Photo-a-Day  (Monday, 22nd January, 2018)

Nice photo. It has been a few years since I saw this arcade and I think this to be a real lovely, it's business matters as much as the appearance.

Only two out of the six lamp have working bulbs.

Pure nostalgia, I am sure there is not a Wiganer who has not walked down here

Lovely Arcade. I remember when Makinson's Coffee Shop, (which gave the arcade its name), was where Thornton's Chocolates is now. The name Makinson's is still picked out in mosaic on the floor in Thornton's entrance. It used to smell gorgeous!

The three further down have cool white L.E.D. bulbs fitted, Mick.

There used to be a shop at the top of the arcade that had a glass covered stand outside its window that had wedding and birthday decorations..as a child I used to love looking at these and would be there for ages just taking it all in.When my children were young my Mam always bought their Easter eggs from Thorntons with their names wrote on in icing...lovely memories.

I love this arcade - but nowadays I'm apprehensive of walking down there when the weather is wet - slippery conditions!

Hmmmmm Thornton’s ....special toffee :-)

Bought a few things from Mr Allan's too..

Yes,it did smell gorgeous going in and also walking past Makinsons.However, like Veronica mentions it can get very slippy underfoot in Makinsons Arcade since the flooring was changed.Lovely memories though,as Maureen,Irene and Veronica describe.

Keeping electricity cost down... and with a glass roof, Mick. More than enough light during arcade opening hours.

Maureen, the glass covered stand that you mention was in the old arcade near Gorners Cafe and opposite Smiths Newsagents.

Elizabeth... you, Maureen, Veronica and myself are like peas in a pod with our love of how life was in the past; I wish we could take a trip down Duckett's Passage like Gary Sparrow in Goodnight Sweetheart and see the Wigan we all remember. I feel so lucky to know you all. x.

Maureen, now that Sniltub has mentioned it, I TOO remember the shop with cake decorations, and it was in The Old Arcade. The same shop sold strings of paper bags and I remember my Mam buying me some of the little three-cornered toffee-bags to play "shops" with. I have a fascination with them to this day and have strings of paper bags hung up in my kitchen!

Yes Irene if only we could go back in time - run around all the old familiar places. In and out the quaint forgotten passage ways and see the old shops lit up! Dash in Woolworths buy some lipstick , then into Lowes ( just lookin' )! Don't forget the old Boots - buy some Rimmel Mahoghany colour shampoo.
Then into the old market hall and cross over into the old arcade - hang on I need some nylons!!! Wouldn't it be fun!

It would be fabulous, Veronica! But bagsy me NOT getting weighed in front of passing Wiganers on Bob Rudd's scales in the Old Arcade! (Although I weigh nowt wet through since last February!) xx.

I too would like to step back in time, like Irene & Veronica. I remember the Makinson Arcade around the 1948/50s. The flower shop, the coffee importers...I posted a pic of their mosaic doorstep some time ago.
Nostalgia isnt so bad really.

Sniltub,you are so right..I thought about it after I'd put my comment on,and realised my mistake...doh.

Nostalgia is wonderful, but we have to move with the times; we have to live in the present and look to the future, but to refuse the backward glance, Helen, would be to have lived for nothing.

Yes what would we be without memories..going to the town centre with my Mam,going on to Woolies for my Mams lipstick and Creme Puff and later on mine,nip over to Jaxs at the top of the arcade,then a clothes shop at the bottom of this arcade,my Mam saying " do you like that love" to whatever I was looking at,then she'd go in to buy it for me..the on to Bob Rudds scales so my Mam could get herself weighed..she loved that.them finishing up by going into Gorners cafe for our dinner to be served by ladies wearing black dresses with frilly aprons and little lace hats...memories.I thrive on them.

Its all we have left now Helen.....nostalgia of the old Wigan!

Maureen that cafe Gorner's was where my mam and dad had their 'wedding reception'!!
It would have been their 72nd anniversary yesterday!

If they want to save on cost they could start by taking down all of the unnecessary and ridiculous amount of CCTV cameras that are everywhere. CCTV isn't there for the public's benefit or the excuses they come out with (cameras in toilets and in schools?), it's about getting us, more so the younger generation, used to living in a world where everything you do, even in your own home, is monitored 24/7. And if it's a case "if you've nothing to hide you've nothing to fear", then where's the CCTV footage when there's a "terrorist" attack? they never show any do they...hmmm.

Well, Veronica, Maureen and Elizabeth, I think Helen should join us and we will be the Famous Five and drink lashings of Ginger Beer, (or should that be Dandelion and Burdock, as we are Wiganers?!). I remember Gorner's, Maureen; my friend, (now my sister-in-law), Mary's Grandma was the cook there, and my Mam went red in the face when my Dad asked the waitress for three beers instead of three cups of tea, (he must have thought he was in The Legs of Man Pub which ran from one end of The Old Arcade to the other!). I remember the Doll's Hospital and Sid Smith's Newsagent's stall, long before he had the shop on Mesnes Street. Didn't Margaret Razaq's, (spelling?), stall start in The Old Arcade, and Mr. Ali Khan's jeans stall? He was a very popular stall-holder in later years in The Market Hall and had a surprising Indian/Lancashire accent! I feel privileged to have known The Old Arcade and to be able to see it in my mind's eye whenever I choose to do so.

Maureen... it was Grafton House at the market end of the arcade, before that it was Ranicars. Not as exciting for us girls but I do remember watching firemen fighting a fire in offices above the shop. 1950s or thereabouts.

If I caught the No 12 from Abram to Wigan to get to school I went down there every time. Seem to remember a shop selling Chicken barms on the left hand side going down. Bradley's Men's Outfitters was on the right hand side at the top (opposite Woolies)

The chicken barms shop was most certainly in The Makinson Arcade, Broady, and smelled as inviting as Makinson's Coffee Shop! I'm afraid we Wiganers have veered from the subject and gone on to The Old Arcade in our memories, (that tends to happen with The Old Arcade, I'm afraid, as it holds such a special place in Wigan hearts and I know you will understand that), but The Makinson Arcade, thankfully, is still there. The No 12 Abram 'bus was running when I first lived in Abram in 1974. Which school did you go to, Broady? Anne, it WAS Grafton House....well-remembered! I recall a very pushy sales assistant trying to persuade me to buy a dress in there!

Veronica ,I bet your Mam and Dad had a lovely time in Gorners..they put some lovely food on the tables.
Thank you Anne,Graftons it was.,I got some lovely blouses from there,just the job for my dancing nights at the 'Emp.
Irene, I've loved dolls all my life and was never away from The Dolls Hospital..I still have dolls and wish with all my heart that I could make them.Yes Margaret Razaq did start off with a stall in the Old Arcade..she would have jumpers hung up on hangers ..I saw a lovely dark blue jumper to match a dark blue mini skirt that I'd just bought, thought I was the bees knees..on a final note I lived just on the outskirts of the town centre so I consider Wigan Town Centre as my playground as a child and memory maker as a teenager.

Irene, I went from St. Johns and started at Thomas Linacre which later merged with the Grammar School. I sometimes travelled on various Lancashire United buses which pulled in near the toilets on the Market Square ( near the newsagents)

The chicken barm shop was Orchard Barbecue,I used to work with a girl whose younger sister worked there on Saturdays.If I used loads of pots and pans my Mum used to say'It looks like Gorner's in here ! I remember Margaret Razaq's well and Jack.

Where else would you have three arcades in such close proximity. The Makinson Arcade and it's two 'sisters'. At least there's still two of them left!