Wigan Album

Could it be King Street directly opposite the Court Cinema?

Yes Ron,Halliwells had a wine merchants/off licence, opposite the Court Cinema.

that your mum and dad keith??? Iremember themfromthe Wellfield

You get a sense of 'faded grandeur'in this picture of King St in its hey day! No Bargain Booze here but a genuine Wine Merchants.i wonder what the gentleman and his lady wife would think if they saw King St now on a Friday night!

There was a LEWIS'S ice cream/snack bar next door

Vb. I also have fond memories of Maltbys in Crompton Street. I used to pass this everyday walking to and from Scholes to the WGS and window displays and their annual catalogue was an education in itself.

spot on Ron i remember it well in king st

Wigan was renowned for its distinctive and characterful shops ......you could buy anything for the connoisseur provided you had the money. If not you could just 'window shop'! Like you said Carolaen the window displays were a sight to behold. It was the advent of the 'soulless supermarkets' that helped to destroy High Streets up and down the country.

Yes Ted, you are spot on.

I agree, Wigan had a distinctive chracter and uniqueness to other places, but sadly that's just a thing of the past. Wigan now is just a clone of any other town, same corporate shops, shopping centres, supermarkets and street layouts designs. I suppose if we didn't have supermarkets and big chain stores then people would moan saying the facilities aren't adequate to their needs, for instance accessibility for disabled and elderley and access for those annoying mobility scooters, as well as facilities for baby changing, and so on. People demand too much from a shop or pubic place these days as though everything has to cater for their needs, but we seemed to have coped well without those things back then.

Al,you complain about mobility scooters.Don''t us senior citizens who lived through the war deserve the scooters so that we are not housebound and dependent on other people to simple things like a it of shopping? Get a life and let us get on with ours.

Alan H,
Ihave been disabled since the age of four and never found the need for a mobility scooter, most of the people using these are just fat.

What appalling comments on the use of mobility scooters, do you realise we have an increase of people who need these scooters to be a part of society and enjoy the things we take for granted. We are seeing many young men who have returned from war zones minus limbs and worse, do they not have the right to live as best they can? Yes some, as a lot of ex service men do gain weight after their stint of active service and get fatter, maybe they should be put on a ward somewhere out of sight so they don't embarrass you all when doing your shopping. Many people who have a serious illness or elderly also have the right to use whatever gets them out and about whether it be walking frames or scooters, someone also mentioned WWII veterans who need them, would you ask them stay home and not use these aids, going off the comments I think you would just to make your day out more enjoyable. Seems the town as changed but the ignorance and village mentality hasn't.