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Blog Preston has covered many stories recently about potential redevelopment of the city centre and the decline of the traditional high street. I’ve taken a look back at the Fishergate of just over 100 years ago, using the 1917 ‘General and Commercial Directory of Preston’ to get a flavour of how it looked then.
The main thing that stands out is the sheer number and variety of shops along Fishergate at that time.
There are several familiar names that are either still with us today or were until recently.
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Woolworth’s are at number 9, the boot and shoe seller Freeman Hardy Willis are next door at
10, Boots the Chemist are at 27, Saxone Shoes at 102 and Marks and Spencer at 115. The
department stores are listed as ‘bazaars’, a word we tend to associate now with Morocco or
Egypt, rather than a Lancashire high street.
In an age when people were more smartly turned out there are 6 tailors and 6 milliners, along
with numerous drapers, ladies’ outfitters, hosiery sellers and even a shop specialising in
waterproof clothes.
Included in this list are F Matthew drapery occupying numbers 19 to 22, Miss Denham the milliner next door at 23 and ladies’ outfitter Mrs Hartley at 41.
Along with six grocers or provisions merchants there are six confectioners, two butchers and three
booksellers. Adding to the variety are Catterall’s yarn agent at 42, Miss Hogarth the corset maker at 87 and neighbouring cheese sellers Miller and Ball at 80 and Livesey and Toulmin at 81.
Not forgetting Valdini’s, the oyster dealer. Strangely, there are two gun manufactures mixed
among the high street shops. Richards at 44, Burrows at 117, the latter next door to Marks and Spencer.
There are no less than six tobacconists, which seems strange now but arguably vape shops are a
modern equivalent. There are also two furriers from a time when wearing animal fur was seen as
the height of luxury.
Read more: Explore more history and heritage about Preston
Fishergate was well served with pubs too. The Cock backed onto New Cock Yard; the street is
still there. There’s also the Mitre Hotel, the Shelley Arms, the Victoria and Station Hotel, the Theatre Hotel, the Grey Horse and Seven Stars and the Borough Tavern.
Like today, there are several banks but, unlike now, they have very local sounding names. The
Manchester and County, the Manchester and Liverpool and the Lancashire and Yorkshire all had branches in Fishergate.
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