Photo-a-Day  (Wednesday, 7th August, 2024)

John Bolton's ironmongers shop WAS at the top of The Old Arcade/Market Arcade, (whichever you wish to call it). Its frontage was on Standishgate and its side window was on the right inside the arcade as you entered. I remember all the buckets and brushes outside.

The only Boots that I recall was Boots the chemist (part of the national chain). It was a large store which could have incorporated an opticians department but this was part of Makinsons arcade. It also had a back entrance which was in makinsons arcade itself. Memory + passage of time is not always a good combination.

My memory has obliterated which shops were at the top of the old arcade but I do remember the stalls along the inside. It had an atmosphere all of its own. I remember buying ‘ tights’ when they first came out in the mid to late sixties. The Doll’s Hospital sticks in my memory as I had a doll with its eyes rattling around in its body! I blamed my brother for poking its eyes out! It was taken there for an ‘operation’ so she could see again!

PaulP, in recent years, the empty shop shown above, next to Cell Fix, WAS Boots Opticians....my husband and I used to go there but they have now moved to Robin Park. Yes, Boots' Chemists WAS on Standishgate at one time,, next to the Makinson Arcade, with a side entrance IN the Makinson Arcade, until it moved to Market Street and then to The Grand Arcade. But I distinctly remember the ironmongers being at the entrance to the Market Arcade, (which some people called The Old Arcade or The Little Arcade.) It was a bit like Arkwright's on Open All Hours with mops and buckets and spades displayed outside.

Veronica, I know Colin is used to us two reminiscing so I'm sure he won't mind my adding to your memories. The tights/stockings stall was Margaret Razaq's and I remember the dolls' hospital too. Down at the bottom right was Syd Smith's newspaper stall, surrounded by a white-tiled wall. On the other side of the arcade there was a shop that sold religious artefacts and strings of paper bags, (my Mam used to buy me some to play "shops" with), and the same shop sold loose fireworks from a big case outside the shop around October. Gorner's Cafe was further down, and Bob Rudd's weighing scales where you sat on a chair to be weighed for an old penny! Mr. Ali Khan, a well-known Wigan retailer, had a clothes stall in the old arcade at one time, before moving to Market Street when the arcade was demolished, and then to the old Market Hall.

The Boots premises on the corner of and just inside of the Makinson Arcade was only an extension of the main branch of Boots whose main entrance was opposite Woolworths. I remember there was a lending library on the top floor and a section at the rear of the bottom floor which only opened in the run up to Christmas for the sale of Christmas cards etc.

I remember all those stalls Irene. My mam and dad had their wedding ‘breakfast’ at Gorners ( well there was a war on! )

Yes Boots The Chemist was on Standishgate opposite Woolworths. Usual medicines etc downstairs and upstairs fancy goods etc.

I remember Boots having a side entrance that was situated at the top of.Makinsons Arcade..and I’m almost sure that my Sister in Law worked there together with Dorothy Sherrington the wife of Sherringtons do it yourself shop ..it was a brilliant shop too for the handy man.
Wasn’t there a shop nearby those shops called Jax,how I loved going there…Wigan at one time was like a treasure trove..it’s so sad to see it now
Yes Veronica,I used to take my dolls to the doll’s hospital in the market..I can still remember the .stall holders face..( I’ve always loved dolls ) we could go on all day couldn’t we on the subject of our lovely Wigan that was.

Irene, I do Remember Margaret Razak's but don't think I ever bought my tights there!!!! I did once see Nora Batty browsing though.
Boots The Chemist was opposite Woolworths but that closed yonks ago, it was like a warren of two or three floors but a pleasure to go in. It's now The Halifax Building Society next to the Nat West Bank. I'll send a photo and see if it appears at some time.
Although Boots are now in the Grand Arcade, the Opticians branch was exactly as described and for many customer seemed to close without warning, closest now being Robin Park or Chorley.
Perhaps anyone who disagrees should go to Spec Savers!!!!!!! That is meant as a joke.

If you go to that vacant shop in the picture and read the small grey sign on the wall which is now very faded, it names all the shops and stalls that were in the Little or Market Arcade.
I was far too young but wish I had been in The Legs of Man and seen the interior both to and bottom.

Colin, I could have sworn you got your tights from Margaret Razaq's! I used to buy my seamed tights for the 1940s events from the Market Hall but the stall closed, like so many others. I used to like the old Boots shop which was opposite Woollies too; they sold books upstairs when I was a child and I still have my Milly-Molly-Mandy books that were bought for me from there, with the price still visible, written in pencil.....6/-, which was a lot of money for a child's book in the late 1950s. Although I worked at Boots for over 16 years, it was in the Market Street branch followed by The Grand Arcade.

Boots had a side entrance where one Saturday afternoon, full of life and youth , I caught sight of my first love coming out of it with her friend. Yes, of course from then the flow of life was set , as if already in place , but I still remember that first moment , so Boots and its side entrance has a place within me .
She was my first love and you never forget your first love . It was my first moment of feeling and expressing real deep emotions, as first loves are . We broke up , hurt each other , then carried on , but at that time the pain of that break up was unbearable ! Of course being born and bred in Wigan you had to be hard , you couldn’t be mard as we called it , you would have been eaten alive if you expressed emotions- just not the way lad !
I personally, always take a moment of pause to those couples who met their first love and are with them to this day - that touches me deeply as I think that is bloody marvellous! If you meet the right person at the beginning, how special is that !
Rock n’ Roll I say , long may you love each other and into the next one if there is one !

Another shop in the Little /Market arcade was Smiths newsagent and book stall, later to move to Mesnes St, now occupied by the British Heart Foundation.

Lovely words, "another Dave".....I went out with a lad for a short time in September 1967, when I was 14 (the Summer of Love!), but we only went out together for a few weeks. I met my husband Peter the following January, (1968) when I was 15. We married six years later in 1974 when I was 21 and had our Golden Wedding in January of this year. In 2016 and I saw a comment on facebook by my first boyfriend and I said Hello. I thought he wouldn't have a clue who I was as it had been almost 50 years and I had a different surname but he knew me right away and answered me and we exchanged news of our families. I was so touched by that. T'internet has a lot to answer for in the wrong hands but it also has re-kindled many childhood friendships on facebook and allowed us to see old photos of Wigan, (on Album), that we would never have seen but for modern technology.

As well as the stall in the little arcade, Smith's already had a small shop further up Mesnes Street towards the park long before they moved into the much larger premises that used to be Baillies bakers and café

Met my first love in the 60’s another Dave, my fault we split. Never forgotten him.