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Grainger Market

Field	Value
image	File:Grainger Market Newcastle Upon Tyne.jpg
caption	Grainger Market in 2019
name	Grainger Market
location_town	Newcastle upon Tyne
location_country	England
architect	John Dobson
client	Richard Grainger
coordinates
map_type	United Kingdom Newcastle-upon-Tyne Central
map_caption	Location within Newcastle upon Tyne
map_dot_label	Grainger Market
completion_date	24 October 1835
website
embed	yes
designation1	Grade I Listed Building
designation1_date	14 June 1954
designation1_number

Grainger Market is a covered market in Newcastle upon Tyne. It opened in 1835 as part of the 19th-century Neoclassical redevelopment of the city, Grainger Town. Designed by architect John Dobson, the market replaced older markets that were demolished during the construction of Grey Street. The market is home to over 100 businesses. The Grade I listed market is situated in the heart of the Newcastle city centre, adjacent to Grainger street. The market originally consisted of two main sections: the Eastern section, which functioned as a meat market laid out in a series of aisles, and the Western section, a large open hall that served as the vegetable market.

The market is home to a small branch of Marks & Spencer, a market stall known as Marks and Spencer's Original Penny Bazaar, which opened in 1895.

History

The Banquet at the opeing of Grainger Market

Grainger's plans for the redevelopment of Newcastle's centre involved the demolition of the existing Flesh Market. Grainger, therefore, offered to build a new meat market and vegetable market. In his contract with the Development Corporation, Grainger would pay £15,000 in compensation for the vegetable market, and the Corporation would pay £36,290 toward constructing a new one. The meat market was placed between two of the new streets, Grainger Street and Clayton Street, and the vegetable market was placed on the west side of Clayton Street. Both were designed by Dobson. The meat market four avenues each 338 ft long had pilastered arcades, 360 windows, fanlights and wooden cornices, and . It contained 180 butchers' shops when it opened.

On 24 October 1835, to celebrate the opening of the markets, a grand dinner was held in the vegetable market, with 2,000 guests, and presided over by the mayor.

The vegetable market's foundations were made of local Kenton stone and were designed to resemble those of the Borghese Palace in Rome. The market was given an open-plan layout, 318 ft long, 57 ft wide and 40 ft high, with a timber roof supported by iron pillars. Both markets, in total, formed a footprint of over two acres with 13,906 sqyd of retail space.

When opened, the Newcastle Journal said, "The New Markets, which are now finished, form at present the most attractive feature of Mr. Grainger's splendid improvements. They exceed two acres in area, [...] designed with a chaste and classic elegance, surpassing anything in street architecture hitherto witnessed in this neighbourhood."

The Grainger Arcade wooden-beamed roof burned down at the turn of the 20th century in 1901. In 1904, a new steel and glass roof was installed.

During World War II, air raid shelters were built under the market. as part of a £9 million refurbishment of the market. The refurbishment, which began in September 2024, is expected to be complete by early 2026; it also includes roof repairs, two new pavilions in the arcade and new public toilets.

References

"Marks & Spencer Original Penny Bazaar". Co-Curate.
(28 March 2012). "Richard Grainger's vision for Grey Street, Newcastle | Tyne & Wear Archives & Museums Blog".
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20170912060502/http://www.graingermarket.org.uk/index_files/history.htm A Pocket History of Grainger Market]
Holland, Daniel. (28 October 2024). "Newcasle: Grainger Market air raid shelters to be filled with concrete". The Northern Echo.
(4 September 2024). "Grainger Market restoration to begin". Newcastle City Council.
Amelia Neath. (8 January 2026). "Historic Newcastle market 'to rival the best in Europe' after £9m upgrade is completed". [[The Independent]].

Wikipedia Source

This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page.

buildings-and-structures-in-newcastle-upon-tyne market-halls

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