In the market for some new ideas as Inverness attraction reaches milestone
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THE present Victorian Market, I have discovered, celebrates its 125th anniversary this year.
A landmark in the city centre, when it opened prospective shopkeepers jostled for the right to rent space.
Quite a contrast, then, with today’s empty spaces and reduced footfall and a debate taking place about the best way to revive its appeal.
It was in 1891 that the Market was rebuilt after being extensively damaged in a fire on the night of June 22, 1889 and the opportunity was taken to create much larger premises accommodating a market hall for the sale of crafts, fruit and vegetables plus a fishmarket and an arcade of shops.
A plan had been aired some 30 years earlier for a indoor market in Church Street but it was 1869 when the council began work on a covered market designed by local architect William Lawrie, who had premises in Castle Street.
Lawrie had the year before been assistant to James Matthews in the construction of the handsome Station Hotel - now the Royal Highland - and the same double act went on to build Glen Affric Hotel, Nairn’s Royal Marine Hotel, Kinmylies House and Inverness District Asylum.
In his own right, Lawrie built Inverness Dispensary (later Red Cross House) in 1868 and St Joseph’s Catholic School the following year. His original version of the Market only ran from Union Street to Queensgate.
After it was reduced to rubble by fire, burgh engineer and surveyor John MacKenzie came up with an ambitious new design and added that the spacious new Market Hall could be made available for local shows and events, which in turn would boost stallholders’ trade - perhaps an idea worth following up on 125 years later!
Indeed, a Fancy Fair in aid of the curling pond at Loch na Sanais - at what is now Torvean golf course - and the local bowling club was arranged to be the first event in the hall, only to be postponed for several months because the hall was not completed in time.
Mackenzie’s construction, at a cost of £4500, included a New Market Entry in Church Street - the lane which today includes the Market Bar - in addition to the creation of a handsome Academy Street entrance with its triple arches, Corinthian columns and carvings on keystones.
The new access to and from Union Street was created in 1890 by local man Alexander Ross, who created St Andrew’s Cathedral, and Robert Macbeth, from Elgin, who were in partnership from 1887 to 1907.
When the new, expanded Market was being finished, there was a meeting in the Sheriff Courthouse at the Castle to allocate the lets. Bailie Mackenzie presided with all the magistrates and councillors present.
There was an eager crowd of people anxious to bid for the shops, which were let on a five year lease, and competition was fierce.
But great courtesy was shown to Mrs Wetherspoon, a confectioner who had lost much in the fire. Her bid of £10, the upset price for the same space she had previously traded in, was not opposed and, to great applause, she was declared the tenant by Mr Paxton, the auctioneer.
The other shops, however, were keenly bid for. The large double shop next to the Royal Hotel - now the Clydesdale Bank - was retained by the previous tenant, butcher Alex Macdonald, although he had to go to £60 to outbid seedsmen Macleod and Cameron.
Another butcher, Alex Maclennan, retained the double shop across the hallway, for £59, and a third member of the meat trade, Ewen Macdonald, was granted the double shop adjoining the new Union Street entrance for £51.
Other shops fetched from £35 to £10 and the council was pleased that the rents were £172 a year more than pre-fire income. The six shops in the new Arcade went on to be let at £20 each.
Fishwives and farmers wives from Ardersier and Nairn would hire trestles for sixpence a day and sell freshly-caught fish as well as eggs, butter, milk, chickens and piglets... don’t tell Winnie the Pooh!
Wouldn’t the selling of that kind of authentic local produce, with quality and freshness, offer a refreshing new dimension to today’s Market?
The main arcade from Academy Street opened for business on May 29, 1891, while it was not until the end of June that the Market Hall was up and running and the fish market began trading in the September.
The Queensgate Arcade was added in 1897, designed by another local architect Duncan Cameron, who was a busy man - for that same year he built five detached villas on Island Bank Road, four on Crown Drive, Millburn Distillery, Golf View Hotel in Nairn, 24 houses in Foyers and the Whitebridge Hotel!
The Courier, 125 years ago, wrote: "We have no hesitation in predicting that the New Markets will altogether be a credit to Inverness and will be a favourite resort for visitors".
It went on to be a success but today the Victorian Market, as jeweller Willie Morrison pointed out in last week’s column, can often be a disappointment to visitors. Their idea of a Market is that it would be crammed with local food, arts, crafts and goods.
A £750,000 new slate roof - that only seagulls can see - was recently added from the Common Good Fund. But it is time all parties came together to exchange ideas on making maximum use of the Market and reshaping its appeal and injecting some originality, based on what customers want.
Help should be given for new tenants with genuine local initiatives, to see if they can develop a viable business. People should also look at ways of making use of the Market once its shops shut at 5pm or whenever.
Flower shows, concerts and meetings took place in the Market Hall a century ago, continuing the surveyor MacKenzie’s notion. Aren’t there evening attractions which can be laid on to entertain tourists and locals alike?
A century and a quarter after a new, much larger Market became an Inverness focal point, the anniversary should be the springboard for giving it a new appeal.
