Peterborough as it used to be: Market Day on Cathedral Square through the decades

Up until the 1960s, Market Square – now known as Cathedral Square – was Peterborough’s beating heart.

As well as being the city’s main mustering point for civic events, proclamations, street parties and military parades, this landmark open space in the centre of town was also Peterborough’s premier arena for trade and commerce.

For many centuries, Market Square (or Market Place as some prefered) played host to all manner of traders, vendors, smiths and artisans, all of whom were eager to share their goods, wares and skills with what has long been the largest population base in the area.

Like many other large towns across the British Isles and Europe, the idea of having a Market Day on the main square was as natural to our ancestors as drawing breath.

Indeed, our forefathers would surely have assumed that the simple notion of going to the Market Square to stock up on essentials and ‘see what’s about’ would persist in perpetuity.

The pace of change, however, is a notoriously unpredictable beast. In the 1960s, the modernising powers-that-be decided that, in order for Peterborough to progress with the times, Market Square would be re-named Cathedral Square, and that its occupational use would be substituted for recreation.

The Market Days were over.

Many of us still have older relatives who can, and often do, recall vividly how busy and bustling those Market Days of yesterday used to be.

They tell us of noisy stallholders trying to outdo each other with catchy sales calls, and remember how vendors and their helpers were always bumping into people as they fetched and carried bits and pieces from one side of the square to the other.

While we sadly cannot travel through time and experience those vivid moments for ourselves, we can do the next best thing and wallow in some amazing photographic nostalgia, courtesy of our friends at Peterborough Images.

So grab yourself a brew, pull up a chair, and join us as we show you how Market Square bustled on Market Day in decades gone by...