Wigan Album

I remember them well! Going down the stone steps and smelling the strong smell of disinfectant. They were very echoey. You put a penny, ( a big pre- decimal one), in the brass slot on the toilet door and then you could push them open but they were VERY heavy doors to push and they shut with a CLANG that reverberated all round the tiled walls. Apart from the clang of those huge doors and the flush of the old-fashioned pull-chains the toilets were eerily silent..... due, probably, to being underground.

I remember one night my four mates, and I were travelling back, on the bus from Standish, it would have been in the fifties. We had consumed quite a few pints in two, or three pubs’ in Standish, and during our merry time, a thick fog had arrived.
It took ages for the bus to snail pace back to Wigan. I had never been has thankful to get into these toilets, as I had that night.

I never needed to use them but waited near them many times for the bus up to St Clements Rd.

Wigan had everything at one time, even underground toilets, so well located. I don't know of any other town in this era that had a convenience such as that. I wonder if they were ever used as an air raid shelter ...

Just noticed MEESONS sweet shop. I have a postcard showing 3 girls stood in front of the shop. but it's only now, I have been able to verify it's location. The only MEESONS shops I could remember were, on the corner of Woodcock street and Market street. and one at the side of the Court Cinema. The postcard I have wasn't any of those shops. I was beginning to think that it wasn't WIGAN but now I know..

Veronica,one in Bury top of Market St near Robert Peel Monument.Filled in about 10 years Back.

I thought there must be others Jinksi.
Not only those toilets but plenty urinals as well! The kind you hurried up going past...

They wouldn't have been used as a air raid shelter Veronica as they had glass bricks in the roof or pavement if up top. You can see them in this photo. https://www.wiganworld.co.uk/album/photo.php?opt=5&id=29662&gallery=Market+Place%252C+Wigan&offset=120

There aren't any toilets in Wigan centre any longer now are there?
So if needs must we shall have to do as the French do and love Le Piat D'or and risk getting splashed shoes.

https://youtu.be/CZz4-glFpvk

Something else I'd forgotten! Must be my age ... yet when it's pointed out I DO remember. Thanks Cyril.

Atherton had underground toilets opposite the Punch Bowl pub.

Am I right in thinking that these toilets were not removed or filled in but just covered over?

We used to catch the bus to Standish here before it moved down Market Street, near the TSB, opposite the old Market. I only used these facilities a couple of times. The smell was memorable !!

I remember my mother taking me to have my stitches out at Wigan infirmary ,we got the bus outside the toilets Wigan had a lot of character in those days ,town was always full on Saturdays.

There is half a chance that the toilets were a legacy from the old Town Hall on the same site...