traders had a lot of character, and what you couldn't buy in there wasn't worth having.

There was a little tripe shop in there. Sutcliffe's I think it was, and I think it was opposite Redman's Cheese Cabin. Anyway, they sold sauces in packets and one in particular, which wasn't cheap, but was a German sauce mix called Jäger Sosse - Hunter Sauce, and it was the only place I knew that sold it. Even back in the late 80s it was about £1.99 a packet which was expensive, but well worth it as I've never been able to re-create it at home, despite so-called recipes on line.

Also, another favourite place was that record shop - forgotten its name but somebody will remember. All gone now, and a big mistake demolishing it.

In my opinion, a market 'hall' is never a proper market. It's just a number of regular trading stalls which may as well be shops. So, knockd down the old market hall to build shops. Why, then, didn't they build smaller shops for the traders out of the 'market hall' and not build a new 'market hall'? They could have had just a 'proper market'.
There's no sense at all in building a tall hall, with a vaulted roof, loads of empty space to be heated to keep the stallholders happy, when the stalls themselves are only ten feet high. Bad design!

cheshirecat

If you say so!

Posted by: tomplum (14889) View tomplum's page
Tonker, you should have done a video of your shop, I can picture in my head now of

What?

rows of out-of-date ale?

"Also, another favourite place was that record shop - forgotten its name but somebody will remember."

Mollie, there were two record shops/stalls inside Wigan Market Hall, but I feel that you were thinking of "Roy Hurst"s Records.'

I really liked the old Wigan Market Hall and strongly felt that it was not a good idea to demolish it.

By the way, if it was a bad design, why and how did it last as a very popular shopping area for more than one hundred years?

Ian, thank you. Yes, it was Roy Hurst's. I remembered when I was going to bed last night.

.....

Mollie. Sutcliffe's tripe stall is still there. They sell pies and cooked meats as well and very nice they are too.

Where, Holly? I thought the Market Hall had been demolished?

In any case, I don't go into Wigan any longer. Not been there since 2008.

Sutcliffe’s is still there run by a very nice and helpful woman.

Mollie. The Market Hall is still there.It will only be demolished when the new one is built. I agree with retep 1949, the lady who runs it is lovely.

Thanks. It's a pity I can't get into town any longer but, having read how bad it is now, I've no great wish to see it for myself. Not to worry. I now know how to make that sauce myself.