Photo-a-Day  (Tuesday, 30th January, 2024)

The fringes are still there but what is going to rise from the ashes is anybody’s business.

Whatever the future brings with the new development let’s hope that those shop on Market Street and Mesnes Street are refreshed and reinvigorated.

A little tidy.

I am at a loss with this photo! It looks like a street of private houses. Market Street to me starts at the site of Barclay's Bank where Lowe's Department Store once stood, then the former Crofters Pub , (whatever it's called now), on the corner of Hallgate, then The Chippery fish and chip shop-cum-cafe, the RSPCA charity shop and the entrances to the bus station. Is that The Queens Hall in the middle? If so, I recognise nothing else. I feel totally disorientated. I'm sorry to question this but IS this Market Street? For the first time in my 71 years in Wigan I am lost! Can someone explain what I am seeing please? I honestly can't see that this is Market Street.

The grey structure beneath the yellow sign is the new canopy to the bus station.

Yes, Irene it is the Queen’s Hall.
I took this photo because when all the rebuilding is done you will probably never be able to take this photo again for a very long time.

A little more explanation for Irene. The yellow sign is for the new buses, Beeline. Appropriate as Wiganers pronounce buses as buzzes. Also all the shop frontages are obscured by hoardings, just the upper sections of buildings are on view.

Irene the yellow sign is the entrance to the bus station

The very same here Irene..

It does look strange doesn't it Irene, but it's because all you see is the top floors, and with those familiar shop windows being hidden by the development, as pointers you can see far left Lloyd's Bank next to the entrance to the bus station with the Bee sign, and the Queen's Hall tower and the college buildings with communication aerials and masts towering behind.
A great photo Dennis, so unusual and yet a scene so very often seen, but not from that angle.

Irene, I think what is confusing is that the concrete floor is hiding the ground floors of the old buildings in Market Street. It is definitely Market Street.

As I always will when I get it wrong, I apologise sincerely. I honestly thought I WAS looking at the ground floor of Market Street, where pedestrians walk, when actually I realise now that what I am seeing are the upper windows OVER THE TOP of The Chippery, The RSPCA shop etc....no wonder I couldn't see the entrances to the bus station.....they are below eye-level. I do apologise but I had no idea I wasn't looking at ground level. What threw me was that I DID recognise The Queens Hall but nothing around it.....thankyou so much John for pointing out where I had got confused. I was beginning to think I was losing the plot....what a relief ! My apologies to Dennis too; there was no criticism of the actual photo, Dennis....your photos are always good....it was the location that puzzled me but thanks to John I know I am still Compos Mentis, even if I am a bit of a wally! Lol!

Sorry for intruding on your photo Dennis, but a recent video of Wigan town centre, Eckersley's mill, Orwell and coal mining has been made by Wandering Turnip. (The username is familiar, I'm sure I've seen it before.)
Some folks will like viewing, it's quite interesting in its own way.
https://youtu.be/kVV3fuNsIWU?si=_BSm_lRJBP2UEpkc

Thankyou everyone for pointing out where I had got confused! I had already thanked John and apologised to Dennis before I saw all the other replies from you all. I honestly thought I was going potty, (don't reply to that, please....lol!). It just created an optical illusion, being taken from the concrete floor. I am now standing in the corner of the classroom with my dunce's hat on!

Irene, most of those upper floors you see are flats, most shops below are closed or boarded up. Few exceptions include Creation Wedding Dress shop further down than the Queens Hall and is still a classy shop, a great survivor!

I had no idea, Colin, that those upper floors were flats...I always imagined they were just derelict rooms over the top of the shops. I got a parasol for my wedding from the shop that is now the Creation Wedding Dress shop fifty years ago.....it was Coleclough and Massey's back then. Wasn't Hart's fabric shop along there somewhere in the 1950s and 1960s, Maureen, Elizabeth, Veronica, Helen and all our Wigan World ladies? We used to get the material for our walking-day dresses from Hart's.

The Creation shop used to be Coleclough and Massey if I remember . It was there where I went for wedding head dresses. Quite posh then in the late sixties.

Yes Harts was the place to go Irene. That’s 2here my wedding dress material came from an£ the bridesmaids’ dresses as well.

Good photo Dennis. Interesting how the fence seems to flatten the scene by reducing the perspective. Are the foundations for the new buildings or remnants of the old?
I bet Colin is peeping out from somewhere in that Queens Hall.

Does anyone remember when the shop behind the yellow Bee sign was a Ladbrokes bookies?

The penny has dropped regarding the Buzy Bee Buzzes. I hadn’t made the connection …Thanks to T.A.B. Very appropriate. But will ‘Buzzes’ become less busy owing to less shopping in the town?

Yes Irene,you are right about Hart's being along there,remember it well.x

The Tech building in the background is due to be demolished in the proposed redevelopment of the college facilities.