Mrs Gaskell's Baths, under the Imperial Buildings on Oxford Road

Here courtesy of Sally Dervan is an intriguing story. 

No visit to the theatre is complete without buying a programme.

Manchester theatregoers in the 1930s, 40s and 50s would settle into their seats and flick through their programmes before the performance began.

Maybe an advert in the programme would direct them to their next source of entertainment and fun?

The Gaskell family were hoping that would be the case.

Nestled between adverts for Affleck and Browns, Rolls Restaurant and Clifton’s Chocolates there was a regular advert for “Gaskells Baths”

Gaskells were offering swimming and diving lessons and Turkish and medical baths, all under the supervision of Peggy Gaskell.

The watery delights were offered “ under “ something else as well , because Gaskells Baths, including a heated pool , were actually under the Imperial Buildings , just on the other side of the railway bridge from the Refuge Buildings on Oxford Road.

A reporter from The Guardian Newspaper in 1959 experienced a sauna at Gaskells. He spent seven minutes in the sauna and commented that “it sweeps the filth of Manchester out of one’s pores“He also reported that Peggy Gaskell told him that Gaskells was, at that time, the only sauna in the country outside London.

As well as swimming and saunas, Gaskell’s offered treatments for obesity, rheumatism and sciatica

By the 1950s the adverts for Gaskells included a hairdresser on site. Presumably the lethal combination of swimming and steam left the ladies in need of a little help before they stepped back out into the hustle and bustle of Oxford Road.

In  the mid 1960s the adverts for Gaskells on Oxford Road seem to have disappeared.

A newspaper article from the MEN in 2005 might hold the clue to the other venture that may have been keeping Peggy Gaskell busy.

The report marks the death of “Manchester’s First Lady of Business” It told the story of Peggy Gaskell who opened Manchester’s first outdoor swimming pool, The Galleon at Didsbury, in 1936.

The report says that Peggy was running the Galleon until she was well into her 70s and she stayed a picture of health until her death, aged 93.

What are the chances of two people with the same name, both being involved in opening swimming facilities that were remarkably pioneering and ahead of their time?

I can’t find anything to confirm for sure that the two Peggy Gaskells are one and the same- but if they are not, I will eat my swimming hat....!

© Sally Dervan, March 2014

Pictures; from the collection of Sally Dervan

Collier Street Baths Salford

Now I went looking for the old baths on Collier Street recently prompted by a series of pictures taken by Andy Robertson.

And I have to say it wasn’t the actual building I was searching for.

Andy has done a fine job of recording them as they stand today, so I went off to search for the history of the baths.

I know that they were built on the site of the Salford Workhouse by the Manchester and Salford Baths & Laundries Company which built similar baths in Manchester.*

And that they were designed by Thomas Worthington who was also responsible for the Infirmary at the Chorlton Workhouse.

Some of the building has been demolished and what is left is a Grade 11 listed building.

But as Andy’s pictures’ show it is in a sorry state, and the level of dereliction appears to be advancing.

Looking at photographs from two years ago and comparing those with some from February along with Andy’s it is hard to see what future it can have.

Now I am sure I may have missed a detailed piece of research on the place and likewise overlooked a plan to save it, all of which I hope will be pointed out to me, but in the meantime I would get down there before it has gone.

And once that has been done there is always the Eagle Inn which according to one source is a “hidden gem of a traditional back street boozer and commonly known to the locals as the Lamp Oil. 

There are three small rooms off a central corridor with a central bar serving Holt Bitter. 

It is a Grade II listed building dating from 1902. 

There is a fine terracotta plaque of an eagle with the name above the door and for years this was the only pub sign.”**


Pictures; from the collection of Andy Robertson July 2014

*Greengate Baths, Collier Street, http://www.28dayslater.co.uk/forums/leisure-sites/87442-greengate-baths-collier-street-salford-14-02-14-a.html

**What Pub?,  http://whatpub.com/pubs/MAN/9899/eagle-inn-salford

More fascinating pictures of the lost Leaf Street Baths.

Just when you think that is the end of a story up pops something new.

And just about an hour ago Andy Robertson sent over some fine pictures of the site.

With his usual modesty he made little comment, but they reveal so much of the old baths and make me want to go down there and explore the site.

But Andy has done an excellent job so here are some of what was lost under back fill and is now again open to the sunlight.

The baths had been in by 1860 the Manchester & Salford Baths and Laundries Company which  had been formed in 1855, and built baths in Salford, Mayfield at Ardwick and Victoria Park.*

Its assets were bought by Manchester Corporation in 1877.

The company had added a Turkish bath in 1860 which was the first in a public baths in Manchester.

The Leaf Street Baths were demolished in the clearances of the 1970s and today the site is open ground.

When I first posted the story I pondered on who remembered them and the response has been impressive.

