Wigan Album
Market Place, Wigan
7 Comments
Photo: Keith
Item #: 22562
It was a two-storeyed building with butchers' shops on the ground floor, known as the Shambles. On the first floor was the council chamber and on the roof was the royal coat of arms carved in stone.
It was demolished in 1882. The photograph is by J Cooper who has a number of early Wigan photos to his credit - at a guess he must have been working as early as the 1870's possibly before that.
Keith Do you know which side of the Market Place it was situated ?
ann21, in all honesty I don't, but I do have another photo from the same book that if I were to guess I would say it's the present day Tudor style buildings that houses Thomas Cook on the corner but I might be completely wrong. I'll post the other photo.
It was situated on the right hand side of the market place.
If you walk into the galleries past all the empty shops it would be situated where the escalator is now, streaching to the left.
It was situated in the commercial yard.
The buildings at the front of the market place where Thomas Cook now is were only built in 1906 during the redevelopment of the Wigan town centre. (sounds familiar!)
Hope this helps
It was situated where the old underground toilets were in Market Place, directly in front of Thomas Cook's
Apparently the Market Place was also notable for its public houses. In 1634 Wigan with a population of about 4000 had 51 inns; 12 of them in Market Place. By 1869 the total was 110 with another 80 beer sellers, 10 being in Market Place.
......the Queens Head, the Fleece and three more directly in front of the Parish Church. These were the Black Horse adjoining Church Gates, the Bulls Head to the right and next door to it the White Lion. The White Lion advertised “Family Port and Magassar Oil for footballers’ bruises” . . . . in addition “half-time and final score telegrams for Wigan Football Team.”
John, In them days there was a shop and a pub on every street so they never ventured far from where they lived. They didn't hear all the bad news we hear on the tv every day.
It was, as mentioned, where Thomas Cooks and the pound bakery is - but in front of that row - in fact it would have stuck out to the left into Market street. There was a narrow passageway at the back which separated the Town Hall from anything else.
The old underground toilets were right on the spot where it stood. I remember workings going on and they discovered an old tunnel leading off towards the parish church - so maybe the T.H was linked to the Church underground? There was also mention of a tunnel leading to The Old Dog Inn...