But it’s a long time since Wigan Pier drew huge crowds ... with what used to be The Way We Were museum turned into an Altrincham Market-style food hall and distillery, the education centre ...

Wigan Pier started as a music hall joke dreamt up ... there were hopes that The Way We Were might become a rugby league museum, but apart from the odd live performance in the yet-to-be completed ...

which opened in 1878 and also designed the Natural History Museum in London and Manchester town hall. In 1936 George Orwell researched his book 'The Road to Wigan Pier' in the Reference Library ...