Market Hall Refurbishment
 

Wow! Called in Market Hall today and got my first glimpse of our new posh upstairs bit. Take a look .....



Here is a bit of history for those overseas : -
Historic Accrington Markets - Accrington Market Hall Refurbishment Update

Re: Market Hall Refurbishment
 

Looks quite good, I wonder if they will be putting a lift in.

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have not seen Accy market hall for a number of years, what a difference. Hope it improves trade for the town centre.

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Looking good, where abouts were you standing when you took the pics?

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She would have been facing Blackburn Rd

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Seem to remember there used to be quite a bit of fancy wrought and cast ironwork in the building ,

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Ahhh yep your right recognise the bloke in the butchers:)

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Of course ...:)

Does look good though.

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I think the lift is going in somewhere near the front of the market hall ( blackburn rd end )

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Thanks for the photos Atarah, will try and get up next week for a nosey

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Which stalls went to get the stairs in???

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Thanks for the pics Atarah

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We have lost the old stalls used by Nolans (2 of theirs) and the old sweet shop, but they have both moved elsewhere in the market hall I believe.

Market Hall Refurbishment
 

Have just found some photos to remind you ....

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Its looking good...will there be a lift for Wheelchair users?

Best Regards - Taggy

PS....Just noticed earlier post saying there will be one!! Good oh!!!

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Thanks for the pictures Atarah. Now I want to sweets! :)

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Mmmmm, hearing some "Market News" today. Was being told that this "refurbishment" is going to include taking down all the stalls and putting modern ones in (the stallholders dont seem very pleased!). This saddens me, as it wont be the same to me, but .... as one outside market stallholder said, "the Market Hall is dying - if it carries on as it is, it wont be there in 5 years time. It needs something doing to it, so maybe it DOES need a re-vamp". I have to be honest, I have been in more often over the past few weeks, in view of the weather, especially using the butchers. Maybe I will carry on giving them my business, rather than going along Hyndburn Road to the big supermarkets. Maybe we all should!

Anyone know owt about any of this?

Just take a look at this photo, slightly blurred sorry, (dont know why) and look at the white van parked in front of the Market Hall ?????? - Hutchinsons Demolition!

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As far as I know the plan was always to replace all the stalls. Take a walk up to the balcony at the office end and look down, you'll see why it needs it. :rolleyes:

Market Hall Refurbishment
 

A view like this you mean? Cant see what the problem is. Probably cos some of the posher offices are moving down from the Globe Centre to fill up the "new" office spaces created and find the view not to their liking?

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That would be the one, although the photo doesn't really show how grotty it does look when you're up there. . Some of the offices are being taken by occupants from the Globe Centre, but some of them are ( or at least were planned to be ? ) retail units. I'm sure they can still retain some sort of character while smartening it up.

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Office relocation, at the cost of retail space?

Been no great rush fron the arty farty crafts people, they said opening upstairs would create?

Oh I am suprised!

I shall continue buying my meat and fruit/veg there, at least whilst some traders survive there.

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Fond memories of the market hall. I remember one busy Saturday and I had joined the masses moving outside, daydreaming I hadn't noticed a gap forming in front of me. As I came back to Earth I nearly died. In front of me, on the ground, was a huge crocodile, I swear it's true!!! I jumped back into the people behind me, to notice that it was in fact a geezer with a 2 foot crocodile head on writing in chalk on the floor advertising a traveling playgroup in town. Honest he nearly got a good kicking!!!! Later saw a 10 foot Bat with the same wingspan walking down Broadway on stilts!!! No I hadn't just had a Saturday afternoon session, well not yet!!! :eek::eek::eek:

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Crocodiles! Poor gdm27! Bet you had nightmares for years! :-)

Apparently the old cafe at the back entrance to the Market Hall is closing in February! They are down to two staff now, people not going in as they used to! Sad innit!

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used to be very busy when it was the palatine.:(

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A shame about the cafe has always been a good meeting place for a brew with friends/family

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On the surface the reurbishments look good but ask the traders what sort of contract/lease the council has offered them, to call it one sided is an under-statement.
The council can do what ever they want and the tennants cannot do anything about it or be compensated. The cafe's if they stay MUST move against a wall at their own cost.

