Plymouth Pannier Market, also called Plymouth City Market, is a

pannier market A pannier market is a form of indoor market especially popular in Devon in the West Country of the United Kingdom where they can be found in various cities and towns. They take their name from the panniers once used to carry goods to market on the ...

Plymouth Plymouth ( ) is a port city status in the United Kingdom, city and unitary authority in Devon, South West England. It is located on Devon's south coast between the rivers River Plym, Plym and River Tamar, Tamar, about southwest of Exeter and ...

Devon Devon ( ; historically also known as Devonshire , ) is a ceremonial county in South West England. It is bordered by the Bristol Channel to the north, Somerset and Dorset to the east, the English Channel to the south, and Cornwall to the west ...

. The building was designed by local architects Walls & Pearn and built in 1959 and 1960. The market was granted Grade II listed status in 2003, and is seen as one of Plymouth's most innovative and important post-war buildings. It gets over a million visitors per year, making it one of the most visited markets in the country.

Background

The Prior of

Plympton Plympton is a suburb of the city of Plymouth in Devon, England. It is in origin an ancient Stannary, stannary town. It was an important trading centre for locally mined tin, and a seaport before the River Plym silted up and trade moved down riv ...

was first granted a charter to hold markets in Sutton (the ancient name of Plymouth) in 1253. A market building was constructed in 1805 on an "almost unrivalled" site though according to Plymouth architect James Hine, the building itself was "not worthy of a great and civilized community like Plymouth". It was rebuilt in 1853 and modified again in 1891. Although

Historic England Historic England (officially the Historic Buildings and Monuments Commission for England) is an executive non-departmental public body of the British Government sponsored by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport. It is tasked with prot ...

says that the original market was bombed in 1941,

Elain Harwood Elain Harwood Hon.FRIBA (10 June 1958 – April 2023) was a British architectural historian with Historic England and a specialist in post–Second World War English architecture. Early life and education Harwood was born on 10 June 1958 in B ...

and documents from

Plymouth City Council Plymouth City Council is the local authority for the city of Plymouth, in the ceremonial county of Devon, England. Plymouth has had a council since 1439, which has been reformed on numerous occasions. Since 1998 the council has been a unitary aut ...

say it survived. Harwood writes that the old market closed on 5 September 1959 with a

firework display Fireworks are Explosive, low explosive Pyrotechnics, pyrotechnic devices used for aesthetic and entertainment purposes. They are most commonly used in fireworks displays (also called a fireworks show or pyrotechnics), combining a large numbe ...

History

The project lasted between 1956 and 1959, and its 1959 opening by

Lord Mayor Lord mayor is a title of a mayor of what is usually a major city in a Commonwealth realm, with special recognition bestowed by the sovereign. However, the title or an equivalent is present in other countries, including forms such as "high mayor". A ...

Percival Washbourn signalled the completion of the city centre's redevelopment. In March 2003, the market was listed at grade II by

, noted for "the quality of its interior and technical ingenuity on a large scale". The market underwent a £3.2 million refurbishment from September 2016 to September 2017, with stalls remaining open for the duration of the works. The refurbishment included restoring the roof, which had deteriorated due to leaks and build-up of

guano Guano (Spanish from ) is the accumulated excrement of seabirds or bats. Guano is a highly effective fertiliser due to the high content of nitrogen, phosphate, and potassium, all key nutrients essential for plant growth. Guano was also, to a le ...

from seagulls. The completion of works was celebrated with a 'Grand Day Out' event. Plymouth's strategic masterplan, released in 2017, proposes the market become the focal point of a new 'Market Quarter' within a new

market square A market square (also known as a market place) is an urban square meant for trading, in which a market is held. It is an important feature of many towns and cities around the world. A market square is an open area where market stalls are tradit ...

Design

Plymouth's city architect Hector J.W. Stirling was meant to design the market along with a

conference centre A convention center (American English; or conference centre in British English) is a large building that is designed to hold a convention, where individuals and groups gather to promote and share common interests. Convention centers typica ...

and an exhibition hall but the level of work meant the market project was outsourced to a local firm. It was instead designed by H.F. Walls and C.H.P. (Paul) Pearn with Ken Bingham being the project architect. The market has a high ceiling with seven concrete frames that span . Walls and Pearn worked with Albin Chronowicz, a celebrated

structural engineer Structural engineers analyze, design, plan, and research List of structural elements, structural components and structural systems to achieve design goals and ensure the safety and comfort of users or occupants. Their work takes account mainly of ...

, to create the building's concrete shell. The roof also had vaults containing north-facing rooflights, which give the interior an even, natural light. Cantilevered flights of stairs at either end of the market lead up to a gallery cafe. The porches at the main entrances are decorated with murals by sculptor David Weeks. The building has been described as

modernist Modernism was an early 20th-century movement in literature, visual arts, and music that emphasized experimentation, abstraction, and Subjectivity and objectivity (philosophy), subjective experience. Philosophy, politics, architecture, and soc ...

Festival of Britain The Festival of Britain was a national exhibition and fair that reached millions of visitors throughout the United Kingdom in the summer of 1951. Labour Party cabinet member Herbert Morrison was the prime mover; in 1947 he started with the ...

-style, and a rejection of classical composition. It was awarded a

Civic Trust Award The Civic Trust Awards scheme is a British awards scheme to recognise outstanding architecture, planning and design in the built environment. It was established in 1959, and is the longest-standing built environment awards scheme in Europe. The ...

in 1960.

Alex de Rijke Alex de Rijke (born 1960 of Dutch parents) is a British architect, timber architecture advocate, educationalist and architectural photographer. De Rijke founded the architecture practice, dRMM, in 1995 with Philip Marsh and Sadie Morgan. In 202 ...

proposed that the market could be used more effectively by the introduction of a

mezzanine A mezzanine (; or in Italian, a ''mezzanino'') is an intermediate floor in a building which is partly open to the double-height ceilinged floor below, or which does not extend over the whole floorspace of the building, a loft with non-sloped ...

, creating a balcony level which could be used by cafes and bars.

Gallery

File:Market entrance, Plymouth - geograph.org.uk - 1536194.jpg, Entrance from Market Avenue in 2009 File:Ceiling view looking up from the north-west corner, Pannier Market, Plymouth, Devon - November 2023.jpg, Interior of the market showing ceiling vaults and rooflights File:Food bars in the Pannier Market, Plymouth, Devon - November 2023.jpg, Food stalls inside the market File:Mural in the entrance foyer of the Pannier Market, Plymouth, Devon - November 2023 (2).jpg, Example of porch artworks File:Mural in the Cornwall Street entrance foyer of the Pannier Market, Plymouth, Devon - November 2023 (2).jpg, Example of porch artworks

References

{{reflist Pannier markets

Pannier Market A pannier market is a form of indoor market especially popular in Devon in the West Country of the United Kingdom where they can be found in various cities and towns. They take their name from the panniers once used to carry goods to market on the ...

Retail markets in England Grade II listed buildings in Devon Modernist architecture in England 1959 establishments in England Buildings and structures completed in 1959 Recipients of Civic Trust Awards