Wigan Album

In those early days there were always men wearing flat caps standing on street corners.

The "North Western" station only came to be in 1924.

Great picture

This railway station was completed in 1838, and received the
title of Wigan North Western June 2nd 1924.

I noticed that one old map showed these buildings set back in a curve while the road was straight. They would also be lower as the land falls away to the left. These make this section of Wallgate appear to be on a bend and steeper.

When was the masonic hall built? It doesn't appear to be in the picture?

1877 Rich. Wigan Masons, in the Liverpool Province, met in the Royal Hotel in Standishgate for ten years before the Wigan Masonic Hall was built in Wallgate.

THANKS FOR THAT BIT OF INFO GEORGE IT WOULD APPEAR THEN, THAT THIS PHOTOGRAPH WAS TAKEN PRE. 1877?

Thanks, George. When was the current one built in Wallgate? If it was built in the 1800's then this photo can't be early 1900's. I'm assuming it is Wallgate in the photo? It looks very, very similar although I'm not 100% convinced.

Two replies from this image on the UNKNOWN topic From Phil Taylor and Andy Lomax...
This photo is Wallgate, it shows the plot of land now occupied by the Tower building/Masonic Lodge buliding which is between the Swan & Railway and Victoria Hotel.
You can see the chimneys of the Victoria hotel on the far right of the photo.
The photograper would have their back to Wigan North Western Station.
The pub on the left was demolished to make way for the Swan & Railway you can see it in Ron's most recent photo of Wallgate Bridge looking the other way down Wallgate.

The Tower Buildings we're completed in 1898 as was the Swan & Railway - making this photograph quite old. Victoria Hotel built 1894 so this photograph is between 1894 & 1898. I too suspected it was on Wallgate and had the same findings as Phil Taylor. I sat back and waited after considering it being elsewhere and was completely stumped at my lack of findings.

Great photo though, Ron.
Ive never ever seen this view of Wallgate anywhere, before seeing this photo. Fantastic piece of visual history. Thanks for posting it.

I imagine that Pooles Confectionery & pie shop was about where the
groups of men and the street lamp is, depending on when Pooles set
up at this location on Wallgate.

Pooles bakery would still be in Liverpool when this photo was taken.

There is a building in King St. with Masonic symbols built into the stonework, was this ever used by the Masons ?

The Leader Building, commissioned by William Leader in 1873 for a Masonic Hall was used by the Masons between April 1884 and 1901 when it moved to the Masonic Hall in Tower buildings on Wallgate.

Ray, I am not sure when Poole's Pie shop (Still lamented) was built but even today it looks to be very old and perhaps from that time, now it's the Dubai Restaurant and Shisha establishment, how times do change!
Not too sure about that building being the Victoria Hotel, it looks to be in the right location but architecturally somehow different.
I must make a comparison between the picture and what is there now when next in Wallgate. Would help is someone could take a picture from the same spot and upload this?????

I've recently commented on a 1855-ish sketch of Wallgate on this site that appeared in the Wigan Observer in 1906. It centred on Royle and Rawson's Lever Clock and Watch Manufactory. Royle and Rawson took over George Esplin's business in about 1856. The 'Wigan and Leigh Buildings of Interest' website states that Tower Buildings (62-76 Wallgate) that now stand on that site were designed in 1898 and the ground floor was fully occupied by businesses by 1902, so the photo is very probably before 1900. The building to the far right of the above photo appears to be George Esplin's/Royle and Rawson's watch and clock manufactory - there is a clock on the wall between the two 1st floor windows exactly as on the sketch, and a triangular Romanesque portico (I think that's the correct terminology) just below that, again just as in the sketch. In 1884, Royle and Rawson were offering to pay their creditors 5 shillings in the £, so may not have been there much after that and their adverts in the Wigan Observer seem to dry up around that time too. The long rectangular sign above the 1st floor windows is again the same as on the sketch, but whether it says 'LEVER WATCH AND CLOCK MANUFACTORY' is anyone's guess.

I forgot to mention that the shop was called 'The Illuminated Clock' - implying that the clock on the front of it lit up - and was 'between the 2 railways' according to Wigan Observer adverts, which placed it (according to the 1906 article mentioned above) between 2 railway stations.