High Street

King's Lynn High Street goes from Tuesday Market Place to Saturday Market Place, and is a pedestrian street only - in my mind just as well, as it is a narrow street, and with traffic would be dangerous and noisy - as it is, it's quite pleasant to walk along and look at the shops.

Starting at the "Tuesday" end you come to some fine old Bank buildings - one of which is now a Nando's restaurant, but the architecture is the same. This top end of the street it is normally full of shoppers, many of whom park in Tuesday Market place. One interesting thing is two charity shops on either side of the road facing each other! I was also kind of amused to see an "Edinburgh Woolen Mill" shop here - 300 or so miles from Edinburgh! It's also home to Marks & Spenser and McDonald's which must be two of the most visited locations in town.

Shortly we have Norfolk Street on the right, and then we come to a collection of smaller shops, including a Chinese herbalist which I have yet to have the courage to go into! My experience with these places is mixed - I like the idea of them, but the one occasion I got something from one of them, the treatment was worse than the thing I was trying to cure!

This part of town is also the place where there are a number of phone shops - why they are co-located is interesting - is this a deliberate policy I wonder? And then two card shops face each other across the street - again I wonder if this is deliberate. This part of High Street is home to a number of clothing shops, and is consequently busy during shopping hours.

High Street is then crossed by New Conduit Street, and on the corner is a building which looks to me like it was designed to be a cinema - just something about the style of the place gives me that impression. Actually, it's a men's cloths store!

From here the street get quieter, and the main shopping attractions are a general store and a department store, although this are also a number of empty locations, including one large pub building which has been empty for a long time. It's not all bad news, however, with one of the stores being newly redecorated, and recently opened as a cards and accessories shop.

As we reach the end of High Street there is another charity shop, and an "old fashioned" sweet shop, with jars of sweets that are sold loose. Then we come to the corner of Saturday Market place and the Wenns with their signs for forthcoming music acts.

The long term locals tell me that High street is not a patch on what it used to be, and I'm sure that is the case. But as one coming new to the town, I have to say that it has survived as a mixed community of shops a lot better than many High Streets I've seen, and remains an attractive place to visit.

If it’s Tuesday....

When I was looking to move here to Lynn, I thought it pretty cool that they had a place called “Tuesday Market Place”, where they held a market every Tuesday!! Well, what else would it be called? History tells us it was once a huge affair, but nowadays the market stalls only take up about a quarter of the available space in the Market Place.

This Tuesday it’s a sunny spring morning as I walked over to High Street, which is bustling with people shopping and meeting each other. There are also people trying to stop you to sign up for a “good cause”, and there is one of our regular street artists singing his repertoire of pop classics, accompanied by his guitar.

Then I emerge into Tuesday Market Place, and the first sign I see is one offering to buy “scrap gold” - which always seems odd to me - who is it that scraps gold? I go past this and the stall selling underwear and similar items, and then come to a van selling bacon products. I buy a couple of gammon joints from him, which are certainly cheaper than the supermarkets. There are a couple, sometimes 3 or 4 vegetable sellers in the market, but I have my favourite, who sets up in the corner of the market next to The Globe, so I go there next.

This is actually a number of stalls put together, and he sells everything from locally produced veg., to exotic fruits that I’ve never previously heard of. When I first started going to the market, he had cabbages on offer at 2 for £1.20 - I eat a lot of greens, but I asked him how long they would stay fresh. He told me that they’d be good for at least a couple of weeks in the fridge, as they only came out of the field the day before - short of growing them myself, it’s difficult to see how I could get fresher than that! On another occasion - a wet and windy November day, as I paid I was thanked for coming out in the weather to buy at his stall - very good customer service!

Today I get a couple of cabbages, a melon, ginger and garlic, and that’s about all I need for the rest of the week. Then I go to the next stall which is also a regular. This place sells packaged and tinned foods cheaply, and what it has changes from week to week. I’ve previously got things like tins of olives where the labels are torn, dried peppers, stock cubes and other random items. Today, they have their normal selection of cakes and sweets, but nothing that I need so after checking that out, I move on to the next row of stalls.

The second row is more changeable, although there are still a few places you see from week to week. There is a big garden equipment and hardware place, and I stop to look at the solar powered garden lights. They have some in the form of rocks, and I wonder about getting a couple for my patio garden. The stall holder sees me looking and comes to chat, but in the end I decide to leave these for now. Going past other pitches selling ink cartridges, Goth clothing, shirts and jumpers, bedding, more fruit and veg, and mobility scooters, I come to the fish stand which is normally a feature at the end of the second row. I stop and look, but decide against fish at the moment, although the locally caught dressed crap does look appealing.

Rounding the corner past the hot snacks van, I start down the third row, and first there is another place I wanted to look at, the plant seller. They have masses of flowers, tubas and bulbs, but no tomatoes plants, which is what I was interested in. I almost buy some seedling lettuce, but as I wasn't sure where I’d plant them, I decided against. Walking along I come to a stall I’d not seen before selling things like chocolate covered nuts, Turkish delight and olives - I love fresh olives, so I buy some to have in my salad tonight.
Coming back again along the second row, I stop to look at the clothes place - not the Goth one! - and have a look at what he has in the way of men’s shirts. I end up being sold 3 buttoned short sleeved cotton shirts for £5 - another bargain, and another bag to carry.

So with my carrier bags I wend my way back through the market, down the High Street and home. It may not be as big as it was in olden days, but it’s still a vibrant part of the community, and a delight to shop at. The supermarkets may offer a wider range of products, and be more predictable, but Tuesday Market is a great shopping experience, and the best place to get fresh local produce.

So if it’s Tuesday, it must be Tuesday Market Place.