St John's Market

Urban population increases in 18th and 19th century England and Wales due to industrialisation gave impetus to changes in the ownership and provision of physical marketplaces for the sale of foodstuffs and other products in towns and cities. More than 300 Acts of Parliament were passed between 1801 and 1880 allowing nascent local governments to acquire market rights from their manorial holders, and to fund the construction of market facilities. From about 1800, market halls emerged as the 'perfect form' of the marketplace, and town followed town in bringing their markets indoors into roofed buildings supplying amenities such as water, lighting and heating. St. John's Market, an early design on a grand scale, came to be taken as a model for other locations, including Birmingham Market Hall. Market rights in Liverpool derived from a 1207 charter granted by King John; although long held by the Molyneux family, they were leased to Liverpool Corporation in 1672 for a period of 1000 years, and in 1773 transferred in perpetuity to the corporation. In the early 19th century prior to the new St John's Market, Liverpool's retail market was a street market centred on an open area around St. George's Church (closed 1897, the site now houses the Victoria Monument) at the south end of Castle Street; but, as Liverpool's population and thus demand grew, increasingly spilling out into adjacent roads and becoming a serious annoyance and obstruction to all business not immediately connected with it. Characteristic of a street market, it provided little protection against inclement weather, which became a subject of very general complaint. The Corporation of Liverpool determined to remedy the observed problems by removing the market to a new location, protected from the weather and providing no obstruction to public thoroughfares. The town, expanding eastwards from the Mersey, the Corporation chose as the site for the proposed hall a former ropewalk east of the existing market in an area named for St. John's Church (demolished 1898), on the west side of Great Charlotte Street and having Elliot Street to the south, Market Street to the west, and Roe Street to the north. The structure was commenced in August 1820 and completed in February, 1822, to a design by John Foster, Junior, architect to the corporation, at a cost, exclusive of the land, of about £35,000. The market was opened on Thursday, 7 March 1822. ==Design==

The ground plan of the market hall is rectangular, in length, and in breadth, enclosing an area just short of entirely covered. An 1835 reviewer commented that "this ... if not the very first, was one of the first markets in the kingdom, in which the principle of covering in the whole under one roof was attempted; at least on a scale of any considerable magnitude." each in height. A total of 136 windows were provided in the upper and lower tiers of the roof. The exterior was built with brick, in a plain and simple style of architecture. Piers were projected at regular intervals, round which the cornices and stringcourses break. Between these were inserted two tiers of windows, the lower semicircular, with stone architraves and imposts; the upper tier finished with segmental brick arches. The whole is raised on a stone plinth, under which, where the declivity of the ground admits of it, there is a rusticated stone basement. There were eight entrances, three on each side, and one at each end, the principal entrances faced with Italian Ionic columns on pedestals, with entablatures over, and semicircular-arched gateways. It was previously displayed in BBC Radio Merseyside's entrance foyer on Hanover Street, and at Merseyside Maritime Museum from 2007 until 2009. describes St. John's Market as "the first of the great nineteenth-century market halls ... the first in the form of a completely covered general trading hall", and notes that there is no clear precedent for the design. and of another, ''St John's Market'' (1827) by Samuel Austin, in pencil and watercolour, now in the Lady Lever Art Gallery, having been acquired by auction at Christie's in 2001. A note in an 1894 electrical trade journal states: "Liverpool - The Markets Committee of the City Council are dissatisfied with the present lighting of St. John’s Market, and they consider that the time has arrived when the place should be electrically lighted." ==Operation==

Principal market-days were, at the outset, Wednesdays and Saturdays; but there was a considerable market every day. Market regulations were devised to provide equal protection for buyer and seller; rates of porterage were regulated, and approved carriers were badged. The hall was cleaned each evening by twelve scavengers engaged for that purpose, and two watchmen were employed to guard the property overnight. The rents charged in the market in 1831 were: Shops, £18 per annum; cellars, (of which there were 29) £5; butchers' stalls, £8; the corner ones, £10; vegetable and fruit stalls, £6; potato-compartments, £3; the corner ones, £3. 4; table-compartments, £1. 12s.; bench-compartments, 12s.; outer fish-standings, £8; the inner ones, £4. Occupiers of shops paid £2. 12s. per annum each for a gaslight. ==Demolition==

St. John's Market was demolished in 1964, ==Notes==