They are knocking the Odeon down!!!

[cowdrill]

ones where some strippers turned up on sunday afternoons and did WAYYY much more than strip

[Montreal Wanderer]

Unfortunately, Monty, where once there stood a magnificent red-brick building there now stands this monstrosity!

Good God!

[communistworkethic]

SOTWA, I think you're missing the point, and in fact adopting the stanpoint that is why Bolton hasn't moved on. Leeds isn't actually that big but it's an example of encouraging investment and redeveloping the place in to a modern city that encourages further investment. It's taken 15 years to move Leeds forward and it's still not finished. It took a council to have a bit of forethought and making planning permissions easier and invest some money thereselves. What's changed in Bolton has changed outside the town centre. Bolton shouldn't be looking at towns for comparison it shouldbe looking at cities.

Bolton is not small, as we continually have mentioned, it's possibly the largest town in the UK, it wants to be a city but there's nothing in Bolton that is city-like. The development of Bolton is a necessity, otherwise it will just decay further. Those that oppose change forget that the town centre was redeveloped in the 60s and 70s. Newport Street had buses running through it and the Arndale wasn't always there. The Market Place stands on a site which was a hole in the ground used as a car park and some derelict buildings through all my childhood.

Good redevelopment doesn't mean the end to existing buildings of architectural merit, it is the melding of modern and old together. That's what Bolton needs, we're in the 21st century but it seems some of Bolton wants to stick in the mid/late 20th if not revert to the 19th. Bolton has huge potential to bring new life to the town while preserving some of it's architectural gems for future generations by making them more accessible and functional in a changing society.

[Zulus Thousand of em]

Whatever happened to 'A Touch of Class' in Little Lever?

Its "private parties" gave it that unforgettable Breightmet nickname, "A Touch of Crabs"!

[bobo the clown]

The last thing we saw was the Scot's Guards raising their kilts.

A pedant writes - Scots Guards don't wear kilts. You may have seen a Highland Infantry Regiment showing off!

Listen ... I was 11. They were wearing kilts & were soldiers.
(goes off, muttering)

[Bruce Rioja]

Whatever happened to 'A Touch of Class' in Little Lever?

Surely, never before in the whole history of written English have those two been coupled!

[cowdrill]

Whatever happened to 'A Touch of Class' in Little Lever?

Surely, never before in the whole history of written English have those two been coupled!

leave it

[TANGODANCER]

while you have a valid point TD, you're a little off the mark I think.

Is the Odeon an exceptional piece of architecture? Hmmm , typical of its era but not necessarily exceptional. Bruce's call of the old fire station has stronger claims for me.

Plus there is a lot of conservation of architecture even where development occurs - you only need look a the Highbury development and the preservation of the art-deco frontage there.

I think as a resident of Bolton sometimes it's easy to miss how rough and scruffy the town looks. I come back and am a bit ashamed of it, take Le Mans Cres out of the equation and it's just another poor-looking former mill town. A town with pretentions of city status but one that lacks facilities and looks run-down. Can anyone name a major business (other than Reebok) that has a significant operation in Bolton town centre? Whether that be a workforce of 500+ or a regional HQ?

When I visit Bolton I stay in a hotel, I have a choice of 2 in the town centre - Holiday Inn and Pack Horse. The Holiday inn is ok but the Pack Horse is a flea pit. Bolton does need redevelopment to generate investment and jobs. But redevelopment and new architecture should not have to mean poor architecture.

Where we are inevitably always going to differ, Commie, is in our age groups. A purely generational difference. Take this post, not as an argument, but as a fact of then versus now. It's the main difference on our respective view of things:

A lot of progess in anything was halted for a very long period in Bolton, and everywhere else, by the intervention of the second world war and its aftermath. There was little money about then and people were more interested in where their next meal was coming from rather then their next visit to a gym or suana. It took until the mid-fifties before people even got back on track and started to look forwards. Older people of Bolton have a great fondness for the town as it was for a long time. Business complexes and even business itself was of little interest except as to where you could find a job. Self-employment was a rare commodity, with most people reliant on mills and industrial businesses for their living. This love of the town community spirit still exists in the older generation together with the fond memories of life as it was and all the buildings, shops and lifestyles seeming very preferable to today's clinical business-enterprise ruled world.

Shops were places where you could ask a question, be advised what you needed and treated with civility by willing and helpful assistants. Craftsmen and tradesmen knew their jobs inside out and cowboys were what you saw at Saturday afternoon matinees. Life, if you will, was more "honest" with people enjoying a common bond and a willingness to share.

All that said, I accept that we need to press on, and that we are now in the second millenium, the memories of places like the Market place, the Odeon and all the things we remember fondly can never be diminished by seeing a new complex of sterile flats or a massive high-priced retail chain of shops where our childhood and youth used to be. Each building that goes is just another fond memory ended for those of us that lived in an older era. Bolton then was a wonderful place to be. Somebody started a thread: "Why am I a Wanderer". The only real answer is because I come from Bolton.

You are not wrong in what you say, just a product of a younger generation. That's life.

[ratbert]

But whilst we have to move on, as commie said, you could keep the Odeon frontage and develop everything else behind. If Bolton has city status pretensions, what about a proper touring theatre or concert venue (not the bloody Albert Halls) along the lines of the Palace in Manchester? (Wolverhampton manages to have one that thrives despite being not too far from Birmingham). Or the facade could easily front a proper swimming pool.

I regret the Odeon's passing, it seems the present council is taking the easiest buck from the first property developer that comes along. The town could easily use its old buildings and mix them with new features and styles, such thought would point the way for other such places, rather than glass, steel and brick clonetownism.

BTW, Star Wars, with me Dad, 1977. *sigh*

[Bruce Rioja]

Here are a few snaps of your hometown, Monty.

St Peter's Way was probably still the canal when you lived here.



Bolton Greyhound Stadium where as a boy I'd spend the school holidays watching Ian Greaves' side train.



Burnden Park.



As discussed a while back, this is what was built to replace the magnificent red-brick train station on the other side of the road.



The old Bromwich Street training ground was another place where I'd watch the Wanderers train. I believe also that it was used by the Brazillian national side in 66.



And, of course, The Odeon.

[TANGODANCER]

Great pics Bruce. Burnden Park and Bromwich ground (looks like a clip from Brookside) make them all the sadder to see.

[susstudio]

Our Odeon in Leeds was shut down about five years ago and it's now a Primark, haha!!

[bw@bw]

Anybody else remember seeing Gerry & the Pacemakers - Cilla Black bottom of the bill - oh and on another occasion Gene Pitney live doing 24 hours from Tulsa?


As for the Saturday kids club - I seem to remember that at the ABC - or is my memory playing tricks again?

[Batman]

Sad to see Burnden these days............

[TANGODANCER]

, what about a proper touring theatre or concert venue (not the bloody Albert Halls) along the lines of the Palace in Manchester?

Aye, we had a couple of those: The Grand Theatre on Churchgate and the Theatre Royal on Deansgate......They knocked them down.

Credit to our Octagon Theatre though, who put some fine productions on.

[Batman]

Our Odeon in Leeds was shut down about five years ago and it's now a Primark, haha!!

That's the inbred County for yer

[communistworkethic]

does anyone else think it's odd Bruce takes random pics of bolton??

[Batman]

I find most things about the antics of TW-ers odd.


Especially the redheads.

[communistworkethic]

I find most things about the antics of TW-ers odd.


Especially the redheads.

like yourself?

[Batman]

Especially.