John White Tate (1899-1988) – the forgotten architect of Wigan.
The architect was John White Tate – a name that will not be familiar to the majority of Wiganers today even though he was an architect who designed some of Wigan’s best known buildings.
For many years John White Tate had a flourishing practice as an architect in King Street. He was responsible for the design of various buildings in the town, both public and private, in and around Wigan.
In summary, Wigan boasts distinctive Art Deco buildings, contributing to the town's architectural diversity and cultural richness.
John White Tate was born on 5th May 1899 in Ince and he lived in Wigan all his life. His parents lived at 249 Darlington Street East, Wigan. His father, Alfred Tate, was a draper’s traveller who worked for Pendlebury and Co.
However, his grandfather on his mother’s side was John White who owned a cotton waste mill in Wigan, locally referred to as “the Flocky”. John was clearly named after his grandfather, his mother, Mary Ann, had had four daughters before son John arrived. Another son Alfred followed three years later to complete the family.
All of the daughters went to St Catharine’s the local school but the family paid for John and Alfred to attend Wigan Grammar School. A certificate awarded to Alfred Tate in 1918 (then age 16) showed that they took the Oxford Junior Local Examinations at the Wigan Grammar School centre in 9 subjects (English, history, geography, religious knowledge, Latin, French, arithmetic, mathematics, and drawing). The certificate is headed ‘University of Oxford’ with a crest. John went on to train as a Chartered Architect. Alfred studied to be a pharmacist but tragically died in his late 20s.
John was just 15 when the First World War broke out and so was too young to be enlisted then. His time came later during the war and there is a photograph of him in uniform with the one stripe of a lance corporal. I think the cap badge is of the Royal Engineers.
He returned home safely and on 16th July 1924 married Edith Belshaw at King Street Baptist Church in Wigan. John White Tate died on 6th October 1988 at the grand age of 89.
He was the architect for the new Pendlebury's store in Standishgate after the disastrous fire in August 1953.
Also the Prince’s Cinema on Wallgate. built at a cost of £30,000, The cinema was funded by Falcon Pictures, a syndicate of local businessmen. A most attractive Art Deco building, though hard to fully appreciate due to its position in the narrow passage, off Wallgate, next to the Clarence Hotel.
He was the architect for his own house 8 Kingsdown Crescent off Sittingbourne Road.
In the Swinley area of Wigan opposite the Tyldesley Monument on Wigan Lane (junction with Freckleton Street) there is the art deco Monument Mansions that he designed.
As a child in the 1960s I remember going into Wigan town centre with my mother to spend my Christmas money on toys and paperback books. It was always a special trip and we used to go into Pendlebury’s department store on Standishgate as they had an excellent selection of doll’s house furniture and Britain’s zoo animals. The store with its building dating from the 1950s was taken over by Debenham’s and now no longer exists.
Photographs - Rebuilding of Pendleburys's
Some unique photographs exist which show the rebuilding of Pendlebury’s in 1955 after the original building had been destroyed by fire.
The photographs of the rebuilding of Pendlebury’s are taken over a period of months in 1955. They were shot by a number of professional photographers including C E Willis Ltd of Bolton (‘specialists in engineering, technical and legal photography’), Guttenberg Ltd (33 King Street Manchester) and Eric Thursby (‘High class photographer’ of 17 King Street Wigan).
The photographs show the destruction to adjoining buildings after the fire (and also the proximity of the back walls of these buildings to each other),
Clearing the construction site
The steel works, the brickwork and the final frontage of the new building complete with not one but two flagpoles! The steel works were done by Booths of Bolton and J. Jarvis and Sons Ltd look to be the main building contractor.
Crawford Lounge
Here are also some photographs of the ‘Crawford Lounge’ which was the new cafeteria inside the store. It looked to be the epitome of 1950s style!
A number of the photographs are reproduced here but the full set has been donated to Wigan Heritage archives.
Other photographs
As with all old photographs, it is often the incidental details that grab your attention.
Does anyone remember Maltby’s wine and spirit, ale and stout merchants who had a shop on the corner of Standishgate?
How about the Crawford Pharmacy next door (presumably to cure those hangovers)? The shop window of the chemists looked to be crammed with all manner of useful packages.
What did Ellor’s shop sell? Some of the cars of the time. There seem to be plenty of parking spaces available in Wigan town centre in 1955 and no yellow lines at all.
My favourite image though has to be those guys laying a cable under the main road. No high-visibility jackets or hard hats just a couple of wooden signs saying ‘danger’ around the man down a hole in the middle of the road with his mate using one of the signs as a personal prop!
Written by Deborah Lucas, great niece of John White Tate