There are many other conditions from what I hear.

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Go on, admit it...you'd been in the backroom in the Blockade, hadn't you? ;)

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Hope this doesn't mean the end of Russell's gaff - my favourite place for a brew on a Saturday lunchtime!

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Didn't know there was a pub in the market hall Wyn:D

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Wish there was, mate. I was talking about Russ Taylor's little cafe, just near the bookstall! ;)

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No point Bernie if you can't have a ciggie with your brew anymore ... :(

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I wonder if he'll still keep the Tricketts name too on any New Signage, or if that will go now seeing as theres no Tricketts Ice Cream?

Best Regards - Taggy

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Dunno, Taggy, but I hope he keeps all the historic pics of bygone Accrington on the walls. always enjoy looking at those.

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I always thought it was still owned by Tricketts. Just shows how wrong you can be. I used to love having a Horlicks there!

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the best thing about Tricketts when i was little was their coke floaters....a glass of coke with ice-cream in it.....wouldn't catch me drinking one of those anymore....what did our parents make us do when we where kids?

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YEah did used to be but not for quite some time now! Think the ice cream they serve now is Fredericks, but not 100%!...Like a nice Hot Vimto there too!


Best Regards - Taggy

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You mean they took you kicking and screaming and said you will drink your coke and ice cream:rolleyes::D

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my mum wasn't one for going to cafe's so i suppose that was supposed to be like a treat

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Poor stallholders! This is how the Market Hall looks today. The stallholders are slowly being turfed out of their "home" and are having to move all their "possessions" to a temporary stall.
But ... will it all be worth it???
A friend of mine lives in Bury, where their market is buzzing. Coachloads of visitors turn up on a weekly basis. Perhaps our Council should go on a coach trip to Bury and find out what we are "missing" in Accrington.
How sad is the Market Hall now to go in!

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Thanks for the photos, the big advantage for Bury is the fact that they have the indoor market hall, the food hall and the out door market all grouped together and then surrounded by shops as well as the interchange being a few yards away

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Sounds pretty much like the set up in Accrington, about ten years ago, when our markets were still thriving.

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Just out of interest, is there a lift going up to the upper floor?

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I think there is

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There is a lift.

Market Hall Refurbishment
 

View taken this morning, from front side door, nearest to Slingers butchers. There suddenly seems to be a lot of activity and a lot of new stalls are suddenly "springing up" - hopefully some of the stallholders will be given a permanent site soon.

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I used to frequent both those indoor cafes when i worked at "Animal Magic", next to the old fish market. Russell has been at the cafe for a long time now

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Looking good Atarah

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Does anyone have any idea of a programmed completion date?

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Me n Taggy were weighing it up yesterday, an wondering if its gonna be filled when complete? its begining to look ok, but thats the 64,000 dollar question. it don't look that far off completion now, will ask next week when down.:)

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Thanks Cashy, will appreciate that.

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I went into the market hall last Saturday (10April) to get some bird seed and the upstairs was open for something or other to do with a food demo. It was the day of the food fair. I didn't bother going up to see what it was all about though as I don't do stairs.

Russell.

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Not from what I've heard.

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As Cashy says, we were in the Market Hall and looking at it, it certainly looks like they are making a good job of it, and should look really smart once finished.

However although it will certainly make shopping there a more pleasurable experience, and hopefully for those working there too, will it ultimately bring more footfall into the Town...or indeed into the Market Hall itself, i really dont think it will, and if its also put some traders out of business because they cannot afford the new rents, has it been worth all the time and expense? No matter how nice it looks...if there's empty units in there, the gloss will soon wear off. ONly time will tell!


Best Regards - Taggy

refurbished indoor market hall
 

anyone been in the newly refurbished indoor market yet i think it looks good and fill all the stalls is priority to make it work but hey something moving in the right direction

Re: refurbished indoor market hall
 

It does look good.

Though traders seem sparce.

I know some have left, fed up of months of being shifted hither and thither.

Hopefully it will soon be worth going in to buy something, rather than just appreciating how nice it looks.

