Time Square

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1. Introduction
2. The 1980s
3. Proposed Time Square Redevelopment 2007 – Cancelled
4. Time Square Redevelopment 2017 – Approved
5. Time Square Demolition – 2015
6. Time Square Rebuild – 2016
7. Car Park

Time Square shopping and office area was completed in 1986. The site was built on land that looked so different in times past. On the OS 25 inch map 1892-1914 held by the National Library of Scotland, the site was bound by Horrocks Lane, Academy Street, Holt Street and Upper Bank Street. Smaller streets within that boundary included Cropper’s Brow, Stoney Yard and Cloth Hall Yard, which all housed business premises.

Also in the area was the Ragged School on the corner of Upper Bank Street and Cloth Hall Yard (the Ragged School building was later home to the Central Hall Mission, as seen on the OS 1945 map. Note also Friends Meeting House was now in the area on that map).

Ragged schools were charitable organizations, whose aim was to provide schooling for the very poorest children and succeeded in attracting them into the schools in large numbers. Those who went out into the streets to recruit children for the schools and those who taught them were often horrified by what they saw. This description, used under Creative Commons licensing, gives an idea of conditions at the time:

Writing in 1884 about the children that it had helped over the last forty years, the Ragged School Union described them as “shoeless, capless, and shirtless, sometimes with shreds of old and ill-fitting and grotesque-looking clothing, scarcely sufficient to cover their nakedness, and wholly insufficient to protect them from the winter’s cold.” Given the pupils who attended the schools, it is easy to understand why they were called ‘ragged schools’. Warrington’s Ragged School would have operated under the same concept. Read more about the history of Ragged School idea here.

Union Street and Dolman’s Lane were close by across from Upper Bank Street (Lower Bank Street linked onto Mersey Street in the southern section).

The 1980s

In the 1980s, Golden Square shopping centre redevelopment was being discussed. And in the late 1990s, there was also a rival bid to redevelop Time Square and the market area. The Time Square development would involve demolishing the existing shops and remodeling the market. This would allow a further 17,500 square meters of shopping space. The developers, Time Square Retails Investments, had also agreed to fund a series of transport measures, including part-funding of a new bus station and to improve the environmental area of Palmyra Square.

There was bitter rivalry towards the end of the 20th century between the two schemes. One of the comments I heard from a supporter of Time Square was that if the bus station was moved towards Scotland Road it would be too far from the market and people wouldn’t visit. I personally found that a little extreme and in my experience, the opposite was true.

I have been asked on many occasions by visitors to the town for directions to the market. And the same out of town. People will always want to visit a market because of the special qualities unique to that setting – a retail chain store just cannot give the same experience. I am proud to shop in my local market and look forward to many more years of service.

Let’s have a more detailed look at the 1986 Time Square area. The photos were taken over many years, but are organised as a walking tour of the site, entering from the south east.

Proposed Time Square Redevelopment 2007 – Cancelled

Historical Information for reference

Artist impression of the development featuring multiplex cinema, restaurants, retail units and residential apartments, designed to complement the market.

I am grateful for the help and assistance from Big Apple Warrington and express my appreciation for permission to reproduce their artist’s impressions and descriptions, which have been incorporated into my own text.

In 2011, Warrington Borough Council announced plans to attempt another redevelopment of Time Square. The plan included a new indoor market, shops, restaurants, a gym, cinema, food store, cultural centre, hotel and council offices.

Although some of these ideas didn’t form part of the final plan (the gym, hotel and food store were excluded), work started in 2015 to demolish the existing Time Square buildings, which was known as the South East Quadrant during the building of the 1974 market. The new development was scheduled to open in 2017.

Here is a series of photos showing the demolition of the Time Square properties between April and December 2015. My thanks to Lisa at Corkers Pharmacy for viewing positions for some of the photos.

The first construction on the Time Square site was a temporary market building in 2016 while the permanent market was being prepared (see the Warrington Market page for more on that). On completion of the permanent market, the temporary market building was handed over to Gravity trampolining centre (now Gravity Social) in October 2020.

As part of the redevelopment we were treated to a new car park! Demolition of the old one started in July 2016 and the new one opened a year or so later.