Former Medical Hall, Abergele

Former Medical Hall, 51 Market Street, Abergele

This building was once promoted to the public as a “Medical Hall”. The sign painted onto the wall above the shop front records that it was the premises of DL Morgans, dispensing chemist and consulting optician, and that the business was founded in 1820. As the paint has faded it has revealed some of the earlier painted sign beneath, which appears to have had the same wording. A plaque further up the wall implies that the building was erected or enlarged in 1827.

In the late Victorian era the business was run by a druggist called John Hannah. In 1907 he was chairman of the urban district council. He was also a churchwarden, and his name is inscribed on one of the bells (dated 1887) at Abergele parish church.

DL Morgans was the pharmacist here in the mid-20th century. During the Second World War he delivered medicines to Gwrych Castle for Jewish children who were living there after fleeing Nazi persecution in the ‘Kindertransport’ initiative.

Selling and processing photographic films was one of his services after the war. Film from cameras had to be immersed in chemicals to fix the images before further exposure to light. Mr Morgans advertised “quick service” with films, perhaps to appeal to visitors. You can see the end window of his shop in the old photo on our Harp Inn page.

He had three shops in Market Street by June 1971, when he lost some of his stock in the severe flooding that hit the town after a thunderstorm. He had seven people trying to empty the floodwater in one of his shops as the water poured along the street from the river Gele.

The former Medical Hall fell into dereliction in the 1980s but was renovated in the 1990s. Since 1995 it has been home to Kitchens of Abergele. 

Postcode: LL22 7AF     View Location Map

Website of Kitchens of Abergele