Photo-a-Day  (Sunday, 26th January, 2025)

May i ask anybody is the old market hall still trading or has it been demolished!

I wish the fog was so thick you couldn't see this place. It's the most boring place. Soon be Spring.

Julie, the existing Market Hall, the clock tower of which is in the background is still open although many units are empty.
A handful will transfer to the New, New Market hall when it opens I believe some time in 2026.
I must confess it will be more accessible with entrances in the Market Place, Woodcock Street and one from halfway up Makinson Arcade.
I hope they can entice some traders from Chorley and Warrington markets to branch out into Wigan as both markets are exceptionally good.

And in the real world ........

The Hilton Group will be building that hotel to house asylum seekers. It's a new industry in the UK and is being found to be very profitable.

Its still a building site and not much progress. I see Bury Council is investigating millions to Bury Market adding a large indoor Market....sounds good.

I noticed when walking down Market Street the other day that the ramp leading down into the cavernous area below ground level is very much in use. I assume it will be converted into underground parking for the blocks of apartments intended to be built above.

So Wigan is to have a multi-storey Hilton Hotel to cater for people from miles away when its own people haven't even got shops? Who on earth is going to pay the prices that that fancy hotel will command to stay in WIGAN? Oh, but they won't want shops, will they, the visitors, when they can go to the events and exhibitions at The New Pavilion? And Pigs might fly. I've no doubt a certain person will give me my usual title on photos of this sort of "old person who lives in the past", and this time he will be right. This old fuddy-duddy may be old, but I can see the outcome of all this, even through the fog. I don't expect everyone to agree with me but we are all entitled to an opinion.

Julie, you don't know what you gave started.....

Fog doesn't come thicker than Wigan fog.

Peter, patience dear boy, patience.
All will be revealed in the fullness of time.

I should have said investing, at 9:52.
Sorry.

Just who will be ‘purchasing’ these grand American style apartments? I would guess figures of imagination because who would want to live in the middle of small town with low grade shops and nothing much else apart from cafes and cheap eateries. I’m usually an optimistic person but not with regard to the thriving town that was. “Pigs might fly…’’. I used to come to Wigan 2 or 3 times a week for years and years but not anymore. Alas! It’s very nearly the same everywhere. It may be a youngster’s paradise but definitely not for us ‘oldies’ who are probably looked on as on the way out by this government. Sad but true we’ve had our time and it was the best.

I remember when the fog in Wigan was a lot thickener than what's shown in this photo.

Correct ianp. I'm old enough to remember thick fog that lingered for days and nights back in 50s , 60s and 70s. That's when most houses and factories burned coal and not Forgetting steam on British Rail. So I can understand thick fog back in the day. That's why I'm no convinced about climate change. We've got rid of most of those with technology, but in my humble opinion, I don't think they are the cause, and faseing out petrol and diesel engines to electric vehicles is the answer. That's my opinion anyway.

Just realised the plans have changed from Apartments to a Hotel! I must keep up! When did that occur? Worse still who’s going to visit? ..more figures of imagination. Why come to Wigan for a good time when Manchester is on the doorstep only half an hour away?. Jeepers creepers! As the American cousins would say… You can fly to Paris or Rome in no time and really have a good time!

I don't agree Britain should sent aid to other Countries, we have enough problems here with our own families and the homeless people who are genuine British people, not foreigners who have entered the Country illegally.
Irene I totally agree with your comments.

Irene and Veronica,you are both spot on.x

Well...no going back now.WMC should make a video for posterity on 'How to Destroy a Lancashire Town'

Thankyou Colin Traynor i was going to pay a visit but if there isnt a lot of shops trading theres no point going.

It will be one of ‘The Miracles’ if it all gets completed.

I remember in the 50s and early 60s when the fogs were so thick that the conductor had to get off the bus and guide the bus over the crossroads at the Fingerpost, with a torch.
They were known as “Pea Soupers” a mixture of fog and the smoke from thousands of coal fired chimneys. So thick you could almost eat the stuff.

Now is the Winter of our discontent but will it be made Glorious Summer by these Wigan Councillors?

Veronica don't pull yourself down, your still in your prime.

