Wigan Album
Millgate
16 Comments
Photo: Frank Orrell
Item #: 32644
The chippy was opened 72 years previously by William Gee and then run by his son Kenneth and eventually grandson David.
Loved it in there. Our Jamie and Ashley loved going in the cafe part at the back for a treat. It was just simple and homely and the fish and chips were delicious. I wouldn't have swapped it for tea at The Ritz Hotel.
I remember that in the early the late fifties, early sixties there a little cafe, or snack bar In Millgate, on the corner of The Wiend. Wasn’t the Empire cinema in The Wiend?.
The Wiend could be accessed in the sixties from the Market Place. Looking at Google map, it now seems to be a cul-de-sac.
You still access The Wiend from Market Place, Albert and it still leads to both Millgate and the new library but is all "open space" now once you get past what was Tickle's shop.
I remember David Gee,He was very pleasent.I was pleased to read he had won the lottery once, or was it a pools win.Anyway it was nice for him.
Yes.The Empire Cinema was in the Wind
I was dragged there by my mother to watch Jeanette Macdonald & Nelson Eddy in some unappealing Musical romanceDid it have the Indian Lovesong in it?
David Gee lives in Southport
The Empire cinema was actually in Coopers Row, the next alley to the Wiend, just across from the John Bull pub.
The firm I worked for had a maintenance contract for the place when it was a bingo hall. It was demolished all around 1978.
I saw that film Donald. I saw it at the Canada Cinema where the Wigan Little Theatre is now. Nelson Eddy was a Canadian Mounted Policeman. Irene remembers the Canada Cinema as the Alliance Cinema. Was the film called ‘Rose Marie’?. I also saw another one there with Nelson Eddy. He was a Cossack. I was only about seven, or eight.
Donald. The film were Nelson Eddy plays as a Cossack, was ‘Balalaika’ The song I remember from it Donald, contained the words’. ‘Can’t you hear me calling, can’t you hear me calling, oh my lovely Russian rose. Can’t you hear me calling, where the River Volga flows’.
Sorry, but never liked that chippy.
Called in there on the way home from the baths, for a penny crust.
I never shared my mother's taste for the pictures but I think Nelson Eddy as a Canadian Mountie may have been a persuader
Was the cafe council owned?
Does anyone no what happened to him. Did he ever reopen a chippy
David won a small fortune twice on "spot the ball" competitions.