Pitsea: The Market Domes

Pitsea Market - A brief history

The first Pitsea Market was established on a site on the west side of Station Lane. Local history books have documented its opening year as being 1925 but a story from the Essex Chronicle newspaper from April 1924 gives mention to an under cover market at Station Lane. The same newspaper has an advertisement from 2nd January 1925 where the market is mentioned so its quite likely the market was in operation from 1924.

The market survived at this site until 1969 by which time it had grown to 200 stalls. A typical hire charge in the late 1960s was 10/- (50p) a stall per day.

By the late 1960s two Basildon Development Corporation road projects; the long awaited A13 Vange and Pitsea by-pass and the continuation of East Mayne (as South Mayne), were well under way. The plans for the new roads involved the creation of two flyovers, a roundabout and a new link road. In the plans the South Mayne flyover would cross the market site so the market was moved to a temporary site on the former Howard's field on the south side of the High Road.

The market opened at its new site on 19th February, 1969. Here at the new site the market was housed in four 30ft high domes marked A to D. Each dome had an 80ft diameter and collectively were capable of accommodating 172 stalls. Dome A was permanently covered and mainly for use by food sellers. It also contained a canteen. A large 300 space car park was also provided. The domes were manufactured in Sweden and Abstracta Construction Ltd., part of the North-Eastern Timber Group, were responsible for their on-site construction.

The Wednesday and Saturday market was initially held solely within the domes until permission was given to allow traditional outdoor stalls to be used as well.

By the mid 1970s the corporation's regeneration of Pitsea had begun and this involved the market vacating its temporary site on the former Howard's field to a new site behind the Railway Hotel public house and Broadway North. In January 1978 the market opened at the new site and three of the four domes were taken down. The fourth, Dome A, remained for a time before that too was eventually taken down. The site is now a retail park and and commonly referred to as the 'old market site'.

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