Frequently asked questions

We’re planning to open shortly before the Accrington Christmas lights switch-on on 26 November. We’ll keep everyone updated and confirm the exact arrangements once they’re finalised.  Until then, our traders will remain on the square and we will aim to keep any disruption to trading to a minimum during the move.

Spaces at the market are filling up fast. If you’re interested in running a stall at Accrington Market, email markets@hyndburnbc.gov.uk

The open and transparent procurement exercise to identify an operator to manage the shared workspace in Burtons Chambers on behalf of the Council has now concluded, with the organisation 2-Work being successful. This operator has a number of existing facilities across the north of England and have been busy working with the design teams on finalising the plans for the layout of the shared workspace. For further details, you can contact the operator directly by email at Burtonschambers@2-work.co.uk

The building opposite Accrington Town Hall is being restored to become a modern, flexible office and co-working space for individuals and businesses.

The new space will be tailored to meet the diverse needs of small businesses of all sizes, entrepreneurs, and freelancers. It will feature a range of private offices suites – from small two person offices to larger spaces for growing or established teams – alongside flexible co-working areas. Complete with bookable meeting rooms and other amenities similar to those in 2-Work’s successful flex spaces across the North. The building will reopen later in 2026 and 2-Work are taking enquiries now.

Get more information on what comes next for Burtons Chambers on the 2-Work website.

Our aim for Accrington Market has always been to give people more reasons to visit the town centre.

Shopping is still at the heart of the Market. Food, drink, events and entertainment have always been part of the plan too. They’re there to bring in more people, encourage them to stay longer, and help our traders and other town centre businesses do well.

We first planned to bring in an outside operator to run the whole Market. After detailed talks, we couldn’t agree final terms that worked for both us and the operator. That gave us the chance to look again at the best way to deliver our plans and we decided that running parts of the Market ourselves, rather than having a single operator run everything, was the better way to do it. That’s now led to a decision to run the bar and café ourselves. This gives us much more control over things like the customer experience, licensing, safety, events, and how the different parts of the Market work together. The same team will also run the Town Hall from next year, when the current Hyndburn Leisure lease ends, including any existing Town Hall staff who move across to us.

It also means any surplus income from food and drink can help pay for running the Market and be reinvested in the town centre.

We know that running a successful venue takes real skill and experience. That’s why we’re building an experienced team to run it, including the right people in hospitality, venue management and licensing.

We’re still finalising the team, but it will include trained duty managers and hospitality staff.

Apart from the café, the other food outlets will be run by other businesses, and we aim to offer great quality food with plenty of variety.

Accrington Market will have a premises licence, and we’re going through the normal application process to get it.

Our Town Centre Venue Manager will hold a personal licence, and we expect other trained members of the management team to hold one too.

We take licensing seriously and will always make sure properly licensed managers are on site when needed.

Safety and responsible management are central to how the Market will run.

Running the bar ourselves means we can make sure the venue meets its responsibilities, including keeping people safe and preventing crime and disorder.

We’ll work with our community safety partners, and also have security on site when it’s needed, especially for busier events and in the evenings. Security will be funded from the Market’s operating budget.

The building will also have CCTV, in line with licensing requirements.

We want the Market to be a safe, welcoming place for everyone – traders, customers, staff, performers and visitors.

Each stall will have secure shutters. Traders can lock up their stall and stock at the end of the day, while other parts of the Market carry on being used for food, drink, events or entertainment.

Our traders are a big part of the Market, and helping them trade well is central to the whole project. During normal shopping hours, we’ll plan events and music so they fit with a good shopping experience.

There’ll also be room for livelier entertainment, like live music and bigger events, though we expect most of that to happen after the shops have closed for the day.

Absolutely! The Market has a stage with a full sound system, so we can host singers, bands and all kinds of performers.

We’re especially keen to give local and grassroots talent a place to play, alongside a varied programme of events. We’ll share more soon about how performers and organisations can get involved.

No. We want the Market to be welcoming to everyone.

There’ll be a good choice of non-alcoholic drinks, and we plan to run alcohol-free events and times aimed at different groups, including families, younger people and people who don’t drink.

Running the bar ourselves gives us the flexibility to get that balance right.

Not at all. The aim is to bring more people into Accrington and get them spending more time in the town centre.

A thriving Market should bring in extra footfall that helps everyone, not just our traders, but the shops, cafés, pubs and restaurants across town.

We’ve set aside a budget to run the Market as a whole and we expect the bar and café to cover their own running costs.

The Market Hall is a large building, and it wouldn’t be realistic to cover all its running costs through traders’ rents: those rents need to stay affordable for traders too. The food, drink, events and entertainment are part of making the Market work financially over the long term.

Any income helps pay for running the Market and can be reinvested in the Market and the wider town centre.

That might mean supporting a varied events programme, creating apprenticeships, helping community groups use the venue, and developing more activities that bring people into Accrington.

Success is about far more than how much the bar and café take. We’ll look at how the Market is doing as a whole.

That means a good trading environment for our traders, good occupancy levels, more footfall, more people in the town centre by day and evening, new jobs and opportunities, successful events, and a boost for the wider town centre economy.

The Market will follow the Council’s normal governance and financial checks and be subject to oversight and scrutiny through the democratic processes.

The responsible Cabinet member will oversee it, and both Cabinet and the Council’s Scrutiny Committee will get regular updates on how it’s running and performing. Council officers will also monitor how it’s doing day to day and financially.

