Shops and shopping in the middle years of the nineteenth century

By the 1850s, Wolverhampton had a large number and wide variety of shops around the town centre. The shops supplied local inhabitants with all of their daily needs. Most of the local population lived within walking distance of the shops, only the wealthier members of society had their own transport, or could afford to use public transport, such as it was at the time. In 1851 Wolverhampton’s population was 50,000.

There was a wide variety of products on sale in the shops, thanks to improvements in the roads, made by the turnpike trusts, relatively cheap transportation on the canals and the coming of the railways. The first local railway station opened at Wednesfield Heath in July 1837, followed by a temporary station built by the Shrewsbury and Birmingham Railway Company in 1849, the High Level Station, originally Queen Street Station, in 1852 and Wolverhampton Low Level in 1854.

The town centre had changed little in many years, large scale demolition of slum properties, and the building of new streets was still a few years away. Gas lighting had been installed in the streets, but the local water supply was still inadequate and a large number of people lived in unsanitary conditions in the many slums. There was a second cholera epidemic in 1849. Recent buildings included the Theatre Royal in Cleveland Road, which opened in 1845. In 1846 a new Police Station and Law Offices opened in Garrick Street and the South Staffordshire General Hospital opened in Cleveland Road in 1849. In the same year, the new Stafford Road Gas Works were completed and the Subscription Baths opened. In 1850, the Orphan Asylum opened in Queen Street and the Exchange building at the end of Exchange Street was built between 1850 and 1853.

Part of the 1842 Tithe Map showing the town centre.

Wolverhampton received its Charter of Incorporation in March 1848, which led to the first council elections in May of that year. The new council’s thoughts soon turned to the building of a Market Hall, on land opposite the Town Hall, alongside North Street. It opened in March 1853.

For many years the outdoor market had been held at High Green. There had been constant conflict between the market traders and the Lord of the Deanery Manor who had the right to charge market tolls. On market days the whole area around High Green was cluttered with goods on display and roads were jammed with hundreds of horses and cattle, until the opening of the cattle market in 1848. The new council purchased the market tolls in readiness for the building of the new market hall and the outdoor traders moved to the adjacent market patch.