Grainger Market

 I once heard it said somewhere that the Grainger Market was designed and built for the Butchers of the city. At one time the Butchers would have a pitch on every street corner and this was adjudged to be unhealthy and not a good market philosophy for the people of Newcastle. And so it was that all the Butchers would be gathered under one roof - The Grainger market.

Even today there is a vast and varied array of stalls selling fresh meat and it is probably one of the best places in Britain to obtain good quality, fresh farm meat produce at prices that you wouldn't believe. Unless you are a Geordie.

Describing Grainger Market as a "bombardier of the nostrils" might sound a tad off. If you pay it a visit, however, you'll see that it's both true, and flattering.

With more food stores than its neighbouring Greenmarket, Grainger Market has delicacies to cater to everyone's palette. Look one way and you'll find meat, fruit, confectionery, and all the trimmings, while the other way you've got a pharmacy, a hardware store, a bookshop, and a video games retailer.

It would be only a slight exaggeration to say that you could find almost anything you need in this huge and varied market.
Note that there is no central telephone number for this market.

England's Marks & Spencer department store chain has its beginnings in the Penny Bazaar ("Don't ask the price, it's a penny") opened at Cheetham Hill, Manchester, by Polish-born merchant Michael Marks, 31, in partnership with Thomas Spencer, 42, whose employer loaned Marks £5 in 1884 when the Pole arrived at Leeds penniless, illiterate, and unable to speak English.

The "Marks and Spencer Original Penny Bazaar" in The Grainger market is the smallest M&S outlet in the World.

 Marks started as an itinerant peddler, opened a stall in Kirkgate Market, Leeds, has since opened stalls in six other Lancashire street markets, and has innovated the practice of arranging wares according to price. By 1900 there will be a dozen Penny Bazaar stores (three of them in London), and by 1915 there will be 140 selling haberdashery, earthenware, hardware, household goods, stationery, and toys at the fixed price of a penny per item.

Marks & Spencer opened their first store under that name at Darlington in 1922, and "Marks & Sparks" will grow to become Britain's leading retail enterprise. 

The smallest M&S outlet in the World. (Grainger Market)

   The noble arches of the Grainger Market.