THE High Town Butter Market opened in 1857, 17 years before its near-neighbour in Broad Street, the City Library & Museum. Over decades, both have been shamefully ignored in terms of routine maintenance and improvements. It would be no exaggeration to say that, if a film company was making a movie set in the mid-19th century, it would need to make precious few changes to the interiors of either city landmarks in order to create an air of Victorian authenticity.
Over 600 covered retail and specialist markets still exist in Britain today, the majority municipally owned and run. Abergavenney and Cardiff are two local examples which remain vibrant and profitable.
The present system of stalls and aisles in Hereford’s covered market date from 1925 and virtually the only ‘modernisations’ which have taken place since then are the insertion of the ugly barrel-vaulted ceilings (which obscure a very fine iron and glass roof structure) and some automatic doors. In 1966 there were 16 greengrocers trading inside the market hall, today there is just one.
The landlords obviously consider efficient winter heating arrangements, air-conditioning to cope with summer heatwaves and public toilets as unnecessary luxuries. Which makes Herefordshire Council’s claim, when launching its recent ‘consultation exercise’, that the High Town Butter Market is the ‘jewel’ in the city’s crown’ ring somewhat hollow.
While the market’s local customer base remains remarkably loyal, steadfastly ignoring the comfort and convenience of the city’s air-conditioned emporiums, many of the Butter Market’s 35 traders believe that this fragile balance—and their livelihoods—would be shattered if big name attractions were to beckon from the ESG retail quarter. A more prudent use of public funds, some argue, would be to carry out a comprehensive refurbishment of the city’s Butter Market, rather than waste it on a new Livestock Market complex.