IMAGES TAKEN NEAR TO
Market Street, ABERGELE, LL22 7AF

51 Market Street is home to Kitchens of Abergele offering fitted kitchens, bedrooms and home offices but it was not always so. The 'ghost' sign above the front door describes the premises as a medical hall run by D L Morgan, 'dispensing chemist, consulting optician'. Curiously, as the sign has faded it has revealed an earlier sign with the same wording perhaps prompting observers to think they do indeed need to consult an optician. The sign tells us that the business was established in 1820 (actually seven years before the building itself was erected). However, it was not run by the Morgan family at that time - that name only came to be associated with the business in the mid 20th century. The building became empty and derelict in the 1980s but was later renovated to become a kitchen showroom in 1995.

It’s believed that the Harp Inn, on Market Street, was built on the site of a medieval prison. Convicts would be taken from the lock-up to the nearby stocks for public humiliation. A prison is mentioned in a description of Abergele in 1344. At one time the prison was one of the area’s few stone buildings, with timber houses for neighbours. The inn dates from the boom in trade which came Abergele’s way after 1785, when the Chester to Holyhead mail and other coaches were diverted this way instead of running further inland. Innkeepers were buoyed again by an influx of tourists to North Wales after the outbreak of war against France in 1793, when wealthy British people were unable to make the usual Grand Tour of Europe. By 1862 Abergele had 16 inns, all but three of them along the main road (Market Street and Bridge Street). The inn is not a listed building, but the telephone kiosk outside the Harp Inn is grade II-listed (Cadw Building ID: 271 http://www.britishlistedbuildings.co.uk/wa-271-telephone-call-box-outside-the-harp-inn-abe#.VTtSf2d0x_s British Listed Buildings). It was produced by the General Post Office to Giles Gilbert Scott’s K6 design of 1936. This example was probably installed after the Second World War. http://historypoints.org/index.php?page=the-harp-inn-abergele History Points

Seen from the road leading from the church. On the right is side of the former NatWest Bank Image This building was once promoted to the public as a "Medical Hall". The sign painted onto the wall above the shop front records that it was the premises of DL Morgans, dispensing chemist and consulting optician, and that the business was founded in 1820. As the paint has faded it has revealed some of the earlier painted sign beneath, which appears to have had the same wording. A plaque further up the wall implies that the building was erected or enlarged in 1827. DL Morgans was the pharmacist here in the mid-20th century. During the Second World War he delivered medicines to Gwrych Castle for Jewish children who were living there after fleeing Nazi persecution in the "Kindertransport" initiative. The building fell into dereliction in the 1980s but was renovated in the 1990s. Since 1995 it has been home to Kitchens of Abergele https://kitchensofabergele.com/ History Points: https://historypoints.org/index.php?page=former-medical-hall-abergele

Above Kitchens of Abergele Image

It's believed that the Harp Inn was built on the site of a medieval prison. Convicts would be taken from the lock-up to the nearby stocks for public humiliation. A prison is mentioned in a description of Abergele in 1344. At one time the prison was one of the area's few stone buildings, with timber houses for neighbours. The inn dates from the boom in trade which came Abergele's way after 1785, when the Chester to Holyhead mail and other coaches were diverted this way instead of running further inland. Innkeepers were buoyed again by an influx of tourists to North Wales after the outbreak of war against France in 1793, when wealthy British people were unable to make the usual Grand Tour of Europe. By 1862 Abergele had 16 inns, all but three of them along the main road (Market Street and Bridge Street). Livestock auctions were held at the Harp Inn from c.1910, when growing motor traffic put an end to the earlier custom of holding markets in the main road. Auctioneer Frank Lloyd held his "Smithfield" at the Harp, and his rival Richard Pearce used the Bee Hotel, almost opposite. Buyers from as far away as Lancaster and Stafford came to the Harp Smithfield. The Vale of Clwyd Cooperative Agricultural Society opened a branch at the Harp in 1917. The telephone kiosk outside the Harp Inn is Grade II listed. It was produced by the General Post Office to the K6 design of 1936. History Points: https://historypoints.org/index.php?page=the-harp-inn-abergele Image

Sign for the Harp Inn Image

"For the pathologically curious!" http://www.thepeculiargallery.co.uk/ in the former NatWest Bank Image

The buildings in Abergele’s main commercial area, Market Street/Bridge Street, extending from the Bee Hotel to the River Gele, are larger in scale than elsewhere and this helps to define the town centre. The Bee Hotel is notable as being prominent in the street scene. The building dates back at least as far as the mid-1800s (http://www.abergelepost.com/the-old-pubs-inns-and-taverns-of-abergele-in-the-1800s.html Abergele Post).

On the Market Street.