COLIN CAMPBELL: Inverness’s Victorian Market has ‘real chance to take its place at the heart of city life - and even death’
The refreshments hall at the Victorian Market has gained a new licence which will enable it to host weddings, funerals and live entertainment.
I’ve seen it described this as the market's new "gig" factor. I'm not sure a funeral could ever appropriately be described as a "gig". But then again there is the rapidly growing tendency for the sorrowful mood at funerals to be lightened with music aimed at highlighting the zanier aspects of the life of the deceased. Sometimes this can be borderline raucous.
Back in the 1960s and ‘70s the market was about as welcoming as a morgue in any case. Dank pools of water formed on the black stone floor as rain dripped through holes in the roof. But traders still did well enough. That was when the purpose of a shopping trip was simply to buy things, no more and no less. Surroundings were irrelevant. But then along came the Eastgate Shopping Centre, an entirely new innovation greeted with awe at the time.
This dazzling new venue changed everything at a stroke. Shopping was no longer a chore, but became an experience, in which style and surroundings mattered hugely. A previously mundane activity was transformed into something which people expected to enjoy, to linger over, even to savour.
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The Eastgate Shopping Centre is pleasant but seems fairly basic now. But the "shopping experience" element has soared to new heights elsewhere. A teenage relative recently went to Manchester with her Inverness sports team for a training weekend. The highlight, given the number of selfies taken, seems to have been an afternoon spent in a gigantic multi-floored shopping mall, apparently the biggest in Europe. What was purchased never got a mention. The thrill was just being there.
The Inverness market is still some distance short of being thrilling but at least its fortunes have taken a marked upturn. For decades successive councils agonised over what could be done to revive a commercial centre that most people seemed to want to avoid. Money was thrown at it in abundance and its bright and welcoming appearance was transformed beyond all recognition from the dismal city centre slum which had existed before.
But still nothing seemed to work.
The turning point was the simple but very clever creation of the refreshments hall which seems to be growing all the time in popularity as a meeting place or somewhere welcoming and convenient to get something to eat and drink.
After the years and decades of controversy over how to reinvigorate and revive the market, we now have a flourishing and thriving venue at the very heart of the city. Ideal for weddings and entertainment - and funerals? Well your big day, in whatever shape or form it took, certainly wouldn't go unnoticed.
Some of us might even already be considering the market for our own departures. Such a central location would be likely to increase unduly sparse attendances, drawing in older passers-by on a "who's it today?" basis. Everyone most welcome. And better, surely, to be remembered - fondly or otherwise - in a location you walked through countless thousands of times in the vim and vigour of your heyday than in a drably attired hotel room on the outskirts of nowhere.
After years of being bypassed and ignored, there's now a real chance for the market to take its place at the heart of city life, and even death. Despite its dank appearance it was once the busy centrepiece of Inverness and it deserves to come fully alive again.
