Bromsgrove has been a market town since being granted a charter
by King John in 1200. When I moved to the town, the market hall
was a tumble-down, open air affair with Little Lane running through the
middle of it. As well as market days, car auctions were also held
there. It had a lot of character as a place to be, but not really
as a building.
In 1995, a brand new Market Hall was opened close to the site of the
old market. There is a nice picture on
Geograph. Bromsgrove Society were impressed and awarded it
one of their architectural awards. But, with a fair bit of
discord and discussion, it had only a short life of 15 years.
Bromsgrove District Council had decided to sell the market hall site
and nearby car park to developers. The main point of contention,
though, was that no developer was interested but demolition went ahead
anyway. Many people thought it would have made more sense to
delay demolition until a sale had gone through.
And so Bromsgrove found itself with a street market instead of a market
hall. The first one was held on Saturday 7 March 2009 and they
continue to be held every Tuesday, Friday and Saturday. I
attended the first and here is a picture:-
I have to say, much as I liked the old market hall, it was far
enough away from the centre of the High Street to only get visitors who
knew about it and went out of their way to go. The street based
market seems to do much better when it comes to passing trade.
And with the completion of a major resurfacing project in 2014, the
market stall pitches became much better organised and less of an
obstacle.
But, as a tribute to the old place, I thought I'd share a few
pictures. Firstly, from Sunday 7 February 2010, the very last
event held at the hall:-
Next, the sad demise of market hall, photographed on Sunday 18 April
2010:-
And finally, some memories of the earlier market hall by way of a
picture that hung at the entrance to the 1995 building:-
