Photo-a-Day  (Monday, 4th December, 2023)

As long as my pension comes from there, I don't care what it looks like.

Another blot on the landscape.
Wigan planners & architects well deserve the Booby Prize for imagination !

Nothing good to say about it. It pains me that it’s still standing in all its concrete ‘glory’. Is there no ‘RAC’ inside then it could be getten beawt it.

This building is like others thrown up at the time dour and drab. Go to Milton Keynes and look at the concrete jungle there or the outlying estates which look like they were build from Lego

I suppose it serves its purpose, but as far as style and character go, it's on a par with a bin-bag.

Yes this is one on my hate list of eyesores in Wigan. Bryan House Standishgate and Post Office Sorting Office Hallgate are others. The upper floors of the Tech building on Parsons Walk viewed from the bus station make my skin crawl.

You will remember the old saying.
Doctors bury their mistakes, Architects build them!

Even though an uninspiring building, from this distance it doesn't look too bad, but get close up to it and it's a dirty mess.

Alan P, all pensions are sent from DWP head office at Wolverhampton. Not Wigan.

This newspaper cutting uploaded by Ron on the Album shows a photo of the beautifully ornate Palace cinema that was there before Brocol House,
https://www.wiganworld.co.uk/album/photo.php?
opt=5&id=27010&gallery=King+Street+%26+King+Street+West%2C+Wigan&page=327

The Shakespeare pub further up was also an ornate building. https://www.wiganworld.co.uk/album/photo.php?opt=5&id=18923&gallery=King+Street+%2526+King+Street+West%252C+Wigan&offset=20

At Wigan Co-op where I worked in the late 1960s the women were in uproar over the name Brocol House as they said it sounded far too much like a house of ill repute?

Veronica, it may well have been built from RAAC as it was being used at that time and didn't take very long for it to be built and it probably keeps being patched up too.

Yes it's horrible,and I believe it is rented by the DWP.

Why 'Brocol'? Was is the name of the builder, some eminent politician, a benefactor?

Season's greetings to all on Communicate.

I have to agree with John,the photo makes it look good but it is a mess when you get close.Brian could get a job as as estate agent photographer.

I’ve always wondered where the name derives from…I can only associate it with Broccoli the vegetable. Of all the names that could have been chosen they name it ‘Brocol’

I remember that place in the 1970s, the staff were behind bullet proof glass, in a safety cage, it was more secure than a bank, and when you sat down and shuffled up the chair, it was then that you found out that the chair was bolted to the floor.

It is not like that now, but they have bouncers on the door and about three bouncers on each of the upper floors.

Dostaf

Don't be touching anything, yoo know what happened last time you were fiddling about with Wigan World ?

You broke it .....

Seasons greetings to you too Dostaf, your comical posts and the banter especially with Joseph are missed, I haven't been on Communicate for some time as it became just the same ones backbiting and making snide comments about each other - and sadly it still is, and a world away from how it once was.

There's nothing online as to how it became to be called Brocol House, maybe the building namer had heard of Brockhole House in Windermere and thought it to be a good name, only the name got misspelled in communication.

They needed those safety precautions too Sir Bob, with some of the folks who went in there, there were also Dado panic strip alarms in the interview rooms too for summoning help quickly in case of trouble.

Cyril, I remember going to the Palace as a kid and before the Picture started a man came round with a Flit Spray and gave all us kids a good dosing. Can’t remember his name now, but he was well known at the time.
No flies on me then tha knows, well not fer a day or two anyway. An extra benefit was that nobody wanted to sit next to yer on the bus home.

The one and only time that I ever entered Brocol House would have been around 1988 or thereabouts , as at that time , I had recently become unemployed , and my reason for visiting was merely to obtain a pension forecast form .

It must have been in the summer months , as the lobby area was strewn with layabouts supping a concoction of Newcastle Brown Ale and Carlsberg Specials ,.. amongst other mind enhancing substances as well no doubt … but who can tell ? , and as the security bloke appeared reluctant to abandon the safety provided by his bullet proof glass protected bob - hole and chuck the buggers out onto the street where they belonged , on my exit , I deemed it advisable to step carefully , unhesitatingly and apologetically over the prostrate bodies of the pride of Wigan .


God bless ‘em… I would imagine that many of them will be either under the sod or in rehab by now .

It’s evident that I survived to tell the tale obviously , although I’ve never had recourse to go back to the place … fortunately .

Herein rests my memory of Brocol House .

If perchance anyone finds themselves in the unfortunate position of having to avail themselves of whatever delights Brocol House has to offer , Go armed !

Just a bit of advice from a bloke that’s bin theer .

Ozy

I was there in 1987 and it was nothing like how you describe in 1988, for a start there was no security guard, and by that time they had constructed an open counter type reception, with no security screen, although the security cubicles still remained, and if folk had been that drunk and prostate on the floor, they would have called the police to remove them, because they would have been a danger to the 'vulnerable' groups of people who attended Brocol House.