Preston-Then and Now. The Changes of Half a Century. No. III.

Preston-Then and Now.
1813-1893.
The Changes of Half a Century.
No. III. 

Preston Town Hall, Market Square, Preston

PRESTON-THEN AND NOW: 1813-1893.
THE CHANGES OF HALF A CENTURY.

No. III

A change that would be one of the greatest surprises to a long-absent Prestonian is our beautiful Town Hall, occupying the place of its dingy brick predecessor. About two years before the Guild celebration of 1862 there was a good deal of dissensions in the Town Council as to the site and plan of the new structure. The late Mr. J. J. Myres (afterwards, alderman, and twice Mayor, 1868-78), proposed that a resolution passed at a previous meeting of the Council, to build it on the ancient site be rescinded, and that the new Town Hall be erected between the Old Shambles and Lancaster-road, a plan involving the demolition of all the houses, and shops in Church-street standing between those thoroughfares. Councillor Myres showed that if his plan were adopted the building could be set back considerably, and that the concavity of Church-street at that point would still further improve the view of the structure. On the site of the present Town Hall he would have erected offices and shops in architectural conformity with the Hall; and the rents of these, he argued, would be highly remunerative.

Moreover, he suggested that if his plan wore adopted a fine market-house might be erected behind and if faced all round with good shops would realise a very substantial income. To this scheme the late Alderman Miller was a determined opponent, and he declared that if it were accepted he would leave the Council. It was thought at the time that Mr. Myres, in describing his scheme, overloaded his explanation with details, which confused his auditors; and that it would have had a better chance of adoption if it had been presented with a simple statement of the general design. However, either from this alleged mistake on the part of Mr. Myres, or from the great influence of Alderman Miller, that grand scheme was rejected, in the face of a petition presented to the Corporation in its favour, and signed by about 5,000 ratepayers. If it had been accepted our magnificent Harris, Free Library and Museum could scarcely have arisen on a site so eligible as that which it now adorns, so that we may well be content; although it might have been erected on the north side of the Market-place, where the Cross Keys Inn now stands. The ancient site having been determined upon, demolition of the old Town Hall was begun some time afterwards." It was an ugly building.

On the ground floor was a number of shops; one in the Old Shambles (the road east of the Town Hall) was occupied by the late Mr. John Hamilton, draper, and another by Mr. Thomas Rimmer, grocer; in front, one by the late Mrs. Lawson, hosier, and another by the late Mr. Armitstead, printer and music seller. The shop at the south-west corner, fronting Cheapside, was tenanted by Messrs. Wainman and Cottam, hat manufacturers; the shop adjoining by Mr. John Kay, hairdresser, and the premises next door were then occupied by the late Mr. Joseph Livesey, as the publishing office of the "Preston Guardian." Behind the old Town Hall, and facing the Market-place, stood the ancient timbered houses, built in 1619 and 1629, forming a picturesque and much-admired feature of the square. They were demolished in 1855, together with a shop at the north-west corner, occupied many years by Mrs. Stanley, milliner, and one at the north east corner, dated 1618, and tenanted by Mr. Banks, a dealer in second-hand books. The principal building had been at some time divided into two shops, and one was occupied by a Mr. Gardner, butcher; the other by Mr. Cookson, seedaman.

In referring to the old Town Hall, we remember a ridiculous incident that occurred in it during the first mayoralty of the late Alderman Thomas Walinsley, in 1854. One night, in the summer, a policeman found a dwarfish fellow who gave his name as "Bob Alty," donkey driver, from Southport, fast asleep on the Town Hall step, and seeing that he was drunk, haled him to the police-station in Avenham-street, a far more Newgate-looking prison than the present one.

In the morning, when Bob appeared in Court, his immense head, covered with a shock of matted black hair, was only just visible above the edge of the does, and he seemed quite terror-stricken. Mr. Walmsley was the only magistrate present. The charge having been stated against Bob, who was trembling with fear and excitement, he exclaimed, "Oh! do forgive me this time Mr. Walmsley, an' aw'll never come to Preston no moor; an' aw'll gie yo a ride on my donkey, when yo come to Sewtipooart ageean 1-for nowt, aw will-FOR NOWT!"

This appeal was received with shouts of laughter in Court; but the benevolent old gentleman on the Bench preserved the gravity befitting his office, and he mercifully let Bob go on condition that he would leave Preston at once. It was in this old police-court that we once heard a magistrate say to a forlorn-looking old felon in the dock, who was muttering something in ехсиве, "Keер up your vice; keep up your vice 1" In 1858, two years before the ancient buildings in the Market-place were demolished, the obelisk, or Market Cross, a clustered column 30 feet high, with a lamp on the top, erected nearly in the middle of the square in 1725, was removed, together with the old fish-stones, standing a few yards only from Anchor-wiend.

