Even though just about all the properties shown in the picture have long since gone, it does not take much local knowledge to work out that we are in Market Place, Burnley.

You can see the Market Hall of 1871, on the right, with the Market Square, cleared of stalls, in the right foreground. Notice the large Union Flag on the extreme right and something of a platform, bottom right. It is clear that some event is taking place, but we will come to that later.

Howe Street runs from left to right across the picture and, to me, this is where the interest lies. What you can see is a very rare view of this part of town as it was before it was redeveloped in late Victorian times. There are buildings in the picture which survived into relatively recent times, but the photo gives us a glimpse of a vanished world.

I will explain what I mean. Locate the building almost in the centre of the photo. This very well proportioned structure, which has an advertising hoarding on its gable or Howe Street elevation, is built at the corner of Howe Street and Chancery Street and occupied the site, which when rebuilt, became that of the Empress Hotel.

We know the Empress Hotel was opened on October 12th, 1891, and was granted a full licence in August the following year.

Further along Howe Street (i.e. to the right), notice the few houses which are in shadow. These are the properties which interest me. I think they must have constituted numbers 28 to 32 Howe Street. In 1883, number 28 was probably a house and was occupied by Mr Thomas W. Binns, but next door, at 30, there was Mrs Mary Ann Fulton's tripe shop. and at 32 Mr James Hacking ran a confectioner's business.

Then came one of Burnley's long forgotten streets, Nowell Court, after which there were three more shops before Curzon Street was reached.
These latter three shops were numbers 34 to 38 Howe Street. The first was a paper hangers office and showroom occupied by Mr John Shea; number 26, was a tobacconist shop run by Mrs Mary Starkie and number 38, was a tailor's and draper's run by Mr John Riley, whose business also had an entrance in Curzon Street. I have come across Mr Riley before, not only when I have noted his business but because he was one of those successful businessmen who lived in the centre of town. His home address was 23 St James's Row, surely one of Burnley's most interesting streets.

We know from studying the photo that the picture was taken before the Empress Hotel, which some readers will recall, was built in 1891.
However, I am afraid I cannot be precise about the actual date. All I can say is that in the 1883 Directory, at least two of the businesses which we can see in the larger properties on the left of the picture are present.

I think you will be able to see the name Altham's above the middle shop shown in the picture. This was Abraham Altham's main retail shop, dealing in tea and groceries, and from the mid-1870s to 1909 it was managed by Jeremiah Preston, whose reminiscences I have edited for the Briercliffe Society.

Blocking out the windows on the second floor you can see a large advertising hoarding. The only words I can make out are "LOW Prices". How often have we seen them?

Next door, to the right, there are the premises of Alfred Dickinson; his surname appears over his shop window. Dickinson was also a grocer and provision dealer. He had two shops in town in 1883; at 131 St James's Street and, according to the directory for that year, another at 24 Market Place.

As we are in Howe Street, this might be a little confusing, but much of the Market Place was in Howe Street and both Howe Street and Market Place addresses were used for the same premises.

Early maps show Howe Street was, originally, much shorter than the street many of you will remember. The name only applied to the western end of the street. All the eastern end, from Bridge Street to the temporary platform in the picture, was known as Nile Street.

In fact, the unoccupied area of stone setts which you can see in the picture was the site of Burnley's old market house.

The market hall in the picture was built on a site adjacent to the market house, but on a much larger scale. Lots of houses in Fountain Street, Poke Street, Rodney Street and others were demolished to make way for the market hall, which many of us will recall with much pleasure.

Before I sign off this week there remains one thing unresolved. There is clearly a significant event taking place in the streets around the market hall. I have already mentioned the Union Flag and platform, but if you cast your eyes over the significant crowd you will see numerous banners are being carried. There is even some bunting in the top left hand corner of the picture.

Unfortunately, I cannot tell you what the event was or when it took place. Any ideas? I have a few of my own, but I cannot see the evidence in the picture to support any of them!

The photo is published with kind permission of the Briercliffe Society.