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The market looks OK, but does need new traders. The main problem with inside market is cost, and rates look a bit better now, but there are some better deals on small empty shop in town.

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Incidentally, Cllr. Britcliffe was wrong, when in his column in last weekend's Observer, he said the Market Hall was 'Queen Anne on the outside, and Mary-Ann inside.

The outside is actually a late Victorian mish-mash of Palladian and Rococo, and Mary-Ann inside.

:D

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not wrong confused, being a bit of a Mary Anne himself.:D

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In which case it tells you the market rates are too dear ;)

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Market Hall looking rather good now. Still a large open area as you walk in by front entrance door?? Maybe gonna use it for "events". The cafe at the front was "buzzing" - looked good when you walked in.
This photo taken 29th June 2010, from top end "butchers side of Market Hall" looking towards main front doors. Still some of the new stalls empty.

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It certainly looks better than when we were there - look forward to going in again at the back end of the year - fantastic currant teacake bacon butties at the first cafe inside the door. Thanks for the photo Atarah

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Had a look at it on Saturday......and I'm sorry if this sounds negative, but it looks only half finished.......I'm not sure if that is because of the open spaces.......it didn't look like it was a 'buzzing' place...it looked a bit lonely and friendless. Not enough stalls, half hearted bunting. No, it doesn't do it for me. Not what I was expecting at all.

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seems half done/empty to me, sorry don't do it at all.

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Is Russ's caff still there?

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We thought it looked light and bright, will put some photos in The Gallery later

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I think it looks like a low calorie version of a market hall....a bit like the outside market really.
I don't think it will draw too many visitors in.
I don't know what it cost, but I think they were diddled.

Note to self : keep taking the anti-cynicsim pills.

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sorry dont like it ... was in today ..

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They need to do something with that big space near the cafe's they have earmarked for events etc. Build a stage or something so people can see it has a use.

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seems the concensus on here is majority think its crap.:D

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when i was in there today saw mr britcliffe stood at the bottom of the stairs talking to gordon moore .. and had the experience of watching him walk up the stairs .. i turned my back ...:p:p:p

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That was just the right thing to do Jen......I mean, you wouldn't want to watch that...would you?

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was it not 50-50?:confused::D:s_aim1::rofl38::rofl38:

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i didnt .... i couldnt ... :p:p:p

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Not sure yet. When I was in last week .. still a bit messy .. will reserve judgement.

Went in for my tobacco .. couldn't find the stall. Have they come out or did I not look properly ? Can't see them putting it upstairs (didn't look)... us smokers would be gasping for breath by the time we got up those stairs.. http://planetsmilies.net/smoking-smiley-5409.gif

Although the stairs are very smart... I feel they are a little large and disproportionate to the size of the hall ?

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Its were Cliffs was kate, as come in from wilkinsons end.;)

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Thanks Cashy ... need specs obviously... :D

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Looks very smart, but a bit empty...like an exhibition hall, waiting for an exhibition. Are there no downstairs stalls (apart from those round the walls) now?

Might have to come up and have a sneck soon!

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I think the stall holders should be made to wear traditional, Ye Olde Worlde, Mary-Ann costumes.

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Took a look in yesterday for the first time since it's been 'finished', not keen at all - it still doesn't look finished to me & has lost a lot of it's character. As others have said something proper needs doing with that large space in the middle, yesterday there was a bloke with a guitar sat singing in it but was largely being ignored cos it looked like he'd just decided to plonk himself there - not impressed, sorry

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It would be interesting to know how many different busineses were there before, and how many there are now. It does look rather empty.

Perhaps they should give Biggy Shoe lady an indoor pitch.

:D

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I had a look in yesterday and I think it looks really good. Once the main square space starts to get more used i.e. buskers and arts projects etc, which I know is the intention, it will seem better. I counted about five stall spaces that were empty, so as soon as retailers spot the potential and fill the spaces it will be something for the town to be proud of.

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Waiting for an exhibition Wyn, obviously cashy ain't been in yet:D

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You can lend um some of yours G:D:p:p:p

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They're being exhibited in the V & A.