We’ll keep track of what’s working, listen to customers and traders, and make changes where we need to.

We’re still finalising the operational details, and like any new venture these figures will keep developing as we get closer to opening and beyond. They’ll be accounted for in the same way as the rest of the Council’s finances.

We’re working closely with our current traders on the Town Square and we’re really hopeful that mostwill come back to the new Market. Local traders are central to its future, and we want them to do great business.

Yes. There’ll be room for new businesses, temporary traders and pop-ups. If you’re interested, please email markets@hyndburnbc.gov.uk.

The Market will also have its own website listing opportunities as they come up.

We’re resurfacing the area along the Peel Street side before we open. We want it to be a useful outdoor space for customers; somewhere to sit outside and enjoy food and drink as well as outdoor events and activities. We’re initially focussing on the indoor space, so this outdoor space will continue to develop during 2027.

We will have room for pop-up stalls and short-term trading from the remaining pavilions at the back too.

We’re putting together information on parking across Accrington town centre, which is free everywhere excluding the Arndale Centre. It will cover free parking, time-limited parking and paid car parks, so you can see all the options.

There’ll also be a small number of spaces next to the Market. We’ll publish the full parking details before we open.

Yes. Accessibility has been an important part of the refurbishment.  There’ll be accessible toilets, a Changing Places facility and lifts to the upper level. We want as many people as possible to use and enjoy the Market comfortably.

There’ll be a community room available for booking and we’ll share details before we open. 

There’ll also be washing and multi-faith prayer facilities, and a family room offering a bit more privacy when needed, including for anyone who wants somewhere to feed their baby.

No. Our food and drink outlets will take cash, we’re not going card-only. 

Some individual independent traders may decide for themselves which payment methods they accept. There may also be vending machines in the Market, and how you pay at those will depend on the equipment fitted. We recognise that some people prefer to use cash. 

The Market will be open Tuesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday, with evening opening for food, beverage, events etc.   On Sundays, many retail stalls will not be trading. We’ll confirm the full opening hours, including evening times, nearer to reopening.

We’re planning to open shortly before the Accrington Christmas lights switch-on on 26 November. We’ll keep everyone updated and confirm the exact arrangements once they’re finalised.  Until then, our traders will remain on the square and we will aim to keep any disruption to trading to a minimum during the move. 

Restoring the Market Hall has been a big and complex building project.  The initial timescales were based on deadlines which came with the Levelling Up Fund.  The Government then extended those as many areas were struggling to complete projects on time.  On top of that, it’s a large, Grade II listed Victorian building. With work on this scale on a building this old, some things can’t be fully known until you open areas up and get started. 

Like many projects of this kind, we’ve also faced rising building costs since the work began, because of wider pressures in the construction market. That’s meant regularly reviewing our plans to manage those extra costs. As a result, some of the work has been more complicated than we first expected. 

We know different opening dates have come up along the way, and that people have waited a long time to see the finished Market and have felt frustrated. An enormous amount of work has gone into restoring and transforming the building, and although much of that will be unseen, we’re confident that when people come inside, they’ll appreciate the scale and quality of what’s been done. 

We’re finalising the job descriptions and will be advertising roles in the coming weeks so the team is recruited and in place for opening. Keep an eye on the Council’s usual recruitment channels, where we’ll post vacancies and how to apply. 

Yes and this is one of the real benefits of running the bar and café ourselves. The Market will create additional, high quality local jobs across the bar, café and events, and because the same team will also run the Town Hall from 2027, there’s scope for people to build a career across both venues. We’re especially keen to open up hospitality apprenticeships and routes into work for young people getting started, and we’ll work with the local college and partners to develop them. Alongside that, we want to buy from Market traders and local producers wherever we can, so the money the Market makes works for the local economy. 

From April 2027, the Council will take over running Accrington Town Hall, when the current arrangements with Hyndburn Leisure end. 

The Town Hall is an important venue in its own right, hosting conferences, weddings, awards evenings, parties, cultural events and much more. 

Having one team that works across both the Market and the Town Hall lets us make better use of both buildings and run them more efficiently. It also means we can offer catering for Town Hall events. 

We want the Market to be a community asset as well as a successful trading and events venue. 

Community groups and organisations will have chances to be part of what’s happening there. We’ll work with our brilliant community networks and share more information soon. 

We want a varied programme that gives all kinds of people a reason to visit. That could mean music, performances, community activities, family events, seasonal events and other entertainment. 

During shopping hours, the programme needs to work alongside our traders. Evenings and quieter times give us more room for bigger or livelier events. We’ll also learn from what proves popular and adjust the programme over time. 

Yes, and we’ll review this vision as the Market develops. 

Accrington Market will be a warm, bustling, and unmistakably local place where the town’s food, craft and conversation come together. 

It will challenge the idea of a market as simply somewhere to shop. Here, the Market is somewhere to be – to meet, to eat, to discover, and to feel part of something happening. Accrington’s traders, makers and growers are at the centre, but so is everyone who walks through the doors. 

It will be a place where Accrington’s past as a market town is honoured not by standing still, but by getting busy again – with local produce, local jobs, local music and local conversation. 

Accrington Market will be a place people feel they belong: familiar enough to drop into for a cuppa, exciting enough to bring friends to on a Friday night.