Bridge Street

For many, many years this was Warrington’s main shopping area. At one time, horse-​drawn coaches would travel up and down it, travelleing between Chester, Liverpool, Crewe, Manchester and other large towns. Last Century it remained the most important shopping area, with, first plenty of cars and lorries, then, later, becoming pedestrianised.
In the last decade of the 20^th Century came the signs that proved Bridge Street’s death knell. A large, modern, purpose-​built mall was begun, to challenge the Trafford Centre. This didn’t quite come off as hoped, as the enormous multi-​storey carpark built as part of the plan, proved impossible to get out of when busy. Unfortunately, by this time, a lot of the major shops had closed up their Bridge Street premises and moved to the new Golden Square.
At present, Bridge Street is reminiscent of the old westerns showing ghost towns — the only time it is thriving is around 01.00 until 04.00, when all the night clubs are in full swing and drunken people are going from one to another all night long, meanwhile the poor police force is trying to limit the number of casualties being taken to the local hospital.
The few shops that remain seem to be clustered together for protection near the very top of the street, where Warrington Circus was originally planned in the 1800’s, it became known as Market Gate and disappeared in favour of the Fountain of Light — the one thing the council got right.

It would revitalise the street if someone like PRIMARK could be attracted to the old BOOTS building