The fish market was afterwards for a time held at the Corn Exchange, and then removed to the present ground, between the Orchard and Lord-street. The last man who sold fish at the stones in the Market-place was one "Johnnie" McGowan, quite a character in his way. He could neither read' nor write, and yet could recite two lengthy speeches of Dan O'Connell on the Repeal of the Union, with good action and emphasis. It was thought he had had them read to him until he had committed them to memory, being himself an Irishman and a profound admirer of the great Irish tribune. When Johnnie was bereft of the fish-stones, he became tenant of the shop now occupied by Mr. E. Payne, nurseryman, near the corner of Chapel-street, and some time afterwards came to a sad end. It had long been his habit to be teetotal for a mouth or six weeks, and then slide into a frightful time of drunkenness. After one of these fits of debauchery he was found dead at the bottom of a flight of cellar steps in Shepherd-street, his neck broken. The site for the new Town Hall being in preparation, the next question was the appointment of Guild Mayor. There was a strong partiality in the Town Council for Mr. R. Townley Parker, of Cuerden Hall, and it was agreed to invite him to accept the office. It was thought that the invitation would be an agreeable compliment to the old gentleman, as his grandfather was Guild Mayor just a hundred years before. Mr. Parker, however, was not a burgess, but the difficulty of non-citizenship was overcome in good time by an astute devices of the late Alderman Goodair (Mayor in 1860-61), who obligingly let Mr. Parker a stable at the yearly rent of £10. He was thus created a burgess of Preston, and was elected a councillor for St. John's Ward on the 1st November, 1861, and so made eligible for the civic chair on the 9 h of that month, according to the custom of the Preston Town Council, who have never yet elected a mayor outside of that charmed circle, Mr. Parker was made an alderman in January, 1862, on the resignation of Mr. William Shawe, who died just ten years afterwards, aged 90. The foundation stone of the new Town Hall was laid by the Guild Mayor, with Masonic ceremony, on the 2nd of September, in the Guild week of 1862. It was erected from the design of Sir Gilbert Scott, and Messrs. Cooper and Tallis were the contractors. It is considered a perfect gem of architecture, but rather small for so large a borough, though it cost nearly £70,000. It was opened in October, 1867, by the Duke of Cambridge, in the first mayoralty of Alderman . Birley, on which occasion Madame Lemmens Sherrington, a native of Preston, sang the National Anthem in charming style. The room called the Guild Hall is very beautiful, and is greatly admired; it is acoustically perfect, too, being resonant without echo. On New Year's Day, 1879, the Free Public Library was opened in the spacious hall on the front ground floor, some time previously used as an Exchange by the merchants of the town. One of the considerable changes within our fifty years, and a great public convenience, was the opening of Lancaster-road, at its junction with Church-street, about 1850, by the demolition of the old Stanley Arms public-house and adjoining tenements. Molyneux-square and Lancaster-road were approached from Church-street through an archway under those buildings, similar to the entrance to the Ball Hotel. Just through the arch, on the right, stood the old Golden Cross Inn. All the old buildings on that side of the road as far as Crooked-lane, including slaughter-houses, stables, the old Roebuck Inn, &3., were swept away to give place to the existing modern erections. Among other changes we miss the fine unique portico of the Old Bank, in Church-street, which premises, after the stoppage of Messrs, Pedder, in 1861, were occupied in the following year by the Manchester and County Banking Company, who in 1883 removed their business to the new bank specially erected near the Town Hall, and the Old Bank was converted into shops. Nearly opposite, a handsome habitat for the Conservative Working Men's Club is approaching completion on the site of a building occupied for upwards of 200 years as a barber's shop, the last occupant being Mr. "R. Coward, whose father, grandfather, and great-grandfather were all professors of the tonsorial art. The foundation-stone of the new club-house, which is from the design of Messrs. Park and Son, was laid on the 17th December last by Alderman E. Birley, and it is expected that the building will be opened in September or October next by Lord Salisbury. For about 15 years the members of this club have met in the dingy rooms of a house in Addison's-yard, Church-street, and they now naturally look forward with pleasure to the occupancy of their new home.

The Parish Church next claims our attention. In 1853 the whole of the then existing structure was demolished, with the exception of the lower portion of the tower, and the present church was erected by Messrs. Shellard and Shellard, of Manchester. It was completed in 1855, at a cost of about £9,500, and is considered one of the finest parish churches in the country, creditable alike to the architects and to the parishioners. It was greatly admired by Dr. Fraser, the late Bishop of Manchester. Just past the Blue Ball public-house, in Church-street, once stood a barrack-looking building six or seven storeys high, coloured yellow. It was built a long time ago by a person named Holden, who had two or three coasting vessels plying on the Ribble; and it was said at the time it was erected that Holden intended it to be a sort of speculum, or look-out, from which he could watch the arrival and departure of his craft.

This was probably mere raillery, as the building was really a warehouse, Holden being a general dealer. The neighbours, however, named it "Holden's Whim." After the owner's retirement, or death, the building was occupied as a waste warehouse by Mr. Thomas Ainsworth ("Owd Tom"), proprietor of the cotton mill in Cotton. court; but it was always known as "Th' Whim," till it was pulled down to make way for the shops now standing on each side of the entrance to Mr. Hothersall's County Mews. It had a door in the middle front on every storey, with a small blinking eye of a window on each side. Alterations in the appearance of the gaol, called by a sad misnomer, "House of Correction," have been ex-tensive during recent years. Formerly, there was not much to be seen but the rough stone residence of the governor, and the Court House on the right; but considerable enlargements have been made, especially on the north side of the prison, since it became a Government gaol. In Newhall-lane, and between that thoroughfare and Ribbleton lane, the building of houses has been going on rapidly for years, and the same may be said of the western part of the township of Fishwick, and of the northern part of the town, east and west of Garatang-road. Continuing our survey along Deepdale-road, we notice what is called, the Deepdale Enclosure, a triangular plot of ground in which stands an Observatory containing a powerful telescope purchased from the trustees of the late Alderman Watson; and we believe the use of it is free to the public.

PRESTON-THEN AND NOW: 1843-1893.
Date: Saturday, Saturday, Mar. 18
Publication: Preston Chronicle 

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