Oldham Council has renamed its forthcoming town-centre park “Tommyfield Park” in a last-minute switch that scraps the working title “Jubilee Park” and salutes the town’s 230-year-old market before its landmark 1990s hall is bulldozed.

The six-acre green corridor, stretching from St Mary’s Way to Henshaw Street, is still under construction and will absorb part of the market’s current footprint when the Henshaw Street building is demolished later this year. Traders are scheduled to relocate next month into a new hall inside The Spindles shopping centre branded simply as “The Market,” ending the Tommyfield name at the sales counters but planting it permanently on the park’s entrance signs.

A council social-media post announced the change:
“Oldham’s new town-centre park will now be called Tommyfield Park, a tribute to the market that’s been at the heart of the town for over 200 years. As the market prepares to close its current site and move into its brand-new home inside The Spindles this September, the name lives on in a new green space designed for the whole community, with open lawns, solar lighting and space for nature to thrive. It’s the end of an era, but the start of something new.”

Council leader Arooj Shah said the redesign keeps “the spirit of Tommyfield forward into something new that everyone can enjoy,” while residents have split over the rebranding. One local asked online, “What happened to it being called Jubilee Park? Have we forgotten all about the Queen now?” Others welcomed the nod to heritage, including Karen, now living outside the borough, who recalled “going to Tommyfield market with my grandma, mum and dad” and praised the park as a way to keep those memories alive.

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