Photo-a-Day  (Saturday, 8th July, 2023)

I'm hoping that they don't demolish the market clock tower, and whatever it is they are to build around there for it to be included. It has become an iconic landmark and maybe it's just me, but I do like it and in a way find it looks rather Italianesque.

To be honest I don’t know why it’s being left standing. What use is it? There’s a clock on the Parish church tower. Everybody wears a watch or has a smart phone to check the time. What purpose does it have besides having a clock on top? Everything else has practically been wrecked - why not go the whole hog!? The windows at the top might be a look out for marauding invaders but it’s a good way from the Channel ports even for that..

According to the Council Re-development Committee minutes Veronica, its been left standing so that you have yet one more thing to moan about...

Clock tower is full of pipistrelles bats, so they cant touch yet

I agree with Veronica, everything should go. We have the Parish Church clock thats always right, just get shut of everything and make a fresh start.

I can't make my mind up on this one....it is all that is left of the Galleries as it was when I started at Boots in 1992, when it was only a few years old. I always wear a watch, even in these days of everyone checking the time on their phones, (I am lost without a watch!), and yet I always look a the time on the Market Clock, as I do on The Parish Church Clock. I just like clocks, but somehow I think this one will be demolished.

Was it the right time Dennis, does the clock still work?

Good for the Council Re- Development Committee they are so thick skinned in their planning it won’t matter one jot. It’s past it’s sell by date anyway…according their rules Gareth C.

It has got a cloud over it Veronica,
Yes, it was the right time Sandra.

I see the latest casualties in the downward spiral of our town are the closure of the Cinema complex at Robin Park and The Moon Under Water in the town centre. Never thought I would see the day when a Wiganer would have to go to Leigh to find a cinema!

Gareth, you must be the one we have all been looking for. Anyone who has the stamina to read through the Council Re-development Committee minutes would get my vote anytime.
I would read them myself, but I don’t think my dicky ticker could stand up to so much excitement in one go!
VOTE FOR GARETH NEXT TIME!
He will read the Council Re-development Committee minutes for YOU!

It does sound as if Gareth owes his allegiance to the Council..
I can’t believe The Moon Under Water is going to close..I thought that was the only business that did well. I have seen a bit of squaring up for a fight and shouting matches outside there ..it idled away a bit of time waiting for the train.

Veronica, DTease. PLEASE tell me that you are joking....

I hope they leave it standing it’s a good looking piece of architecture and will be a reminder of Wigans past for future generations

Gareth my first comment was ‘tongue in cheek’. Re: knocking the tower down I see it’s not been finalised yet as ‘there’s a cloud over it’.
But hey! they do like employing demolition gangs do Wigan Council..

Maybe the cloud that is hanging above it in the photo is ominous to how some folks feel about the tower, however if there are endangered or protected bats roosting in the structure then the bats will quite rightly win in keeping their home - and why not.

No matter I still like it, and how it stands proud and defiant and is an icon as to how great the town was and can be again.

As for clocks, I can remember that years ago in Market Place there were three large clocks besides the All Saints Church tower clock, (there may well have been others in shop windows too) and even then with folks having wrist and pocket or fob watches they would still look at those clocks to see what time it was, the ones I remember are the bus office clock, Waterworth's clock and Baker's clock.

I can't understand how there still are cinemas around when the films they show can be seen online for a fraction of the cost of going somewhere just to hear folks coughing, rustling wrappers or talking over the dialogue, and crushing past you with a load of kids in tow or sitting in front of you with an horrific beehive or other big wig hairstyle. The Moon Under Water is a pub that I have never been in nor have I ever wanted to, and it is only through hearsay that I have heard about it being full of old men, all sitting there with a gill of mild whiling away the afternoons. Maybe they've had enough of the high prices and joined those at the coffee bars, to smoke camel dung cigarettes and to make a coffee last all afternoon.

Vote for DTease, I say.....at least he always gives us a laugh! I am not a frequenter of The Moon Under Water but it always seems busy when I go past on the bus as it turns into Library Street and seems to have people of all ages having a drink or a meal.

That clock tower is part of the Market Hall, so it won't be demolished until the Market Hall is demolished, so it will be there for quite a while yet, but if yoo want to know what is inside that tower, I can tell you, and that is that there is 'nothing' inside, it is just a steel structure, faced up with an ornamental brick facade, the clock is the only fixture inside of it, and as memory serves me, there are no stairs, if access is required to the clock, then a system of ladders are used.

What do YOU think Gareth?

' A system of ladders ' , Sir Bob .

Is that the same as some ladders ?

I just knew the council would use a system of ladders .

I cannot read Chinese and neither can the majority of Wiganers so why have it on the signage?

Dick Dastardly

"A System of Ladders"

It was when they were building the tower, so it might be different now, but there were about four or five ladders, linking three or four metal platforms, and the ladders had a safety cage around them, so four or five ladders, safety cages, small metal platforms with safety railings around them around them, that sure sounds like a 'system' to me.

PeterP,
SOME Wiganers can probably read Chinese, likely those of Chinese heritage. How does the signage affect you in any way ??

I hope they leave it standing it’s a good looking piece of architecture and will be a reminder of Wigans past for future generations

Derekb, where did you get the idea The Moon is closing?

It all sounds a bit 'Heath Robinson' to me Sir Bob .

Gareth
?????? .

Peter P - Don't forget the main contractor is a state-owned Chinese company.

I have never seen this clock right yet, every time I have past it, it's been wrong!!!

Alter your watch to the time on the clock and your fortunes will change.

Dick Dastardly

"It all sounds a bit 'Heath Robinson' to me Sir Bob"

Why, it is only the same as other 'access system's' for similar structures.

It all sounds like the tower that Jack built.

Pam, I haven't seen it myself, but a friend told me there was a notice posted to that effect outside the premises. I understood the closure was one of a significant no. of outlets to be closed by Wetherspoons.

There are some closures of Wetherspoons pubs announced but the Moon isn't one of them. They had a flood a few weeks ago but other than that, it's business as usual. There is actually planning for a cinema not far from where the clock is presently so no need to go to Leigh to watch a film. As I've said previously, they shut a cinema to build a shopping complex, now they're demolishing a shopping complex to build among other things, a cinema. You couldn't write it !!

If a new cinema and bowling alley opens on the site of The Galleries, I will show me bum at the top of Wigan on a Saturday afternoon.

I’ll plant fog as well..Sir Bob.

If the main contractor is chinese maybe the clock will always be WONG!.