Where was I? Manchester Town Hall I think,
The Shelf at Equinox Housing Co-op, thankfully I did not fall off though I get the impression there are more precarious platform beds in Manky.
My first glimpse of the Victoria Baths
Males First Class! A splendid firm!
Males Second Class! A splendid firm! Not quite so splendid as males first class, stands to reason doesn’t it. Good to have Class in the baths innit?
Females! A splendid firm! No further comment.
Here we are in the Female Baths awaiting the AGM. I was in Manchester for AGM of Ecology Building Society of which I am a member. Wasn’t until I was in my late 20’s I found out what a building society was. Perhaps most people don’t know or maybe I am just blonde. Anyway the Ecology was the last of the Friendly building societies due to change in the law. So well done the pious founders of the Ecology.
The Victoria Baths was built by the City of Manchester under permissive legislation empowering them to build public baths and making an opportunity for workers and peasants (male and female) to get a bath at a time when not every home had a bath or shower.
I did hear that originally the water went first to the male first class baths, then to male second class and finally to female. Perhaps the long Victorian period (including the Edwardian period) was a particularly dark era when it comes to gender equality in Britain at least. In between the social change brought about by the Industrial Revolution with the end of the family unit working together in the workplace and the slow partial emancipation of women as the nineteenth century progressed etc
The Ecology. A Splendid Firm!
Now the stained glass in the Victoria Baths is just something else.
Here is Morning.
Male Baths, forget what Clarse
Life the universe and everything....
Wrestling! Yaya!
Footie! What fun!
Stairway to Heaven!
Cricket! Splendid!
View from the balcony
Brill!
Some stained glass up in the superintendant’s flat. Seems that super was in charge of all the public baths in the City of Manchester.
Running! Cue Chariots of Fire!
Golf!
Brain bashing! What a sensible idea!
Roll the drums for the Annual Assembly
Grand tour for the visiting Ecologists of the Victoria Baths. Likesay here we are in the chill out room in the background is the angel of purity. In this room the lucky punters would be chilling after Turkish bath or whatever so the stained glass would add to the experience and all that. Possibly even meditative altered states of consciousness (ASCs).
Anyway the Victoria Baths was closed some time ago and there is some splendid firm of volunteers looking after it and even in the hope of opening it up again. In the mean time there has been lots of filming including Life on Mars and Prime Suspect.
Close up of the Angel of Purity
In the Turkish Baths...
Or Russian baths not sure...
After a cracking AGM! Superb!!
The mind boggles....
The Angel of Puritiy
And back to Equinox. Did pass a church that like many an old nonconformist chapel may have been converted into a carpet warehouse or Mosque but in this case possibly both.... another post this one is taking me all day......
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