Landmarks of Market Street
MARKET Street has been at the commercial heart of Torquay since the market opened in 1853.
Every street needs an anchor store and little businesses have nestled around it ever since.
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SCENE: The scene at the bottom of Market Street in January, 1954. The No. 50 bus is making its way down to The Strand. The garage on the left is long gone
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LONG GONE: Market Street from Union Street, Torquay in January, 1954. Blockbusters now occupies the site of the church and the buildings on the right have been demolished
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DEMOLISHED: Hardings Iron and Steel Merchants, which opened in 1860, at the bottom of Market Street in 1963. The building was demolished and replaced by a row of single-storey shops. Notice the advert for Brolac paint
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Interior: Torquay Market in 1983, shortly after a major facelift. Since then the market has been re-configured again
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SCENES: Market Street Methodist Church in Torquay town centre in 1971, demolished a couple of years later
But it was also once at the heart of community life with three churches within a few yards of each other (only the Salvation Army citadel still survives), a police and fire station.
Our pictures today recall some of the landmarks of Market Street which have come and gone.
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The Methodist Church closed in the early 1970s when the congregation dwindled and joined with other non-conformist churches in the town centre area to create Central Church.
Down the road at the junction with Pimlico, the Anglicans had worshipped at the Mission Church of St Michael's and All Angels since 1877.
It closed in 1968 and was demolished, the site becoming Torquay's JobCentre and now Blockbusters.
For those beyond redemption, there was the court room and cells in the Market Street police station.
It was here John 'Babbacombe' Lee, the 'Man They Could Not Hang' was held before transfer to Death Row at Exeter jail.
The police station transferred to South Street in 1944.
For the people of Ellacombe, Market Street has been about the local shops and this parade continues to provide an eclectic variety of small, individual businesses meeting every need.
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