General Town Hall Scenes.

Click on images to enlarge.

This first card is just an everyday scene at the Town Hall.




Judging by the clothing I would say this is the 1920s and appears to be a flag day of sorts. Possibly market day or a saturday as it appears to be busy.


Two lads are reading the notice plastered on the cross (blooming vandals), the shop having a sale under the town hall is R. Cummings, Fent Dealers (that's todays quiz question, what is a fent dealer?)

Thorpe's on the right were Warehousemen, the railings are around one of the underground toilets.

No motor traffic evident in this card and I think the little cart would have belonged to a shoe shop rather than be a mobile chemist :-).

A good dating for this card would be if anyone could tell me the date the underground toilets were built as they are not in this picture.

Another day of celebration but I have no idea what for, the Great Fair or a Coronation perhaps.



This card is dated 1954, Potter's the Tobacconist moved in in the 1920s, the property was known as The Hole in the Wall, it closed in the 1990s.

I think the shop under the Town Hall would be Grafton's the Costumiers. does anyone know the name of the tobacconist/sweet shop next to it (left on picture), I remember they used to do left luggage.

Just an afterthought, did you know that the town hall clock has only three faces, south, east and west, no clock face to the north. When I did guiding work in the city I used to tell visitors it was because the city fathers didn't even want to give the Scots the time of day. :-)