Rochdale market to temporarily relocate to Lord Square

Rochdale Market

Rochdale market is set to temporarily relocate to the area around Lord Square and the bottom of Yorkshire Street.

The market will close in its current site at the close of business on Saturday 16 September and re-open at its new location on Monday 18 September, so there will be no gap in trading.

Traders have been operating from the old ‘Black Box’ site – itself a temporary measure - for two and a half years without ‘basic facilities’.

At the Lord Square site, traders will be operating from gazebos, rather than the current wooden huts.

A new permanent market, run by specialists Quarterbridge, is set to open on The Butts and in the former Santander building, alongside the re-opened river Roch, next Easter. The Santander building and The Butts were the preferred locations for the market after it moved from the Exchange Shopping Centre in 2015, but work on opening the river on The Butts prevented the move.

Initially the market was expected to be operating from its new location by Easter this year. The timescale for the opening of the permanent market has been extended to allow the proposals to be improved. The council has carried out extensive survey work in the former Santander building and, following discussion with Quarterbridge, realised that the site has more potential than originally envisaged.

Work to adapt and renovate the building will start in the next few weeks.