;)

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I haven't been in yet but I saw a presentation by Cllr Haworth that impressed me rather a lot and I look forward to having a mooch round.

It has cost a fair old bit to do up (the exact figure escapes me) but we've all bleated on here in the past that the council needs to do something for Accrington Town Centre so perhaps in this instance we should give it a chance.

I personally hope it becomes a roaring success.

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I'm sure everyone hopes it's a success, and there's no doubt it looks better than it did.

Let's just hope that it's a commercial success too, and any buskers pay as much into the borough's coffers as the busineses did, who seem to have left.

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Didn't think it was the council who shelled out fer this?:confused: it is a vast improvement on the old un, but would have had a much improved chance, if commonsense had been used by "ALL" parties involved.:rolleyes:

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Was jointly funded by HBC and LEGI

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The HBC funding, £1.5m was a grant from the taxpayer/Gordon Brown under the HiPS programme.

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...and here was me thinking that us poor old taxpayers would have had to cough up the whole £1.5m. Still, very decent of Gordon to make a contribution and lighten our load...has he got some sort of personal connection with Accy Market Hall that motivated him to act with such generosity? ;)

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Cold meat?

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Or perhaps tripe.

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The HiPs (Housing Improvement Programme) was allocated to only the deprived Borough's on some formulaic basis. Hyndburn is ranked a 40th from the bottom out of 354?

We received £2.8m, £2.8m, £2.1m and £1.4m over four hears to last year. It came unringfenced and local councils were expected to spend the money accordingly (housing).

Hyndburn's housing policy states future monies will be spent on housing in places particularly Rishton and Great Harwood and not in areas covered by previous or current schemes (such as ELEVATE).

The HiPs money has been used for such things as flower towers, prop up Area Councils and Area Council budgets, Oswaldtwistle Civic Theatre refurbishment, Broadway resurfacing, Pendle Street demolition. The Council has not raised any money itself but used this fund to fund all it's extra expenditure.

The money has now ended. As has £960 LAA grant as part of nearly £3million of cuts excluding the HiPs.

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'Expected' to spend it on housing.

Was there no legal requirement for them to do so, and not spend it on flower towers etc.?

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No votes for St Andrews in Rishton or Great Harwood.

Rishton, that well-known market town, is desperately in need of flower towers. Prospects have been useless in making the town look pretty on shoestring charity contributions and hundreds of hours of unpaid voluntary work, tidying up scrubland, litter picking and making flower beds from plants rescued from certain doom in skips.

We really really need that extra £115k that Peter Britcliffe is proposing to spend on the Floral Market Towns project.

Honest.

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Some interesting photographs and drawings on here, of the Market Hall.

BBC - In pictures: Accrington market revamp

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The photo of the market stall now thats a propper market stall not like the little things they have now.

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Yes, I stand by my earlier impressions....the work has cost a lot of money, and it hasn't enhanced the market hall that much.
As for the Market hall being used for exhibitions, buskers and music......that isn't the prime function of a Market hall......the prime function should be the sale and display of goods that are for sale.....and preferably local produce.
The vast modern staircase is not in keeping with the general antiquity/quaintness of the building and looks out of place.

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I think the Market Hall certainly looks a lot cleaner and fresher, but i think much of this could have been achieved at considerably less expense. I dont think there will be such a significant increase in footfall, to justify the level of money that has been spent.

I assume the Council will have done a study of this...so would be interested to know what their figures say the increased footfall maybe, matched against what it was?

I agree with Margaret, that there should not have been a large area at the Market Front left open for Exhibitions/Arts etc, plenty of room outside the Market Hall for that. It just does not look right...or particularily welcoming...it looks like we couldn't fill it with enough traders!

Maybe the area upstairs on the opposite side of the New Cafe could have been reserved for that. Because i also feel that in the long run, most of the upstairs will prove to be a White Elephant and will remain under occupied. Its not an area thats obvious to a lot of people, and access around is not good. OK you have a lift to get you up and down, but there's no space for 2 people with Prams or Wheelchairs to pass each other, so people with those just wont bother going up there.

Best Regards - Taggy

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I went in there a few times and always thought it was full of drunks and weirdos!