Photo-a-Day  (Saturday, 14th September, 2024)

I feel that these houses anywhere else would have been reburbished before they were allowed to get into that state. It smacks of , let them get get even worse , then we can demolish them a put up another ticky tacky box or car park.
I lived in Dicconson St for while many years ago & thats what happened to the 3 storey house my relatives had, it was turned into a car park I believe.
What do you expect from a council with a collective mind ?
Who owns them ?Somebody must.

If they renovated them there would be more room to house the illegals.The Red Cat pub in Hindley Green was empty and derilect for donkeys years ,like these, has been very nicely been renovated.

Nothing beside remains. Round the decay of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare, the lone and level sands stretch far away.

Dont be saying that PW, our own people cant get houses there are a lot of genuine people who are homeless out there or even on the council waiting lists to get houses its a disgrace they should be spending money these houses on the picture and try to get them up to standard for a family who is in desperate need like for instant a lot of families have lost there houses when the mortgage rates keeps going up and they could not afford to pay it.

It beggars belief! The shortage of houses in this country and buildings like this are left to rot. It needs good builders to work their magic and convert them into apartments. Instead of building new apartments in the town centre fix these.
I would love to see photos of how they were in the fifties. It was a well to do area if I remember.

There was a rumour at school in the 1960s that there was a "house of ill repute" in this street. Was this just an urban myth ?

I was walking past again the other day and took another photo of the buildings around the corner.
The first three are in a similar state of disrepair but the six large three storey buildings in the adjacent block have been restored in an identical fashion and would grace any fashionable street in Regency England.
I have sent a photo of these to PAD and hope they appear for comparison in the near future.

PS. I also took a photo at the rear of that imposing double fronted building on the left.
The land at the back completely overgrown extends to Brick Kiln Lane and has a lovely arched window feature in the centre of the upper floor. Dilapidated like the front it must have been quite something when first built.

Whenever I pass these houses I always think what a terrible shame to let them get to this state..I would love to have seen them in their prime..and what a place to have lived when they were occupied back in the day.

Carolaen , the house of ill repute was in Dicconson Street opposite Dt Johns Hall. You could see some of the antics going on at night through the window when us young lads were attending the youth club.

I seem to recall an optician being in the building on the left, but the other buildings and around the corner on Dicconson Street were at one time credit drapers, I remember Gunns being there and Chesterfield House furniture was in later when they had moved from the Wesleyan school, which was being demolished. Jimmy Collins was later using them for a few years as an antiques warehouse and an optician was also in one of those buildings too, the upper floors of the buildings on Dicconson Street were for a while let out as flats, but for a good many years they have sadly been left to deteriorate, maybe the owners are the same as the other townhouses that Colin mentions which are a stone throw away on New Market, they too had been flats.

There was an application made to the council in 2023 to convert all of these properties into 31 apartments, if this was passed or not there is no further mention. https://publicnoticeportal.uk/notice/planning/654112d7b695f7c640776cb9

Surely no one could object, as renovated to a high standard and converted into apartments is far better than letting the buildings fall into even more disrepair.

So it was true about that house Colin, I too had heard rumours when I'd been at school in Pemberton, and one day asked the van driver I worked alongside at the Co-op, he pointed out a house and when I looked it was the Wigan Communists name on the door, I presumed that he was only joking, though Cynthia Payne hadn't thought of putting that nameplate on her door.

If they renovated them there would be more room to house the illegals.The Red Cat pub in Hindley Green was empty and derilect for donkeys years ,like these, has been very nicely been renovated.

If these old walls could speak
Of things they remembered well.
Stories and faces dearly held,
A couple in love
Living week to week---
Rooms full of laughter,
If these walls could speak.

If the old halls
If hallowed halls could talk
These would have a tale to tell
Of sun going down and dinner bell,
And children playing hide and seek
From floor to rafter,
If these walls could speak.

If these old-fashioned panes were eyes
I guess they would have seen it all,
Each little tear and sigh and footfall
And every dream that we came to seek
Or followed after
If these walls could speak.

Taken from. IF THESE WALLS COULD SPEAK by Jimmy Webb.

Maureen, I always think the same.
It would probably take a lot of money to put these buildings back into a presentable condition. These houses were empty when I was a kid and have been neglected for far too long.
When these houses became empty, this area was respectful and considered a good area of Wigan to live.
I have never understood why they became empty and just left as they would make nice homes or nice apartments.

In March 1926 when my Father moved from Maidstone to Wigan to work at Northern Counties then onto Massey Bros. he found lodgings at 57 Upper Dicconson Street and also for a sort time at No.2 Dicconson Terrace (relatives of No.57). From his diaries he had a least another 2 or 3 other lodgers as well as the owners family. He also attended St.Pauls church at 10-30 on the 1st Sunday and I quote "had a back seat, couldn't understand the sermon but enjoyed the singing" He returned for the evening sermon which he enjoyed.

Carole an/Colin Traynor The ‘house of ill repute’ was said to be #22 if my memory is correct. I was a cadet in St John’s Ambulance Brigade, we had weekly meetings in St John’s Hall in the early 1960’s.