Wigan Album

what a cracking photo thanks for sharing it. quite a few pubs round nr baths.

Great photo. The baths was officially opened in April 1964. It looks like its still being built here, so I would say 1963/4.

Anita that is a brilliant picture, thank you I live in that area now and its great to see pics from the past x

I paid a short visit to Wigan two years ago in 08, I was in Liverpool as European Capital of Culture..desperately looking for Douglas House and other familiar sights..but Wigan has changed sooooo much...I couldn't find Douglas House, I even asked people in the street.....Wigan Pier was still there and Mesnes Park and the Odeon, if I remember rightly...

Great photo of the mid 60s, the pub on the right was the Horse shoe, the one in the centre was the Bath Hotel, not sure about the one next to the baths, could be, Mitre or Plume of Feathers? those names ring a bell around that area. the cars a Triumph Herald and a Thames truck. Not so sure about the dates... the baths opened it's doors to the public in 1968 and closed on sunday 21 Sep 2008. At a guess the date of the photo would be around 1965-6. Remember, buildings took longer to build in those days.

..as the Speakmans used to live in another part of Wigan in 1963 when I visited for the first time, this got to be 1964 I took the photo...
thank you very much for all your lovely comments and further information...so nice to share these memories...will definitely be back in Wigan this summer, trying to meet old friends...

Yes I agree with colin (I think hes spelt his name wrong) the baths opened in 1968.

..I remember now clearly..the rear door of the van opened and out jumped a few men, workers probably..every afternoon the same procedure...that's what intrigued me to take the photo...by the way it says "Rigby" on the van...

Anita lovely photos, I think its the passenger door the men left the truck, you can just about see the doors still open.

Yes Roger, I did spell my name wrong....so did you!

So I did Colin. Thanks.

When people take photos of a pacific building, cars or things in general, its only after years do surrounding objects become even more interesting. thanks Anita.

you are so right, Tom...all these details I am recognizing and appreciating only now after so many years..I always thought that this was a rather dull photo taken through the window panes..not much to see really..how wrong I was...

I thought the baths opened in 1965/66 not 68!

The baths opened in 1966 as we went in a group from work. I remember it well as I went to Spain in 1966 as well when the World Cup was on a few weeks later!

Douglas House was the first of the high rise flats to be built in Wigan at eleven stories high, unlike the different styled Crompton, Mannion, Derby, Woodcock and Brook Houses with 13 floors, and also Boyswell House further up Scholes. The trio of Worsley Mesnes flats, Dryden, Thackeray and Masefield Houses were 16 floors, and were demolished in 1991, that contrasts with ths Scholes flats that are once again being refurbished. In this mid 1960s view, the new Wigan international pool is under construction, (there were also two smaller pools) on the Millgate side. And I don't know the name of the pub at the bottom where the multistorey car park was built. The other pub was the Horseshoe demolished in 1985 to make way for the new ring road.