Also known as Manchester's Water Palace the site was the winner of BBC2's 2003 Restoration series. Local people have been working ever since the closure of the building in 1993 to save it for public use.
External links
Victoria Baths, Manchester (http://www.victoriabaths.org.uk/)
Pictures of the Victoria Baths (http://www.manchesteronline.co.uk/ewm/001ewm/038_vicbaths/)
However, the poor of inner city Manchester were not, so in 1898 the plans for VictoriaBaths were announced.
Indeed when the baths opened very few of the houses in the area had bathrooms, so the slipper baths or wash-baths were a vital amenity, providing the opportunity for a real bath.
The corporation realised that prevention was better than cure, and offering the working people of Manchester a ‘real bath’ went some way towards promoting good health and helping to fight disease, although some who used the baths as children recall being scrubbed raw by attendants before they were allowed in the swimming pool.
They were created by Manchester Corporation as part of a general move to improve the health and well being of the ordinary people of Manchester, and they operated as public swimming pools, wash baths, Turkish Bath and a public hall from 1906 and sports hall from the mid-1980s until its untimely closure in 1993.
An application to the Heritage Lottery Fund to restore VictoriaBaths as a Healthy Living Centre was rejected, but the Trust is continuing to pursue a viable plan for the restoration of the building in partnership with Manchester City Council and English Heritage.
VictoriaBaths is open to visitors on the first Sunday of every month until October 5th 2003 - for opening times thereafter, please check the Official website to verify that times.
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