Coronation Street looking from Ashburner Street along towards Great Moor Street which is seen in the distance, the picture taken at the same time as the one above.

Next door to Hesford's was Ellison's carpets, Brooks and Springs are where the open sliding door can be seen, the horizontal white flash is the name of the Jubilee Fish and Game Stores.                                             >>>>>>>>>>

The firemen's pole. Late 1800s.

Picture posted on Facebook by Henry Lisowski.

Now we will take a look along Newport Street starting at the Town Hall

Coronation Street stretched from Ashburner Street opposite the BRUSHES shop to Great Moor Street at the back of the Wheatsheaf Hotel, running along the back of the Howell Croft South trolley bus departure. It is offset from Old Hall Street South which is just to the left of the BRUSHES shop.

The widening of Newport Street and the rebuilding of the shops obliterated both these streets. The name Coronation Street has been retained for a street behind the current Newport Street shop and goes from the Octagon car park entrance to Victoria Square roughly along the line of Old Hall Street.

Coronation Street looking towards BRUSHES on Ashburner Street. On the right a short street goes through to Newport Street. In the 1800s the firestation was on this street. We can see Brooks and Spring fruit and vegetable wholesalers and Ellison's carpets.

Ashburner Street crosses Coronation Street with Newport Street visible at left. We will see the four storey building again as we travel along Newport Street. Hesford's carpet shop is still in business but the notices are about the imminent closure for the demolition of that side of Newport Street.

Coronation Street, Jubilee Store and rear of Wheatsheaf, looking towards Great Moor Street. The fencing is where the building shown on the next picture has been demolished.

It is thought that William Hall was the forerunner of Hall's that some of us remember as a wholesaler on the Ashburner Street Market. We can see poultry, rabbits, bananas and the sort of containers sometimes used for new potatoes. Whether this firm's activity as a Commission Agent consisted in offering the fruit and vegetables etc from producers to the retail sellers or whether this wholesale business was separate from that of the Commission agency, we do not know.

 The "M" is the start of Magee Marshall on the Wheatsheaf sign board.

This is a small street connecting Coronation Street to Newport Street and we will see the Warwickshire shop again as we travel along Newport Street. The street does not have its own name; premises on this street are addressed as Coronation Street. Its real interest is what the Brooks and Spring building had previously been.

It was the (Bolton) Corporation Fire Engine station. tion. The Fire service occupied this site for 28 years before moving to Marsden Road in 1899.“W H Houghton’s boot and shoe shop occupied the building to the right fronting onto Newport St before Warwickshire. ” Denis McCann



However:- 

In a picture some time later (the building has been tidied up, the sign has faded and a personnel door has been cut in the large sliding door) the premises next door are occupied by S.S...... and the sign board over the door almost certainly says "Late: W Houghton"

c1910 The start of Newport Street with the Exchange Building carrying its Public Library sign, an electric tram which is open topped and the row of shops we have become quite familiar with. Bradley's Bedsteads and Furniture on the corner and Manchester furnishing which remained there until demolition in the 1950s.

From David Whenlock's collection.

Picture from the collection of Angela Thompson.

Date unknown possibly before the picture above. We do have poles supporting the cables for the electric trams  Perhaps the picture can be dated by the charabancs to the left.

The Exchange Building is on the left edge of the picture.

This is Newport Street as it appeared between late 19th Century until about 1957. H Simkin, electrical contractor occupies the shop on the corner of Newport Street and Victoria Square which had a number of owners but is best remembered as Singers just before demolition. This corner, rebuilt, was occupied by GAME.

The third premises along is the Grey Mare Hotel on the corner of Back Exchange Street. There was no Exchange Street on that side of Newport Street. It had run along where the char-a-bancs are but had become part of the Town Hall Square.

Notice the tallest building along the street, on the corner of Ashburner Street, with the projection from its roof.

What a contrast with the previous picture with so many people about.

The shop on the corner is now Taylor's and appears to sell clothes. Manchester is clearly to its right.

Visible on the original picture, sadly not on this copy, a rope can be seen hanging from the projection on the tall building.

An intriguing but not quite readable sign projecting from the Exchange Building on the last picture is no longer there.

This picture is from David Whenlock's collection of postcards.

The shop on the corner is now Harry Morris otherwise little has changed though it is even busier.

The buildings on the left still remain today (2021) though some changes have been made to some fascias, especially the shop fronts.

