SHREWSBURY CHRONICLE
“THE MOST MODERN BUILDING IN SHROPSHIRE”
From Concrete to Community:
The Story of Shrewsbury Market Hall
There are buildings that ask you to look and buildings that demand attention. Shrewsbury Market Hall does the latter. From a distance, the town’s skyline reads like a postcard of Tudor gables and spires, but then—like a punctuation mark from another century—the Market Hall’s tall, slender brick clock tower lifts up, capped by its dramatic aluminium finial.
Up close, the hall itself stretches out in broad, horizontal planes: a cantilevered upper storey, exposed structure, and a civic confidence that announced, in the mid-1960s, that market life in Shrewsbury was being given a new, purposeful home impossible to ignore.
It is a Brutalist statement in a historic town: a reminder that every era, not just the Tudor or the Victorian, leaves its mark. And as the decades have passed, what was once controversial has become cherished. This is the story of how a 1960s concrete market became the beating heart of a 21st-century Shrewsbury.
Built of brick, concrete and civic optimism, the Market Hall’s story is one of transformation: from its raw material beginnings to its current life as the bustling, much-loved heart of a community.
The Pevsner Architectural Guide pronounced the new Market Hall “a good example of modern architecture”. With modern building materials of concrete, glass and metal being used, Pevsner talks of the “clean lines and simple forms”.
The town’s timber-framed traditions are evoked - the upper storey is jettied out on a reinforced concrete structure and faced with vertical black fins in an echo of close studding.
Pevsner also commented that the building’s tall, slender red brick clock tower blended effectively with the town’s medieval steeples in distant views.
THE ARCHITECT:
BORN:
13 AUGUST 1913
POPLAR, LONDON, ENGLAND
DIED:
15 JANUARY 1987
ENFIELD, LONDON, ENGLAND
Behind this bold new vision was the architect David William du Roi Aberdeen. Aberdeen’s reputation rested on his modernist sensibilities and his ability to marry function with civic presence.
A respected architect of his day, having designed the former Swiss Centre in Leicester Square, the City offices of the Swiss Bank, Highview Gardens, a post-war housing estate in Enfield and Congress House, the TUC Memorial Building in London, one of the earliest post-war buildings to be listed, at Grade II*.
These commissions had already demonstrated his talent for designing public buildings that were at once practical and architecturally confident. He delivered a hall that addressed the demands of a busy market while creating a structure that would be recognised as an icon of its era.
Aberdeen’s practical modernism is on show here: the hall’s bold structural logic—clear spans for stalls, generous circulation routes, visible load-bearing elements—was an architectural answer to the practical necessities of a busy indoor market. The new market cost around £1 million to build in its day, equal to £16 million today, and was developed to keep trade at the heart of town life.
HENRY RHODES BECKETT, R.A.F. (RETIRED). MAYOR OF SHREWSBURY, 1964-1965
“We have erected
something
I think we can all be proud of”
THE Community:
Architectural vision: a civic decision rooted in continuity
Post-war Britain was rebuilding and redefining itself. Civic buildings like Shrewsbury Market Hall carried an implicit message: here is a town confident in its future, valuing community and trade, and willing to invest in both.
The site retained its commercial heart while gaining modern efficiency and architectural presence. The decision to rebuild reflected more than utility; it expressed optimism.
Recognition and reverence: awards and the modern market boom
You can measure the market’s success in many ways—by footfall, by the diversity of traders, by whether a Tuesday visit yields the same comforting ingredients as a Sunday afternoon. In a more public sense, Shrewsbury Market Hall’s recent string of awards has become a formal recognition of what locals long knew: this is a market that works.
Inside the Market: Tradition Meets Innovation
Step inside and the hall’s true appeal becomes immediately clear. An edge-of-town-market scale that somehow includes the whole world. Traditional stalls—fishmongers, butchers, greengrocers—sit comfortably next to newer entrants: speciality coffee bars, artisan bakers, natural wine sellers, and compact contemporary restaurants that serve street food and refined small plates.
This is not a clumsy juxtaposition but a co-evolution. Younger traders and “hipster” venues bring evening trade, social energy and a new audience; traditional stallholders bring craft, trust and repeat custom. Together they form a mutually reinforcing ecology: the modern venues attract browsers; the traditional stalls turn browsers into buyers.
Many traders report pride in being part of a market that allows experimentation, growth, and community engagement, creating a mutually reinforcing ecosystem.
Images from one of the most testing times for the Market Hall: the 2020 COVID-19 lockdown. Stallholders pulled together. In a time of isolation, the hall became a lifeline—proof that its strength lies not just in concrete, but in community.
ArtKDuffy
Atlas Rugs
Bloomers Bakery
Charika Creations
Chocolicious
Corbetts
Cook & Carve
Cornalls Seafood
Eat In
Fairtrade Shrewsbury CIC
Generations
Gindifferent
Goodnight Sweetheart
House of Yum
Indian Street Food
Iron and Rose
John Bliss Butchers
JP Fruits
L and E Designs
Little Shop of Joy
Maddocks Fresh Produce
Made To Love
Market Cookshop
Minimise
Mistilley
Mobility Homecare
Moli Tea House
Moreish Café
Morocco House & Tapas Cafe
PetitGlou
Polly Pea
Risdon’s Barbershop
Romy Design
Rosie Read Art
Sorted
Steady’s
Studio Yi
The Bag & Hat Shoppe
The Bird’s Nest
The Booster Box
The Card Stall
The Cupboard
The Flower Stand
The Makery
The Market Café
The Pet Stall
The Raven Bookshop
Thistle & Weeds
Tom’s Table
Vintage 49a
Washed Up Wood
Wild Street Kitchen
White Rabbit Records
WORDS FROM “THE BLISS’S”, ONE OF THE ORIGINAL 1960s TRADERS
“It’s more customer-friendly and diverse. You see a good eclectic mixture, as well as the things that you expect in a market”
JOHN BLISS
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