Description:This photograph has been taken from the roof top of the sequence of buildings that ran down from Jenkins Street to the Moorland Road/Swan Bank traffic lights. This block contained the Princes Hall, the 'new' town hall and the Post Office.
This empty space was once the site of the Meat Market in Burslem. Before that it was the first site of Wedgwood's potworks, and its kiln bases are still there. To the bottom right of the picture once stood Burslem's Police Station, situated at the back of the Meat Market. The market was demolished in the late 1950s and was laid out as you see it here. Later, it was laid out as a flower and lawn garden, with a bandstand in the centre.
The large building to the right of the picture is Burslem's second Town Hall. Built of sandstone, it is black because of around 80 years of smoke from the many potworks and domestic fires that dominated the Potteries until the Clean Air Act of the 1950s. In the early 1980s the building was cleaned.
In 1998 Time Team excavated the site for the Channel 4 programme. Later, the Ceramica building was built on the site and incorporates the Town Hall.
File name: Burslem from Queens Hall Balcony - 1 SMC 1967