Documenting History - Wigan Market and The Galleries

Documenting history is an important use of photography, perhaps the most important. Be it a global conflict or the birth of a child, photography is right in the forefront, capturing images that are viewed for decades afterwards by the people involved and their descendants. Ths week I wanted to share a few images of a local landmark that has one last christmas before it becomes a footnote in history and only photographs and memories remain.

Recently our local council approved plans to demolish Wigan Market and The Galleries shopping mall in Wigan town centre. This did not come as a surprise as the council and various property developers have been wanting to redevelop that area of the town centre for over a decade. It isn't age that is driving the redevelopment plans as the current Wigan Market Hall and The Galleries were only built in the mid 1980's to replace the old market and it's historic shopping arcades that occupied the site for a century,

The development was a great success and in the mid 2000's the council sold The Galleries and Wigan Market to a private consortium for a large chunk of money. At the time both the Market and The Galleries were full and the shops were thriving. Wigan was a great place to go shopping and many national retailers had premises in the town. It was no mirror of the city center shopping districts in Manchester or Liverpool, it was a great Lancashire town that had finally made progress after the closure of the coal mines and weaving mills that dominated the town and drove the local economy for over 200 years.

The financial crash of 2008/9 was blamed for shops closing down, but also a factor was the new owners hiking up the rent before the financial crisis happened. Some retailers could not afford it and the closures began as they relocated to cheaper premises. The financial crisis saw several long established businesses in the town close their doors for good, many of whom were small family run shops with a few national retailers also taking their bow in the following years.

The Galleries and the Market never recovered and plans were drawn to convert the area to accomodate the legendary Wigan nightlife with nightclubs, restaurants, a bowling alley and a cinema all featuring prominently. Those plans did not come to fruition and the developers involved sold their interests in the town to another developer who immediately drew up different plans. When those proposals fell through the council made an offer and bought The Galleries and Wigan Market for less than a tenth of what they sold it for a decade earlier.

For a while the retailers thought The Galleries and Wigan Market would finally get some much needed investment and rents would be lowered to an affordable rate. The council had other ideas and plans were drawn up to demolish the market quarter and replace it with apartment buildings. This would not be so bad but for the relative youth of the current buildings, built in the mid 1980's and opened in 1988 to replace the old market hall that had stood for a century and was sorely in need of work to bring it up to modern standards.

Thirty years is not a long time for a building. The current buildings were built by tradesmen who took pride n their work and by young apprentices from Wigan who were proud to contribute their growing skills to a development that won awards for its design and was a joy to go shopping there. Now its days are numbered and it makes me sad to see a local landmark be allowed to decline in order to make way for housing that local people may not be able to afford. I am going to try to capture what I can on film.

I usually photograph local landmarks for the simple pleasure of seeing them change with the seasons and the light. This was different, I did so with an urgency to document the life of the landmark before it is gone forever. I will speak more about Wigan Market in the run up to Christmas and take some colour photos whilst I still can. Until then here's a few I shot with my Pentax MV1 and Hoya HMC 28mm f/2.8 on New Classic EZ400 film. I have placed them and more in an album on my Flickr account you can visit using the link below.

Wigan Market and The Galleries