Prescot Market Place - Harrison Stringfellow

Lady Bountiful's Bazaar

A vision for Prescot Market Place

Lady Bountiful’s Bazaar is a design developed in collaboration with Howard Miller Design to revitalise Prescot’s historic market place.

Based on consultations with local people by PLACED and rich historic narratives, the design is an invitation for things to happen. Simple landscape design decisions stitch the Market Place back into the fabric of Prescott, to reinstate street life with a theatricality and buzz deserved of the town.

The existing toilet block is re-used as a cafe with external seating, helping to to define the personality of the place, as well as providing natural surveillance.

A new gallery bridge connects the church to the ‘Penny Bank,’ with ‘Opera Balconies’ for views along the route, down to the activity in the bazarre, and beyond to the wider town.

Echoing the medieval fairs, Bountiful’s Bazaar comes to life at night, providing space for street-food carts and performances designed to support the social and economic plans for the town.

The existing sunny northern boundary is re-purposed to host fruit trees for use by the community. Green ribbons of pollinator friendly meadow planting define slow routes through the site.

The proposal is intentionally not a building but a strategic landscape proposal that is self sufficient and robust – acting as a catalyst not an overhead. The budget is targeted on the things that encourage civic life back to the heart Prescot such as level access, convivial spaces and welcoming lighting.