This c.1950 photograph shows the slight
bellying at the top of the original lantern spire compared with the
straighter edges of the replacement lantern, constructed in 1967. Up
to that time, the lantern had been lit by gas. The supply pipe and the
remains of the pipe fixings can still be seen on one of the columns.
The picture also gives another view of some of the buildings on the
west side. It appears that when this picture was taken, the single-storey
shop on the left had lost its roof or had been demolished and replaced
by a wall with a door in it. The white, three-storey building was Widnall
Bootmaker’s shop that appears in the Directories from 1890. The
shop seen through the central arch of the Buttercross was the Post Office
until 1936 when it moved to its present site in Long Acre