After leaving Blackpool we headed to Preston to stop for a drink before going on to our hotel. Preston is famous for being the location of the invention of Richard Arkwright’s famous Water Frame (a fact surely remembered by every late 70s/early 80s secondary school child?!). In 1854, Charles Dickens visited Preston in order to research his book Hard Times, in which Preston makes an appearance as Coketown. We hadn’t visited for many, many years and couldn’t picture the city – we thought some of the buildings were beautiful, especially the Miller Arcade (built 1899), the Harris Museum, Art Gallery and Library building (built 1877) and the stunning Waterstones building, which used to be owned by the northern supermarket chain Booths. You can read a history of the building at the bottom of the webpage in this link.
Ground floor
First floor
Miller Arcade
The Harris Museum, Art Gallery and Library
Preston Market
The market pictured above opened in 2018 and sits under the original Victorian glass canopy which dates back to 1875. It’s a beautiful building and the things on offer inside include a mixture of goods and plenty of food stalls.
Janet's Adventures in Waterstones 