Accy market hall

[Mark2009]

TalKing to Slacks butchers in the market hall this morning. It is closing on New
Years Eve for 18 months to 2 years for refurbishment. This possibly the final nail in the coffin as after 2 years people will have simply gone elsewhere.
Hyndburn council strikes again!

[Exile on Spencer St]

Unless there’s a huge clientele, who otherwise never visit the town centre, waiting out there to patronise a ‘food court’ in Accrington I can’t see just what will be in the ‘refurbished’ Market Hall that will attract new business .
The cafes that are/were in the Hall don’t look like the kind that could pay higher rates that will inevitably follow a refurbishment.

[Margaret Pilkington]

Greg’s Bacon stall closes this Saturday.
These outlets are closing to make way for a 60 space car park.
Why is that going to be needed, very soon there will be nothing worth going into Accrington for.
It is already a ghost town.
What is a market town without a market….well, just a car park it seems.

[Margaret Pilkington]

https://www.change.org/p/hyndburn-co...ngton-hyndburn
Here is a petition…I doubt that it will change anything, but it gives a chance to express your thoughts.

[shillelagh]

im fed up of hearing about the market hall .. its been bad enough having to sit in meetings with the bosses .. its just been one flip up after another .. (replace flip with your swear word of choice!)

[Margaret Pilkington]

The plans for the Market Hall when it is refurbished, are set to fail.
The council have still not found anyone to run this refurbished Market Hall….so how is this going to work.

There was a food outlet in the Arndale…it failed.
Accrington is flooded with places to buy fast food….and the ideas of a multi cultural food outlet is just ludicrous.
There is not the disposable income for the people of the town to take advantage of something like this.

Removing the food outlets from the pavilion in favour of car parking is very short sighted.

[skuta]

Usually, in personal experience at least, a “refurbishment” often means they’ll be closing permanently. It’s just a nicer way of saying it.
Maybe they will open with upgraded premises. For me, I’ll believe it when I see it. Used to use Slacks quite often, perhaps I’ll have a look when they open again.

[Margaret Pilkington]

Skuta I was told that Slacks butchers are moving to Chorley market…and it did not sound like a temporary move.
It sounded like this was to be their new home.

[pifco]

On Blackburn Road next to the Bees Knees the shop there was stripped out and rebuilt to a high standard, it took a long time to complete and it cost approx. £2m and I think that it was National Lottery money. It appears that that was a waste of £2m as to date no one has every moved in and it just just stands there, like many shops in Accrington, empty and with no one showing any interest in opening it.

[shillelagh]

Originally Posted by skuta

Usually, in personal experience at least, a “refurbishment” often means they’ll be closing permanently. It’s just a nicer way of saying it.
Maybe they will open with upgraded premises. For me, I’ll believe it when I see it. Used to use Slacks quite often, perhaps I’ll have a look when they open again.

They arent coming back .. they already have stalls on another couple of markets and theyre going to concentrate on them rather than coming back in 15months time .. but then again they could change their mind you never know.

all i know is where we were supposed to go its now not suitable and now have to go elsewhere ..

[shillelagh]

bye bye to gregs stall .. i took these this morning/dinnertime ..

[Margaret Pilkington]

Jen, thank you for those great pictures.
It is the end of an era and I do not know what Greg will do with himself.
We visited on Friday and he was very subdued…and I think he was a bit emotional….well of course he would be.
My husband worked for Greg’s Grandad (Len Platt)…he had the stall inside the Market for many years.
They will be missed, but mainly by the older generation.

[shillelagh]

Im going to miss him .. we had great discussions on what was going on .. I remember when i was a kid going to the outside stall on the old market with my mum and dad on saturday mornings .... i went down on saturday because i didnt get there friday because i was ill .. and not in any fit state to go out ... had to go and say goodbye and my last bacon for my sunday bacon butty .. plus had to tell him goodbye from the spugster as well

[Margaret Pilkington]

We went down on Friday.
It was very busy so he did not have much time to talk.
Greg is a lovely chap and he will be very much missed by everyone.

[Exile on Spencer St]

Yesterday Mrs. Exile and I went to Blackpool and happened to find the recently ‘refurbished’ Abingdon Street market, now turned (mainly) into a “food court”.
It was a bright, dry sunny day, in the centre of Blackpool and at lunch time.
This ‘market’ is smaller than Accrington’s Market Hall and had ten or so booths around the edges offering various ‘ethnic’ fast food and a long ‘cocktail’ type bar taking up one side, but probably only two or three food outlets seemed to have anyone working in them. The middle of the space was filled with wooden picnic tables and hard benches. All the benches were empty except where two young mother sat, both feeding their babies with bottles which I doubt came from any of the outlets.
If this is the kind of enterprise the Council intend for the Market Hall they better start working out what they’ll replace it with once it fails.