Civic leaders including the Mayor of Shrewsbury and Shropshire’s Lord Lieutenant will join market traders and members of the public next week for a celebration marking the 50th anniversary of the official opening of Shrewsbury Market Hall in 1965.
The celebrations on Wednesday September 16 will be led by Shropshire Council leader Keith Barrow, the Mayor of Shrewsbury Councillor Miles Kenny and the Lord Lieutenant Algernon Heber-Percy.
They are among specially invited guests including Shropshire and town council leaders, councillors and members of the business community.
The celebrations will begin at 11.30am and will include roof-top tours, exhibitions, live music and an official toast.
Councillor Barrow will unveil a plaque commemorating the anniversary in a ceremony taking place at noon in the undercroft entrance to the market, off Claremont Street and Shoplatch. Shortly afterwards, the Mayor will give a speech about the market and its role in the community.
The Market Hall is home to a thriving indoor market, the town’s 240ft clock tower, a shopping centre and now Shrewsbury’s first university student hall of residence. The majority of the building is managed by Shropshire Council and the indoor market is jointly run with Shrewsbury Town Council.
The Market Hall was developed by the London-based Second Covent Garden Property Company at a cost of £1 million and was designed by a leading architect of his day, David du Rieu Aberdeen, who also designed major buildings in London, including the TUC headquarters Congress House.
It replaced a fondly remembered Victorian market hall that had stood on the site for 96 years and which had been condemned as no longer fit for purpose.
Town guide and local historian Stan Sedman will lead roof-top tours of the Market Hall at 11.30am, 12.30pm 1.30pm and 2.30pm, giving people a rare chance to see panoramic views of the town.
The Market Buffet café, that has been running 47 years, will be laying on a celebratory lunch for customers between noon and 2pm.
The Shropshire Visual Art Network, based in the Market Hall, has organised an exhibition exploring the history of the building and its site through artworks, photographs, stories and archived material.
The celebrations have been boosted by Shrewsbury-born England and Manchester City Star Joe Hart who has donated a signed shirt as the first prize in the Market Hall’s anniversary raffle in aid of the Lingen Davies Cancer Fund. The raffle will be drawn at the event. Tickets, priced at £1 each, are available until Tuesday.
The building, which took two years to build, was officially opened on September 16 1965 by the Lord Lieutenant of Shropshire Viscount Bridgeman in front of a crowd of townspeople and 120 special guests. It was an era of renewed civic pride and optimism and a time when new market halls were springing up in many towns and cities across the UK.
People wanting to book a roof-top tour are urged to contact market facilities manager Kate Gittins at Kate.Gittins@shropshire.gov.uk or call 01743 351067.
Two sculptors have recreated a life-size replica of the 37ft finial that tops the Market Hall clock tower. It can be viewed at Participate Contemporary Artspace, in the town’s Riverside Shopping Centre.