Colin,you’re stood on the excact spot that I was yesterday..I keep hoping that I can recognise some semblance of a building be it a new market or whatever ..it’s been three long years since it was all starting off…The distance that we have to walk just to get from Standishgate to the old market,then from there to the bus station ..I know that everyone’s in the same position and oh the day when we can find a good vegetable market without having to trail down to Iceland…think I’ll get one of those little electric motors..lol.

I do agree with your comments Irene, and I too doubt these plans and building works will actually make any positive improvement shopping wise to the town centre, as it's now been a long time dead.
Also the Americanised apartments that Veronica mentions, they may look okay now on an artist impression with a few trees and folks leaning on balconies as if about to disembark on a cruise, but who will be wanting to live there - they couldn't rent out those 'upside down' Dutch houses and in the end they were demolished, and they actually did look very nice amid all those flowering cherry trees.

So I suppose we'll have to see how things pan out, and see if it develops to be an affluent area or becomes a mid-town ghetto, I sincerely hope it will be the former.

Veronica, the hotel is in addition to all those blocks of what I politely refer to as Apartments!
I have checked out the plans for each block and they appear to be mainly bed sits or one bedroom.
This being the case they are destined to be for students at the college or single people, what kind is for others to speculate.
Give it 30 years and it might be renamed ‘The Piggeries’ and be demolished to build a shopping centre or a vertical take off airport.
The future is bright, the future is Wigan but doubt I’ll be around to see it.

Julie, There are some lovely places to visit and see around Wigan but shopping is not one of them.
I don’t know where you are from but Chorley, Warrington and Bury are the best for shops and restaurants.
Maybe it will change in a few years, to what I don’t know but the motos seem to be ‘Believe’ or ‘Keep The Faith’. Both of which at the moment are being severely tested!

Can Veronica and I have a lift on your electric motor, Maureen, please?(Standing room only at the back, Elizabeth and Helen!) We'll look like that lot from Last of the Summer Wine careering down Market Street!!

Cyril, I am ever the optimist so fingers crossed.
And to all today your views and comments whether agreed or not by myself or others are always valued, welcomed and appreciated.
Keep up the chatter.

I am a bit deaf, but love disaster movies, has an atom bomb gone off. I’m always missing the best bits.

Irene,now wouldn’t that be fun,it would be one way of getting on Northern Television,I’m in the same boat as you Irene,what with trips to the Docs and the Lineacre..I can just see their faces as we started taking our helmets off…but I would like Veronica to join us as well..I wonder if Elizabeth would enjoy it as we would..sometimes in life I feel like doing something daring..so you see I’m not joking..says she..P.S.(I just hope nobody takes me seriously).

Irene, Maureen, Veronica. I am sure John has an electric bike, perhaps when gets back from his holidays he could put a three seater extension on the back and bring you all into Wigan?
That would make a great picture for PAD of you trundling up King Street.

Blimey! Ladies if you all turn up you would have to hire Big Harold’s scrap wagon to fit you all on!
Everybody will think it’s Carnival Day come early.

Why do people continue blaming 'councillors' for the state of Wigan? It's absolutely nothing to do with them.

Acch ! face up to reality ya bunch a sassenach softies . It’s glaringly obvious . We’re all doomed .
DOOMED !

DTease, you never fail to make us laugh, but I forgot to say it's a rickshaw and we have nominated you to run along Market Street pulling the rickshaw, (you'll be okay, it's not uphill and we're all only small). We'll buy you a cup of tea and a bacon barm in the Market Hall to give you the strength to pull us back to the bus station. You'll enjoy it! And it's bob-a-job week, so you get 5p too!

I wouldn’t mind a couple of scrap iron Chariots me - tied together like they did in ‘Chapter and Verse’ when Big H was cast into the Wilderness I could climb on them but I’d need air lifting on a wagon.

Irene, can I have the bacon barm and the 5p before I drag you round, just in case I don’t make it to the end? Also, can I have a small tincture of the strong waters instead of a cup of tea if I do make it round?

That's because Wigan Council is in Charge of developments...surely that's logical.

Why is there a Council if it’s nothing to do with them. They’re all hand in glove anyway…. In it for themselves.

You certainly can, DTease! It's good to have a laugh, isn't it?

Malc and Veronica, yes, Wigan Council is in charge of developments. Wigan 'Councillors' are not. Wigan Council are, in part, responsible for the demise of Wigan. The Councillors, on the other hand, are powerless to stop them.