Picture posted on Facebook by Peter Lodge.

And as some people will remember, the SINGER shop on that corner. This is shortly before demolition in 1957 and Singer have just moved to 15 Bradshawgate. To Singer's left had been Allsopp's.

1953

Most of the facades date back fifty years or so but Cavendish’s have had a 1920s upgrade. The buildings still remain (2021) though the shop facades have changed, indeed the whole frontage has been rebuilt along the first half of the street and the brickwork has been painted.

Many people will remember booksellers and stationers John Read. Remember also that it was known as Shoe-shop Alley with Freeman Hardy and Willis, Bata, True-form, Timpson's, Kettering and Leicester and others.

How many people met under the clock at Greenhough's jewellers?

1950 John Read was taken over by W H Smith in 1967 who remained there until there move onto Victoria Square.

Ben Barlow appears to sell men's shirts and ties.

To move forward in time we must move back to the start of Newport Street.

This picture shows the construction of the new building on the corner of Newport Street and Victoria Square on the site which had been Singers and was to become GAME. All the buildings to the left are already complete.

The new building on the corner is now complete.

We see clearly the renewed frontages of the old buildings at the nearer end of the block. Cavendish's which had been modernised in the 1930s now has a bland brick wall with six non-descript windows. The half of the block further from us is essentially unchanged.

Newport Street is still a through road for traffic and we still have Bolton Corporation buses. - and rain.

A busy Newport Street in 1961.

Two A35s or A30s.

Greenhough's clock still has roman numerals, hands and the elephant on top.

Pedestrianisation took place in April 1969. Newport Street is still very busy at this time.

The elephants, cast iron and weighing half a ton each, originally stood on the gateposts of Bridson's croft in Chorley Street and were well known to people walking up to the Infirmary. They were removed from there in 1977 and found a very appropriate new home here. With the removal of the canopy they were kept safely in storage until reappearing beside the Octagon Car Park.

C(WDC) September 2009

(C) David Whenlock

let and below 1957 from Ashburner Street with one of Battersby's shops on the corner we look past W Boardman & Sons, Morris' shoes, tobacconists, K Bullock & Son (??), Back Exchange Street, the Grey Mare Hotel (6 Newport Street but originally 19 Cheapside). Allsopp's and Singers to Victoria Square with the Oxford Street Co-op in the distance.

Shortly before demolition.

1957 . We saw Battersby's on Victoria Square. They moved to Newport Street the other side of Great Moor Street after this shop was demolished.

Picture sent to Bolton Evening News by Bill Shaw.

Ashburner Street passes along the side of the Octagon Theatre then becomes Newport Arcade which emerges onto Newport Street at this point.

1957 Bolton Archives

Newport Street, Battersby’s,

This is the bottom end of Ashburner Street. The Market Hotel is at the other end of the block on the corner of Old Hall Street South.

Then we look across lawns on the site of earlier demolition towards Howell Croft and the corner of the library. There used to be bus stops there and a bus is visible.

1958

Every shop had its window blinds / awnings. They seem to have gone completely out of fashion now.

just behind the van, the shop is still  Len Short's BRUSHES shop so it is facing Coronation Street then the Market Inn on the corner of Coronation Street. Beyond this is empty space, used as a car park where the Octagon Theatre would eventually be built.

Battersby’s in 1960 were chosen to furnish the Football League’s new headquarters in Clifton Drive, St Annes when the League moved there from Preston.

The opposite corner of Ashburner Street with Newport Street. This is a year or two before the demolition of this side of Newport Street began.

This is the tall building mentioned earlier. Note the hoist at the top of the building and the doors for receiving goods in place of windows on the upper floors. It would be interesting to know the original purpose of this warehouse..

Kettering and Leicester shoes on the corner, Hesfords carpets which was also operating from the back entrance on Coronation Street, what could well say "Sunshine Harvest", then Chain Library on the corner of Slade Street.Across that street, Shaw's whichsold school uniforms.

 Battersby’s shop is at the extreme right of the picture.

c1957 Battersby's has been demolished and Kettering and Leicester has just finished its demolition sale.

On the left we see the Greenhough's clock which still sports its elephant.

We can see the crossing of Newport Street with Great Moor Street. The white fascia board is Broughton's shop on the opposite side of GMS.

Picture posted on Facebook by David Whenlock.

