Photo-a-Day  (Saturday, 21st December, 2024)

Well, it must be better that this interesting building will be put to another purpose instead of being a run down eyesore. Maybe if more people live in the town centre things might brighten up ?

I would rather see it converted into apartments than left to rot, but to be honest I wouldn't like to live there on a Saturday night when the revellers at the Dog and Partridge (or whatever it's called these days), George's Bar, King Street pubs etc. etc. are at the height of their nights out, shouting, swearing and revelling until the early hours. No thanks!

Apologies.....after sending in my comment I studied the photo more thoroughly and realised that the posters advertising the "apartments" are for businesses....hairdressers, offices etc.....the word "apartments" had suggested living accommodation and I had misunderstood. I just couldn't imagine anyone living there. Businesses for daytime use is another concept altogether and in a handy place for people using public transport, due to being so central.

Properties tend to be very small these days, I wonder if they will convert the two phone boxes into bed sits!

P.s. knowing what the town centre doorways are like at night, they probably both have existing tenants.

I wouldn’t fancy living in them. They might use them as a ‘ staging post’. for temporary accommodation. (Pardon the pun!)

Businesses thats a laugh every retail is struggling at the moment nobody is hardly going out so why would you put businesses there anyway its not in the popular area in wigan were everybody goes lets be honest theres no future anymore in wigan or even anywere its a joke shops are closing everyday and theres more to come next year the future aint looking rosey.

Memories oh memories when my dad worked at the GPO he used to park his car where the letter box was..my mams sense of fun was to write my dad a note and stuck it under his windscreen wiper..it read “
Please come home Jim all is forgiven.”..I’d love to have known what his mates said.

Good photo Mick Byrne.

Out with the old and in with the new modern accommodation. (flats)
The remaining red boxes could be maintained as an interesting feature from the technological past. The flats will be closer to the train station at least.

For any who are interested, the winter solstice is due and with it the rebirth of the sun. How many will be doing the slip, slop slap?Slipping on the sun glasses, slopping on the cream and slapping on a hat, or dancing (With Druids) for that matter.

Christmas is coming and I hope I've managed to put folk off sending uneeded socks and smelly stuff. This year I've suggested folk chip together for some tickets, because they are expensive and they're going like hot cakes. Not many shopping days left to book for 'The Beauty of Heavenly Beings Dancing'
(Shen Yun) a spectacular show by all accounts, including 5000 years of Chinese culture.
Looking forward to landing in Manchester in the middle of January to see it at.. the Palace, rather than getting a corb o coal for being.. naughty!
Fingers crossed.

"Sir Thomas Grey, Sir Thomas Grey;
The longest night and the shortest day." (old rhyme).
Maureen, I too would love to have seen your Dad's mates' reaction to that note!

That was a beautiful Post Office in the day, we always knew it as the General.
The Post Office is slowly being killed off, the scandals and the sale of the empire, the Royal family should step in the stop the sale of this British iconic business we all cherished.
Looks like this greedy Government will sell and cause even more problems to the Post Office people who were wrongly accused of theft. In other words, they want to give the P/O scandal to another owner.

Looking at the poster in the window it looks as if they are looking for small business tenants rather than residential.
That said all the proposed flats, either conversions or being built in the town centre look to be geared towards young professionals, scooting out of town to Liverpool and Manchester both of which are sucking the life blood and talent out of towns like Wigan and Bolton, the council of both towns being subservient to Mein Fuhrer in Manchester Town Hall.
Warrington (Cheshire) and Chorley (Lancashire) are both prospering outside the confines of Andy Burnham's One Party Empire. No wonder Bolton want the break away.

Colin I found your comment about converting the two phone boxes quite amusing and not beyond belief, I should have bought one when they were going for £40 in the early 80ties there was a yard full of them heading for Dovestones Reservoir from Mossley,does anybody remember the one just inside the bar/club at the top of Market Place where either Barclays or Tui holiday shop now operates from back in late 80ties.

Arthur totally agree with you.
The sale of the Royal Mail has been cleared by this greedy Government to a Czech billionaire Daniel Kretinsky for £3.6bn and has been agreed.
A Great British institution lost and will never be the same again.
Once again this Labour Government should hang it's head in shame.

Great story Maureen.
I'm sure most blokes fortunate enough to have been your father's mate would have drawn his attention to the matter with a certain measure of fiegned discretion. Perhaps by saying something like 'hey Jim do you know your _ _ _ disc is obscured', and had a titter together afterwards....er maybe.
Forgive me ladies you wouldn't have known this, but I'm sure you will understand. Most blokes don't like using that 3 letter word starting with T, ending in X and with the letter A in the middle, because we find it upsetting... .for personal reasons. - - X

My first job when I got married and moved to Wigan in 1969 was at Ackerley, Heaton & Pigot, next door to the GPO. I remember ringing my Mum from those kiosks, I was so homesick - and she'd be waiting at our village kiosk for my call. Those kiosks always reminded me of the 'hiraeth' I felt for such a long time before settling down.

Pat McC....thankyou for sharing that and glad you settled here eventually and can share in our photo-a-day comments. I always enjoy your input. So many people relied on telephone boxes.....whoever would have thought back then that one day we would have had mobile 'phones?!

I bet xxxxx has had more jobs that most of you.
I went to Chorley market recently and there were more potholes than anywhere in GMC. Bolton's a dump.
Wigan has a great deal to offer.
Let's not keep pulling town down.

I hope you're all not late with the Christmas Post.

Moved to Wigan from beautiful Wales?
What have you done Pat MaC.
Love Wales and the people who live there. Beautiful part of the UK.

The advertising says ,"to Let" and would you belive Barbers. The must be over half a dozen just on Wallgate alone.

My sister , who was ….. described the people of Wales , as the most beautiful people she ever met!

Thankyou, Mark! I am of Welsh origin.....my Grandad and my great-grandparents being from Wales. Unfortunately my singing voice is inherited from my Spring View Grandma, rather than from "The Valleys".... Talk about The Cats' Choir!

Makes me wonder if my Grt Grandfather suffered with ‘hiraeth’
( a deep longing) as he came from South Wales. I know his wife suffered home sickness for the Mountains of Mourn. She loved the song and used to sing it a lot. There’s something very special about Mountains and the need to see them again.

Some of us don't have a mobile Pat McC. Wigan has stuck with those two kiosks for a long time. It's good to know that you recovered eventually, and it seems you may not have been on your own. Sir Tom Jones had the same type of red Kiosk ripped off the street where he had lived in beautiful Wales, and then had it shipped over to his house in America. Perhaps he was a little homesick too... It's not unusual.

.

Thank you Irene, Alan and Mark for your kind comments. I was so lucky to have been blessed by wonderful Wigan in-laws and eventually settled down. I enjoy following PAD Irene and being able to connect with these great photographs of Wigan past and present and the memories evoked by these photographs.

'The Fields of Athenry'






.

I have a picture and the words of that song hung up in my kitchen, T.D. ; I bought it from a shop in Athenry on my 50th birthday.

Irene, I couldn't do it justice so I've borrowed a description of the emotions evoked by the song.
I'm sure there will be a range of emotions for the listeners when we sing the 'Fields of Athenry' together Irene. No matter what country they are from.
.
"From nostalgia and meloncholy to hope and solidarity.
The haunting refrain of "Low lie the fields of Athenry" conjures up images of a landscape scarred by history, echoing the tumultuos past of the Irish people. Each note comes with it a profound sense of longing and resilience, weaving a tapestry of emotions that resonate in the listeners soul."

There was a report in the local paper recently that this property has been mothballed.