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A narrow passageway (or wiend as it is known in Wigan) leading from the Market Place to All Saints church.
©Margaret Clough
©Margaret Clough
©Stephen McKay
Six 13-storey blocks of flats dominate the banks of the Douglas River south of Wigan Town Centre. Five are south of the river, but this one sits on its northern bank. There is a programme of refurbishment and landscaping under way to try to keep them occupied.
©David Long
©Galatas
Dist:0.1km north<br/>
©Alex McGregor
Dist:0.1km north<br/>
©Alex McGregor
Dist:0.1km north<br/>The chimney stack on the former Olympic-sized Wigan swimming baths has now been demolished.
©David Long
Dist:0.1km north<br/>The Olympic-sized Wigan Baths are being demolished almost brick-by-brick. When built in 1968 coal was still king hereabouts - hence the chimney stack for the coal-fired boilers. The chimney behind is on the former Wigan Mining & Technical College - now the Town Hall.
©David Long
Dist:0.1km north<br/>Wigan's Baths were widely acclaimed when first opened as the first Olympic-sized swimming baths in the area. Although the 50m pool wasn't quite up to Olympic competition standards, it did provide practice facilities for swimming hopefuls. Now it awaits demolition, and replacement with a 25m pool. Olympic hopefuls now have to travel to Liverpool or Manchester for racing practice. Seems strange as the country gears up to host the Olympics in 2012....
©David Long
Dist:0.1km north<br/>Getting far enough away to get the whole of a block in isn't always easy!
©David Long
Dist:0.1km north<br/>'The History Shop' in Wigan, shrouded in scaffolding during restoration and refurbishment work, which includes re-roofing the structure - hence the all-embracing sheeting.
©David Long
Dist:0.1km north<br/>The partially-demolished Olympic-sized baths in Wigan.
©David Long
Dist:0.1km north<br/>"The History Shop" on the corner of Library Street and Rodney Street, just before restoration and refurbishment work began. Built in 1878 as Wigan's Free Public Library, designed by Alfred Waterhouse, who is most famous for the Natural History Museum in London. He also designed many prominent buildings in the region, including Liverpool University's Victoria building, of similar red brick to this - because of which the new generation of young Universities soon became tagged as 'red-brick universities'. Manchester Town Hall was another of Waterhouse's designs. Among his earliest public works are the set of Cemetery buildings less than a mile away on Warrington Road, Lower Ince. Sadly, the 1855/56 chapels there are being allowed to decay by the same Council which boasts of their care of this building.... All are Grade 2 Listed.
©David Long
Dist:0.1km north<br/>In order to make the flats more attractive to long-term tenants the open space around has been landscaped to include more parking, and has been fenced off to make the flats and the car parks more secure. Douglas House can be seen to the left, and Derby House to the right of the block.
©David Long

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