There are those who wrote to me describing their first swimming lessons and those who still have their certificate proudly proclaiming their achievement at swimming a length, and memories from Tom who supervised children from nearby Royce School when they attended in the early 1970s.

Nor were the baths just a place for recreation, most also had a washhouse and facilities for families and individuals to take a bath, and in the case of Leaf Street it's own Turkish Baths.**

Location; Leaf Street, Hulme










Pictures; remains of Leaf Street Baths, 2016, from  the collection of Andy Robertson

*Leaf Street Swimming Baths, the first of a set of stories,http://chorltonhistory.blogspot.co.uk/2013/09/leaf-street-swimming-baths-first-of-set.html

**Manchester and Salford's Public Baths, http://chorltonhistory.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/Manchester%20and%20Salford%27s%20Public%20Baths

Leaf Street Baths in Hulme .............what was lost has been found ............ if just for a short time

Open to the sunlight again .............. the pool, 2016

I am always fascinated when a bit of our collective history is found.

In this case it is the pool of the Leaf Street Baths in Hulme which vanished during the clearance programmes of the 1970s.

It is place I have written about before *and features in the series on our Public Baths.**

To be honest my path to Leaf Street Baths had been via the old workhouse which had been established by the Chorlton Union in the 1830s and which within two decades had been replaced by the bigger and more impressive workhouse in Withington.

Leaf Street Baths, 1920

So in the course of the research I came across  the Manchester & Salford Baths and Laundries Company which opened Leaf Street in 1860.

This  was their third public bath house since the company had been formed in 1855, and it built baths in Salford, Mayfield at Ardwick and Victoria Park.  Its assets were bought by Manchester Corporation in 1877.  The company had added a Turkish bath in 1860 which was the first in a public baths in Manchester.

The Leaf Street Baths were demolished in the clearances of the 1970s and today the site is open ground.

Tiles unseen for nearly half a century

Well it is open ground but not for long because there are plans to build here and that takes me to these two pictures of the uncovered baths which were taken by Ian Wilson.

I had no idea that just below the surface bits of those baths were still there or that they would be uncovered.
When Ian posted the pictures on facebook they brought forth quite a few memories from people who had learned to swim there and I suppose for them as much as for me seeing the pool open to the sunlight again is quite wonderful.

Entrance, 1920

All of which just leaves me to suggest you take a visit down there before they vanish again.***

Location; Leaf Street, Hulme





Pictures; Leaf Street Baths, 2016, from the collection of Ian Wilson, and Leaf Street Public Baths, 1920, m57327 and entrance m57328, courtesy of Manchester Libraries, Information and Archives, Manchester City Council, http://images.manchester.gov.uk/index.php?session=pass

*Leaf Street Swimming Baths, the first of a set of stories, http://chorltonhistory.blogspot.co.uk/2013/09/leaf-street-swimming-baths-first-of-set.html

**Manchester and Salford's Public Baths, http://chorltonhistory.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/Manchester%20and%20Salford%27s%20Public%20Baths 

***170 new homes expected to be built in Hulme, Bell, Alex MEN, August 3 2015, http://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/business/170-new-homes-expected-built-9780001

Whitworth Baths on the Old Road ........... courtesy of Ron Stubley

Now for the last couple of days I have been thinking and writing about the Whitworth Baths on Ashton Old Road.

The stories have brought a shedful of memories from those who remember gaining swimming certificates there to others who described in detail the inside.

So I thought I would close with two of Ron Stubley’s pictures taken recently.

Ron has been contributing photographs to the blog for a couple of years and can always be relied on to come up with some fascinating pictures of ghost signs along with buildings long since abandonded and forgotten.

So here are two of the Baths which show both the perilous the building now is in along with the sheer size of the place which I had never really clocked.

They date from 1890, served the community of Openshaw for almost eighty years and now stand forlorn, empty and waiting for another use.

Today public buildings tend to be bland, all pretty much look the same and have those plain plastered walls painted in neutral colours.

Go back a century, and town halls, public baths, and even minor Corporation offices were decorated in tiles, and interesting stone figures and shapes.

Now the realist will point to the fact that the tiles made the walls easy to clean while both the tiles and the stone detail were mass produced and just bought off the shelf.

That said they gave a dignity to even the modest of buildings and said something about civic pride and that simple belief that even the most humble and work a day places could look attractive.

It may well be that the Whitworth Baths are doomed but at least we have a fine collection of pictures along with plenty of memories to stand for what was once an important part of the community.

So I shall close with this detail from one of the pictures, which show the fine finish the building was given along with its present state of dereliction.

Ron has recorded both and has captured the sheer size of the place streatching back and that  tall chimney.

Pictures; the baths on Ashton Old Road, 2015 courtesy of Ron Stubley