Imagine the whole interior as an open space with rows of trestle tables running front to back, encompassing the steel pillars and rows backing onto the walls all round except the entrance doorways. Suspended from the roof trusses in rows above the stalls were gas fired radiant panel heaters for use in winter. The market superintendent had a pole which reached up to the heaters to turn them on and off. There weren't any toilets but the public toilets across the road served the purpose.
The place used to be heaving on Wednesdays and Saturdays which were market days. It was quite an intimate experience squeezing between people to get through the aisles. I was a regular at the fishing gear stall which sold maggots on Saturday mornings. Various stalls sold cloth and wool plus a stall that sold leather shoe soles and heels, thread, cleats, glue and rubber soles & heels. Butchers, bakers, misshaped biscuits - as the old News of the World advert used to say "all human life is there". I mustn't fail to mention the fish and chip shop located behind the photographer. As youths we spent Saturday nights in The Macintosh, The Tavern (no longer a pub) and The Station Hotel (now shops with flats above) before a supper in the chip shop and catch the last bus home.
Happy days even if the supper sometimes ended up being vomited into a privet hedge with streaming eyes after getting off the bus. Usually vowing never again (until the next Saturday night).
Happy days for a couple of quid!
