Remembering Liverpool Structures - St John’s Market

circa 1950s

On the 7th of March 1822, the original St John's Market opened and soon became a landmark for visitors to the city. This vast building, designed by John Foster Junior, stood between Great Charlotte Street and Market Street and was divided into five huge shopping avenues. It was the prototype for the great 19th century market halls in English cities and the builders of Britain's early train sheds took their cues from it. It was not just the market that provided the attraction but the whole area of tightly packed streets which fed into the main market, including the Theatre Royal and Williamson Square/the Stork Hotel and Queen Square. The American painter and naturalist John James Audubon wrote in his diary in 1826: "The new market is in my opinion, an object worth the attention of all traveller strangers. It is thus far the finest I have ever seen."

Painting by Charles Trevor Prescott in the Walker Art Gallery

The extensive structure was the largest of it's kind in the UK being 183 yards long and 45 yards broad and was erected by the corporation at an expense of £35,296. The first stone was laid on the 20th of August 1820 before the opening took place on the 7th of March 1822. Standing in Great Charlotte Street it was built of brick, except the entrances, cornice and foundation which were composed of free stone. The roof was supported by 116 cast iron pillars and it had 248 windows with eight handsome stone entrances from Roe Street, Elliot Street and Market Street, three on each side and one at each end. With 160 stalls, three yards each, allotted to the sale of various articles with 201 table compartments, each one yard used for the sale of vegetables, eggs, poultry: 36 fish standings, 1 and a half yard each and 122 benches for vegetables,
There were also 14 fruit standings, three yards each, 28 green standings three yards each, and 44 stone compartments allotted to the sale of potatoes,. On the west side, in Market Street beneath the shops, there were 29 cellars, used for stores. The whole of the floor was flagged and there were five cast iron pumps, one of which supplied warm water and the others spring cold water. Every night before the market was locked up the floor was washed and swept by a number of men employed for that purpose with two watchmen remaining inside to guard the premises.

Here are details of a few of the by-laws that were made for the regulation of the market by the corporation; - any person bringing a dog into the market is liable to a fine of ten shillings - butter not to be sold by any other weight than 16 ounces to the pound :- any purchaser may have articles weighed at the offices of the authorised weighers, on payment of a halfpenny for things under a hundredweight, and a penny for over a hundredweight. 

Outside in Market Street

 

By the mid-twentieth century, the original market had become grubby and archaic and, without much debate, it sadly joined the list of lost Liverpool architecture when in 1964 it was demolished being replaced by a six-acre development comprising a replacement covered market, two levels of shop units, a hotel and a multi-storey car park, designed by the Birmingham architect, James A Roberts. The streets around it were cleared to make way for the new St Johns Shopping Centre - first moving to a temporary home on Great Charlotte Street, opposite the famous Blacklers Department Store, and then into its current location which the Queen officially opened in 1971. 

see also:- http://www.thefootballvoice.com/2021/12/remembering-liverpool-structures_24.html