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Market Hall 1835 - 1963

What a terrific photograph, what age would it be around 1890 maybe?
 
The slope in the picture is now the wrong way. Visualize it sloping down from left to right and standing in Worcester Street as the original posting was before it was reversed. Around the turn of the century.
 
An integral part of the old Bull Ring prior to the 60's was the Market Hall, the market hall was opened in 1835 at a total cost of £44,800 That was made up of £20,000 building costs and £24,000 for the purchase of the land. After being bombed out during WWII the building continued to be used although minus the roof and it was left as a shell until its demolition and replacement by Manzoni Gardens in 1962. A trip around the old market to see what was on offer and to purchase some crabs claws, cockles and whelks was a Saturday ritual for most young lads of my age back then.

Photo 1 ..... A print of the Market Hall a few short years after its completion.

Photo 2 .....Inside view of The Market Hall in 1870 Showing The Central Fountain that was installed in 1851 at a cost of £900 but was removed in 1880 supposedly to be erected in Highgate Park but never was. It was destroyed and scrapped in 1923.

Photo 3.....A photo of The Market Hall still complete with it roof, sometime in the 1920 or 1930’s.

Photo 4.....This photo shows the mess left by a night time visit of our EU partners in August 1940.

Photo 5.....This final photo of this lot, shows some of the tidying up works that were done to enable the Market Hall continued use as a market place until its demolition in 1962.

Phil

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Rupert said:
Post #138...best picture of the roof intact yet.
Click to expand...

It was obvious when they never reinstated the roof after the bombing that the Market Halls days were numbered. I think I would rather have seen a reinstated & renovated market hall rather than Manzoni Gardens even though I spent many a pleasant hour there in my youth.

Phil
 
I wonder why the old market hall is so fondly remembered by so many. I never thought about it much when there and thinking about it now makes me come to the conclusion that it sort of stood out like a sore thumb. Perhaps it was the fish market that it became that endears it to us mainly. I know, as I have probably bored the readers with before, a plate of whelks was always looked forward to by myself. I suppose it was ours and we had become accustomed to it but looking back the building was out of place...on a fairly steep hill with no similar buildings for support in it's gothic statement. I suppose you become fond of what you know and the war destroyed roof was a proud scar of battle.
 
In the mid 1800’s the Birmingham Street Commissioners became increasingly worried about the increase of ramshackle buildings on streets such as The Shambles, Corn Cheaping and Cock St. The Commissioners were given authority to clear these streets to open up the area to ease congestion. After the streets were cleared they decided that a covered market area was needed.

The Market Hall was opened in 1835 at a total cost of £44,800 for the building works and purchase of the land. The builders were Dewsbury & Walthews and the Architect was Charles Edge who also helped to design the Town Hall. It was quite an impressive building at 111 metres in length with a width of 55 metres. It was 18 metres high and was built to accommodate 600 stalls. (photo 1) Both facades front and rear had Doric pillars and were built from stone mined in Bath & Somerset. (photo 2).

In 1851 the addition of a fountain was made to the hall at a cost of £900, this being in the form of a Greek Tazza (photo 3). By 1880 this fountain was removed supposedly to be re-erected at Highgate Park but it never was and in 1923 it was scrapped.

In 1936 an Automaton clock that was designed by William Potts of Manchester was removed from the Imperial Arcade at Dale End and installed at the Market Hall After being repaired (photo 4). It was destroyed when the Market was bombed on August 25th 1940. The whole of the interior of the market was destroyed that night with the whole roof disappearing in the blaze (photo 5).

Though the Market Hall was put back in some sort of order and market stalls traded from there again the roof was never replaced and it finally disappeared under the 60’s redevelopment of the Bull Ring.

Phil


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Thanks for researching the above Phil a most interesting read. I remember going there with my mom once a week in all weathers. Jean.
 
As always, thank you Phil. The picture & information on the clock was particularly interesting as I had no idea Birmingham had had such a timepiece.
 
Thanks for that Phil - a nice reminder. To my mind the demolition of the Market Hall in the 1960s was one of the biggests acts of historical vandalism committed by Birmingham Council. To be replaced by what - just another average multinational shopping mall! :(:(:(:(:(:(:(:(

Maurice :cool:
 
How many times did I go as a child with dad, or as a youth to shop in the old market I remember my dad and a trader talking about the bombing once and how everyone was gutted as it had been one of the stylish types of it's time.
paul
 
As there are unlikely to be very few who will recall the roof of the Hall this is the description from Francis White's History & General Directory of the Borough of Birmingham of 1849:

"The roof is composed of a lantern middle part for air and light, and has fifty-six windows on each side, and five at each end, with seventeen large sky-lights at the top and two side parts of the common angular construction, which have seventeen sky-lights each. The whole is sustained by seventeen series of beams, which are supported by seventeen pairs of iron pillars, twenty-eight feet high and twenty feet apart."

Must have been quite a sight. Viv.
 
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This early photo of the Market (1870) shows something of the roof, it also shows the fountain in situ. Something rarely seen. I didn't realise I had this photo as I was looking for photos of the roof.

Phil


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great photo's who was "Birds" in the rafters in the photo's from bordesley exile was it the custard man's and the painting with the Nelson at Trafalgar statue was this the same one I was told off for climbing the railings on a school outing once about 59/60 time.
paul
 
Terrific pictures and I'm certainly not old enough to remember it with a roof. But I remember all the trays of plants/seedlings, some flat on the floor, others on steel racks. It must have been a truly wonderful place in its heyday.

Maurice :cool:
 
I was born in 1955: my mother used to take me with her to the market hall, where I recall there was a very large bombe case which had a coin slot in the side to collect money (think near the loos). I also recall near the entrance there was a mine, like they have in seaside towns.

Or did I imagine this?
 
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