In the stairwell on the way down you could still see the outline of an old staircase — or perhaps they were the old escalators? — along the walls. The stairwell also had a loudspeaker from which the Gods of the Mercat would speak. Clearly a hangover from the Tesco days, it caught me off guard on the few times a message came across on it while I was going down the stairs.

I often tried to make sense of what bits downstairs used to be Tesco, but my memory of Tesco was too poor to make much out. I am pretty sure our stockroom used to be part of the Tesco shop floor, but the back door there just goes to the Mercat loading area with the big entrance on the Esplanade. Clearly a lot of work was done converting downstairs after Tesco moved out. It was certainly two or three years before Woolworths, Superdrug and Clinton Cards moved in after Tesco moved out.

Also, you can maybe answer a question: is/was there a secret underground world in the Mercat only the shop staff had access to (underneath Woolworths/Superdrug etc – back/store rooms, maybe?) Because the Mercat Tesco had two floors, and while the top floor became shops, downstairs mysteriously disappeared…