Wigan Album

Thankyou for the information Frank....it is much easier to get your bearings when looking at these old photos when places are pointed out. I have no memory whatsoever of Wigan Central Station....I never went further down Station Road than The Ritz when I was growing up. A brilliant set of photos.

Thanks Irene and everybody else for your comments on all the photos. I'll try to dig out a few more pictures taken from high viewpoints in the near future.

This picture is taken from the roof of Derby House in Scholes.

I remember the outdoor car park on Station Road and there was an attendant who worked in a little box that can just about be seen in the picture. It was like a waste ground effect after they demolished the old train station.

They did build a purpose built multi storey car park on the far right of the picture close to Crompton Street but I'm assuming it was only constructed in the late 70s or early 80s.

An environmental health action in the early 1980s that went badly wrong has come to mind, this action was the first activity of measures in controlling the numbers of feral pigeons in the town centre, a few previous Sunday mornings prior to this day wheat had been put down to attract the pigeons to feed on, however on the particular morning in question the wheat had been dosed with Alpha Chloralose and Seconal to make the birds fall asleep so they could then be picked up, but half way through the pigeons feeding on the bait a Casino all nighter who had been resting in a car on the car park opened the door then slammed it shut, this made the pigeons fly off and away which they then began falling from the sky onto roads and pavements around the town centre causing mayhem - it was never repeated after numerous complaints about it.

Am I right in saying that you went down a flight of steps at the side of the Ritz to get onto the car park

PeterP that flight of steps took you to the Ritz car park.

Peter P & Alan, yes there were public steps immediately to the side of the Ritz building. And there was a little car park at the side which was accessed from Watkin Street (which was the short section of road connecting Station Road & Crompton Street). Towards the end of the Ritz's life, those steps became a haven for drug use and drinking by the town centre undesirables - very much what is sadly still in evidence across the town centre now.

Great pics and descriptions. I'm from Chorley but went to the Casino, Andre Bernard's and Wigan mining college on Library Street. Memories. (Including the pigeon fiasco...that was spooky.)
Thanks pal.