The Google maps for Spalding lead me to think this busy marketplace is the wide triangular square called Sheep Market looking toward The Crescent. It is certain that most of the business, attractions and socializing is engaged in by men; only one woman is in this scene with her bicycle.
There is something of special interest that has the attention of a crowd of men facing Greenall Furniture Depot and Cabinet Works – perhaps an auction or demonstration. To its right is the Black Swan which advertises Billiards & Pool; to the left, where Swan Street intersects, is Talbot's Cash Drug Stores (A. H. Molson, Proprietor) featuring Cheap Prices; a sign for Motors (meaning automobiles?) points down Swan Street; Beales Photographer has two painted signs that appear to say Picture Maker (some specific product or process?); the building at the far end of the square is Arthur Beales, Motors and Cycles, again, does that mean autos, and are the cycles pedal or motor? One man on the left wears the duster that came into fashion in the early days of motoring (still a common term in the UK), so perhaps Motors was shorthand for motorcar after the turn of the century. Finally, a man with a sandwich board directs potential customers to Freeman, Hardy & Willis Boots and Shoes at Hall Place and Market Place, a street behind where this photographer was standing.
Spalding was a named place as early as 1000; a Benedictine Priory was founded by Thorold de Bokenhale in 1051 and the town was recorded as Spallinge in the Domesday Book in 1086. By the time of this photo the population was 9,000 and it was an agricultural center with a Butter Market and Corn Exchange which opened in the latter half of the 19th century.
This image was scanned from a 4" x 5" glass negative.