When you think about a much-loved Chesterfield landmark, most will immediately think of the Crooked Spire. Just a stone’s through from this famous church, though, is the Market Hall, which remains at the very heart of town life
Ever since it was granted a trading charter by King John in 1204, Chesterfield has been a thriving market town.
Even today, when markets are struggling to survive in many places, the Derbyshire town’s market is still ranked as one of the biggest in the country.
On market days, scores of stalls are arranged in long rows on the cobbles of a vast square, which is overlooked by the tall, ogee-domed clock tower of a Victorian Market Hall.
The hall was constructed in 1857 by the Chesterfield Market Company, which had been set up by Frederick Swanwick four years earlier.
Swanwick had spent most of his career working as an engineer alongside George Stephenson, the ‘Father of the Railways’, before turning his attention in his retirement to educational projects and the sponsorship of various public works. Chesterfield Corporation acquired the building in 1875.
Commercial success
Although the stated aim of the Market Hall was to give ‘shelter and safeguard to market traders and their buyers’, the building was also designed to accommodate shops, offices, meeting rooms, a house for the market keeper, a corn exchange, the County Court, a Post Office, a library and a large Assembly Hall, where lectures, concerts, dances and other entertainments could be held.
At some point during the construction of this muti-purpose building, a decision was taken to surmount it with a tall clock tower, clearly designed to show that the town was proud of its commercial success.
Although Nikolaus Pevsner criticised the clock tower as being ‘the crudest show of high provincial prosperity’, Historic England took a very different view, describing the marketplace as ‘one of the most imposing in the East Midlands, with the Market Hall dominating and defining the whole space, not least because of its imposing clock tower’.
As well as being picked out by Historic England as ‘a much-loved local landmark’, the Market Hall was much visited in the 1930s by lovers of tea dances. These were held weekly in the Assembly Hall, where couples moved around the floor to music provided by a resident band known as the Melody Boys.
High to low
This joyful ‘high’ in the history of the building was followed by a sad ‘low’ in the 1960s, when the cupola of the clock tower was removed because it had become unsafe.
What had been a much-loved landmark became a flat-topped eyesore. Adding insult to injury, the truncated structure was often covered at this time by huge advertisement banners, including one urging people to buy Premium Bonds.
When plans were drawn up to renovate the Market Hall in the late 1970s, it was hardly surprising to find that many local people objected to money being spent on saving a building that had become ‘too ugly’.
The clock-tower regains its full height
Despite these reservations, the renovation went ahead. The building, which had been blackened by smoke emitted from industrial and domestic chimneys, was cleaned and the grime that had masked the Victorian architectural details was removed.
The old Corn Exchange at the rear of the building was replaced by a new extension and, most importantly, the clock tower regained its full height, when a replacement cupola was installed.
All these changes to the exterior restored the public’s affection for the Market Hall. However, the renovation of the interior, although well-intentioned, was less successful.
In the fashion of the time, ramps were constructed to connect different floors, in a way more suited to a multi-storey car park than a shopping mall.
Fortunately, grants from the Heritage Lottery Fund, the European Union and Chesterfield Borough Council, enabled a second renovation of the building to take place in 2013, when the ramp-disfigured interior was replaced by a bright and airy shopping mall, described by the renovators as ‘once again offering retail space in the heart of the town, in a style which is radically contemporary but suited to the building’s significance’.
The Assembly Hall, where the Melody Boys had accompanied the tea-dancers, was restored to its former glory. Available to let for events, meetings and, of course, dances, it is now regarded as a ‘premier civic space’.
The most eye-catching element in the renovation was the construction of a new glass roof over the main shopping atrium.
This was designed not only to let in natural light but to give customers who were enjoying refreshments in the café area a great upward view of the cupola of the clock tower, the crowning feature of this ‘much-loved local landmark’.
Whilst you are there
Products on sale inside the Market Hall include sweets, books, clothing, watches, and gin. Traders operating in the outward facing units include a barber, tattooist, florist and a cheesemonger.
As well as providing views of the clock tower, the Market Café offers coffee, cake, breakfasts and light lunches. The Market Hall stands on the edge of the marketplace, the venue for one of the biggest stall markets in the country.
Open-air market
The open-air market operates on Mondays, Fridays and Saturdays. The stalls, protected by colourful canopies, offer food, fashion, homeware, gifts and much more. At the Thursday flea-market you can rummage through all manner of second-hand items.
Great opportunities for shopping
In addition to the famous market, the town centre offers wonderful opportunities for shopping, especially in Vicar Lane and in the Pavements indoor shopping centre.
Out-of-town retail parks include Ravenside, situated just a short walk from the town centre, and The Spires. Chatsworth Road has further extensive shopping opportunities.
The crooked spire
The famous crooked spire of Saint Mary and All Saints’ Church has a 45 per cent twist and a 2.9 metre lean from the vertical. An internal ascent of the steeple (advanced booking essential) provides a close-up view of the bells and the tangle of timbers inside the distorted spire.
Derbyshire’s Chester
Another unusual feature of Chesterfield is the plethora of black-and-white buildings with mock half-timbers, clearly indicating that the town once had pretensions to be ‘Derbyshire’s Chester’.
Queen’s Park
Queen’s Park has well-tended rockeries and flower beds, a boating lake, a miniature railway, a conservatory, a café, and a cricket ground which has been described as ‘the loveliest in the country’. This year’s Festival of Cricket will include a County Cricket match between Derbyshire and Yorkshire.
