Wigan Album

Atmospheric photograph. Yon can see the Grand Hotel, mid left of the picture: once Wigan's finest hotel; now a crumbling shell...Sad.

Thats a very good photo for the 60s, thanks for the upload Peter

Peter,thank you for all your recent postings ,all have been very interesting,
this one is very atmospheric,and my favourite so far,

I agree with Tom; a brilliant photo, full of atmosphere.

The other side of the long wall ,on left of the photograph would be,at one time, the front of Gee's dancing school, where I was taught to dance. was never really much good at it. You can see Coops sewing factory at the extreme left side of the photograph, below the mentioned Grand Hotel, where I had my wedding reception, after my marriage, many years ago.

For a few years, late 40's. early 50's, I went from her to Southport for my music lessons. Thank you so much for these photos, they have brought back so many happy memories. My Dad loved his job as a Goods Guard.

The Gee school of dancing later became the Las Vegas Club. This was followed be a string of other ventures including Shapiro's. Great shot though, Peter.

This is one of the very few times that these films have seen the light of day since I developed them; all the 35mm were taken with my first SLR a Beauty Camera Co. model, Japan, went defunct and Dixons I was informed, bought the bankrupt stock. I sold it around 1967 to upgrade to a Russian camera, better lens but found out later the camera wasn't a patch on the Japanese.

Peter, it's great that you took these when you did. Not many people record details of their early careers, and manage to retrieve them much later on.

The buildings to the left of the church, that housed the H. Q. of the Wigan Division, of the Lancashire Constabulary, and round the corner in Hallgate, The Labour Exchange. Are these building still standing, or have been pulled down?

Thanks again Peter,I've been modelling all these buildings but how do I reproduce that atmosphere??
I wonder if Brian will let me upload a photo of my model into 'Album' as it is a 'new' photo can but try i guess.
Kevan

You would need a good smoke machine Kevan to produce the atmosphere that was about in those days. I used to pedal to Wigan and other places when I first started at B.R. in 1960, when it was foggy I would arrive at work with a smog coated black face; your model should pass without the smog.

Peter. Excellent photographic illustrations of the Wigan scene, both of railways, and buildings, in the mid twentieth century. Your comments are correct about the smog,in the late fifties and early sixties. It was so bad during the winter months, we were issued with smog masks, before going out on the beat. It was necessary to change the antiseptic gauze at your break time. They were covered in a black, tar like gunge where your mouth, and nostrils had been.

Lights are burning bright in the Telephone Exchange!

Does the church clock say twenty past eight or twenty to five.