Photo-a-Day  (Tuesday, 14th September, 2021)

We must have walked past this tower thousands of times but can never remember looking up at it.It is a shame because it blends in well with the surrounding buildings.

Peter Oscar Wilde said,, We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars.
Try to start looking up more often it will make you feel much better.

I suppose a lot of people will look up at it Peter, checking the time for their bus, on their way to bus station..This was not long ago, a clock for the future, soon it will be a thing of the past. Again!!!

I remember when I started working at Boots in 1992 when it had moved to Market Street, with an entrance just about where Dennis must have stood to take this photo. I remember going out in my dinner hour on my first day and looking down from the top gallery over the market stalls. All the shops and cafes on the upper and lower walkways were thriving and busy, and the square I looked down on was full of colourful market stalls and shoppers. I always look up at the clock when in Wigan and those buildings are still lovely.....there's just no-one there. It reminds me of a song from the 1960s when I was a young girl...."Streets full of people, all alone, Rows full of houses, never home; Church full of singing, out of tune....everyone's gone to the moon".

the council have used the height of the clocktower as an established marker for the height of the proposed buildings

My comments exactly like yours Peter,but I will make a point of looking up in future.

Soon to be having it's clock knocked round, by you know who !

Soon to be demolished in the revamp of the town centre?

Permission should be refused to demolish all these buildings. It's absolute stupidity and waste. Most people wear a watch so there no need to keep looking up at the clock unless checking the correct time. It's more of an adornment than anything. If everybody went around looking up they would be bumping in to one another. It's a home for the pigeons - anyway we have the parish church clock. I do check the time with that one on the way to the station, not much chance of bumping into people there! The space is not as enclosed.

A favourite perching point for the local Raven population.

Mick I am always pushing a wheelchair around Wigan not much looking upwards if you are going to run into someone/thing. Best clocks(NOT) are on the TLC not only are they showing the wrong time but different times

We live in a fast moving world now but I always taught my sons you should always find the time to stop and smell the roses and look up at the stars.

Veronica, don't get me wrong I'm not a massive fan of the plans for it but what would you do with the Galleries building? I don't think that the Grand Arcade should have been built to start with, but like it or not it's where what's left of the shops are now. That along with the rise in online shopping there is no chance of the Galleries ever getting back to what it once was. Better it used for something than just sat empty and left

I don't really know the plans myself Tom, but surely they could be incorporated with what they are going to do, at least some of it. Whatever is going in place must have to be built .... its as if they are just demolishing for the sake of it just because it doesn't fit in to some weird plans they have. The question is - will the next phase be demolished in another 30 years? Unbelievable! I agree the newest the Grand Arcade should not have been built, not after these galleries anyway. Look at the money that's been wasted.

Tom, and Veronica.It seems the next phase is mainly for younger people, Cinema, Bowling, more Bars etc, and Apartments, Totally different world to what know..

The irony of those plans! Cinema and Bars.....( umpteen pubs and picture houses lost.) sounds like Wigan will be a just a copy of Middlebrook Horwich

Exactly Veronica but with no shops.At least Middlebrook has shops. But you need a car!!!

I don't think It will do as good as Middlebrook Edna. There's no Supermarket or M&S! People will still have to go downto Robin Park.