Barnsley Market

Yorkshire

Barnsley, formerly a major mining town, is reinventing itself for the 21st Century, having commissioned a radical masterplan by architect Will Alsop. Now CZWG, in liaison with Holder Mathias Architects, are a part of the winning consortium to rebuild Barnsley Markets (first chartered in 1249), a central part of the Masterplan, which comprises a market building and covered market hall, partially covered shopping streets, a multiplex cinema and ten-pin bowling alley together with a hundred flats and a car park. After clearing the site of an ugly 60s shopping complex, the idea is to extend the existing shopping streets of the town, the new shops appearing as individual façades with upper level pavements threaded between them, the market building being casbah-like on three levels. Two pedestrian public spaces, the historic May Day Green and the new Market Square are linked by a covered open market under a spectacular saddleshaped roof which also swoops low over an open amphitheatre connecting the three principal levels of the scheme.