Photo-a-Day  (Monday, 8th July, 2024)

Your ideas would bring the Plaza to life Colin but wishful thinking maybe ?
This weekend saw the Lobster Potty Festival here. The streets....all 2 of them & the sea front were filled with Morris Dancers, traditional & new age. Plenty of clogs clicking & bells jangling. It certain brought this town to life !
Anyway thats a good photo you took.

What an expansive space and not a pigeon it sight.
I think this is what the Council like to refer to as ‘A Public Realm’.
Goodness me, haven’t we become posh and moved up in the world since the lavies went.

Don’t know about clog dancers and Spanish dancers we just need people and Shops….thats what is really needed …then the entertainment would follow on. Anyway most Wiganers are in Benidorm anyway Colin. D’you mean the ‘lavvies’ with green railings
WN6 ?

Helen, I assume you were on the north Norfolk coast, Cromer or Wells perhaps? Sounds lovely.
We went to Bury Market Saturday, it might be two hours on three buses to get there but well worth it for the Fish Market. Got our weekly shop of Silver Hake, Prawns, Cockles and my special treat Crab Claws, very tasty.
Lobster is delicious when fresh, mmmmm.

At least the parish church clock is still watching over Market Place. I wonder if the underground toilets are still there below the surface, with their heavy clanging doors and tiled walls?

There used to be cattle in the market place, but nothing like that happens today. Strutting around in Paso Doble attire could be a novilty attraction Colin and a bull run up Standishgate very exciting, but as for the Flamenco and a dancing challenge to locals, those Spanish folk may struggle to compete against a well executed Wigan Casino spin and stray clog in the... maracas.

Veronica, we once had shops but if people don't shop in them they close down, all replaced with Turkish Barbers, Vape Shops and the odd Thai Massage Parlour, the list of places that are cash only and avoid income tax and VAT and a act as a cover for illegals goes on.
Yes the location of the Lavvies, as Irene says clanging doors and tiled walls, not to mention the smell. That's one aspect of 'Old' Wigan I'm glad to see the back of.
I don't know if they are still there below ground, bricked up like an ancient tomb. The curse of Tutankhamun would be visited upon whomever should break the seal.
Put a large traditional Carousell or Ferris Wheel there to bring in the punters, anything but that Pound Bakery feeding ground for pigeons.

Nice one T.D. Perhaps you don't remember that the town centre used to be a bull run and sheep and pigs when they arrived by train to go the the various slaughter houses. I recall in the 50's when a runaway sheep got loose in Marks and Spencer's and when a heard of cattle was being taken up Scholes one ran into the compound when Douglas House was being built, looking through the fence I can see all the workmen clambering up the scaffolding.
Speaking of the cattle market and my previous mention of fish, that area outside of Admiral used to be Market Place Fish Stones in the 1800's. Presumably the stone slabs were to keep the fish relatively cold.

It was also known as Market Place Bog’s as in going to the Bog.
Might sound crude but not so, many public toilets were referred to as Bog’s the origin came from the original innovative Victorian public toilet in Bath city centre, known as Bog Island.

I never heard it called Market Place. The Wiganers I knew (and that’s many) all called it “Top o’Wigan”.

John,
Lots of things have changed since I moved from Wigan in 1960, but Market Place was Market Place before that and last time I looked it still is.