Great picture from the collection of Angela Thompson

This stage of demolition reveals the huge wheel among the rafters which operated the hoist at the front of the building.

Back in time to the early part of the twentieth century. After 1900 as the Victoria Hall tower is there, we have electric trams looking slightly more modern than the earliest ones, but before 1928 as the Oxford Street Co-op has not yet appeared.

 16 is on the corner of Ashburner Street and later became Boardmans. Salter and Salter selling boots and shoes. Next door no 14 says "The people's b**teries"

Note John Read bookseller who later moved nearer the Town Hall.

We can see Greenhough's clock with its elephant above the lamppost.  It later moved several doors to the right.

Picture posted on Facebook by Peter Lodge.

Similar view, similar time.

Dakeyne pawn brokers to the right of John Read's. (Dareyne?)

I wonder what the black flag further down the block is for.

1959 Bolton News picture

The "new" shops on the left are almost complete though rubble needs to be cleared away. The shop on the corner of Victoria Square (GAME) has not yet been built.

Although trams ceased running a dozen years earlier the poles which supported the  electric cables are still in use as lamp posts.

Greenough's clock is now where we expect it still with numerals, hands and elephant. Wonder of wonders its time agrees with that on the Town Hall.

In the distance the St Andrew and St George URC still has its spire. The squarish tower to its left is the Victoria Hall but the top of this tower has merged with the sky

1967 The block including GAME is now complete.

One of David Whenlock's postcards.

Picture posted on Facebook by Angela Thompson

Martin's the Cleaners; Wimpy Bar; Derwent TV; Phillips (shoes?); Pegrams grocers; ?; Greenwoods menswear?; Dolcis shoes

Timpson's, Duncan Foster's, Thornton's, Greenhough's, Boardman's, cakes (Hampson's), Thornley's, McCarthy (McCartney?)

Another busy time on Newport Street.

the clock says Rediffusion and has lost its hands but retains its elephant.

December 1988 looking across Great Moor Street into the south end of Newport Street.

"Greenhough's" "clck" now has the words Klick Photography and has lost its elephant.

Newport Street; We can see the leg of of Coronation St and Warwickshires furnishers; then Slade St; then Ashburner St with Battersby's furnishers on the corner.

Nearer us on the left we have Bowes men’s outfitters, they always had a tailor’s dummy outside the shop door – people still occasionally say when they’ve been left standing around, I was stood like t' man outside o' Bowes.

It is not clear but the shape on top of the Greenhough's clock is an elephant and castle.

At the bottom of the picture is a reminder of long gone road technology, the pneumatic strips which controlled the traffic lights.

Picture from David Whenlock

Looking in the other direction, Bowes, the shop with the man at the door, but where is he?

This picture confirms that this offshoot of Coronation Street was also called Coronation Street.

Beyond the Bowes block is Great Moor Street on the right; Newport Street continues towards Trinity Street.

At the corner of Newport Street and Great Moor Street, the Wheatsheaf - or is it Serendipity by this time? Next door is TENNESSEE - is that fried chicken?

Picture posted on Facebook by Gene Watts

Bolton's original elephants.

David Whenlock picture

The later elephants.

Bolton News picture

For lots more pictures and information about the Bolton elephants see thr Elephants page.

December 1969

The last block between Bold Street and Great Moor Street. We see Bradford and Bingley, then what appears to be Boydell's Toys, Babyfair and Timothy Whites and Taylors chemists.

This picture was reprinted in "Looking Back" in the Bolton News, 1/9/2015. The reason for the queue was said to be a mystery, but as the picture was taken immediately after Christmas maybe there was a few days catching up to do on the issuing and dispensing of prescriptions.

A peek down Bold Street as we pass.

Clothes shop (Allwear) name? then Cranshaws(?) surgical aids shop - there were some peculiar things in there to a young lad's eyes, Orrell's paint and wallpaper shop, lower down the Ancient Shepherd pub, Mechanics Institute on the corner of Mawdesley Street which runs across the picture.

The Ancient Shepherd Hotel

corner of Bold Street and Back Mawdsley Steet.

Looking back along Newport Street, after November 1972 when the rebuilt Wheatsheaf was opened.

In the distance the tower of the Victoria Hall, the spire (later removed) of St George's Rd URC and the tower of St George's.

On the next page we take a look at the Newport Street / Great Moor Street corner before continuing to Trinity Street.