Wigan's former post office goes up for sale as £2m bar plan is shelved

Bar chain tycoon Tony Callaghan bought the 140-year-old building on Wallgate in 2021, after its closure two years earlier as part of a Post Office cost-cutting programme.

He had a £2m masterplan to transform the historic building into a “city bar”, function rooms and offices.

But he says that a drop in footfall in Wigan town centre and changes to people’s drinking habits since the coronavirus pandemic mean he cannot justify the investment.

Mr Callaghan said: “Everything has changed since Covid. People’s drinking habits, their social habits have totally changed. We haven’t got a town centre in Wigan at the moment, it’s been knocked down, and we haven’t got the footfall of people coming into Wigan.

"Until the redevelopment is done, I think I might be sitting potentially with an empty bar.”

The building is currently for sale, with offers wanted in the region of £495,000, but Mr Callaghan says its future has not yet been decided and he is “hopeful” that it will not remain empty for long.

He said: “I have had lots of different people interested in it for different things. I am negotiating with someone to lease it out for another use. I might just keep hold of it, I might not sell it on.

"I am confident in things in Wigan further down the line. I have an application for flats at another property I own.”

Construction of the building by the Crown Post Office began in 1884 and it was one of 57 purpose-built premises around the country.

It opened on October 19, 1885 and comprised two parts – the counter services area and a large building at the back, which is thought to have been used as sorting offices and a telegraph office.

The listing on Right Move’s website says the grade II-listed building has full planning permission for a change of use to a public house, with storage rooms to the rear.

The upper floors currently provide office accommodation and further storage, but would suit redevelopment to residential use subject to planning permission, it says.