Housekeeping at Victoria Baths, 10 January 2016

After an absence of two years we returned today to Victoria Baths in Chorlton and helped Chris, Neil and Simon clean and prepare the Gala Pool surrounds ready for the filming of The Drowning of Arthur Braxton.  The film is crowdfunded:
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/fireflight/the-drowning-of-arthur-braxton

Before we began Neil gave the seven of us an in-depth tour of the main areas of the Baths (the three pools (Male 1st Class, Male 2nd Class, Females), Committee Room, Superintendent's Flat, Clock Tower, Aerotone (early jacuzzi!) and Turkish Baths), referring to photos from the early 1900s to shows us how the pools/rooms looked in the Baths' earliest days.  The stained glass windows in the front walls were dazzling in the morning sunshine.

The worktasks were to remove the metal rail barrier from around the pool (Neil/Tim/Phil), clean the metal railings of the gallery (Tricia/Louise/Karin/Daniel) and vacuum the cabins around the pool (all of us).  Next week United Utilities will fill the pool with 400,000 litres of water!

Victoria Baths Sun 19th Jan 2014

Four of us went to Victoria Baths to continue helping with the improvements at the Baths.


 

This time we were stripping paint from under the balconies in the Second Class Males pool area.

As you can see we wore protective gear - safety glasses, dust masks and white paper
suits! - very fetching!!

We first tried removing the paint using long wooden broom handles with scrapers attached but this didn't really work so we stood on platforms so we could reach.

We were really lucky as Neil, one of the volunteers at Victoria Baths, gave us a tour of the building and explained all the improvements that had taken place since they won the BBC Restoration program 11 years ago.

Victoria Baths workday on Sunday 18th November

Five of us spent today at the Victoria Baths in Chorlton doing housekeeping jobs with staff members Neil and Martin.  This was our first visit to the Baths in 2012 and a year after our last visit.  The jobs we did were:

- Fitting rubber feet to 100 fold-up chairs

- Scraping whitewash off the floors around the sides of the Second Class Males pool

- Power washing said floors and the ramp at the rear of the building

- Removing builders’ rubble from the heating pipes beneath the Turkish Baths

 

Gala/First Class Males Pool

Over lunch and at the coffee breaks we heard from Neil about recent developments at the Baths. Of note in 2012:

- All three pool halls and the Turkish Baths Rest Room have been granted marriages licences and eight marriages/civil partnerships took place this year plus several more receptions

- £13,000 has been collected to restore the “Aqua” stained-glass window in the Gala Pool and a local stained-glass maker has been commissioned

After we'd finished work Neil took us on a tour of the Turkish Baths.  They have discovered recently how all the plumbing worked to get the hot air and steam from room to room.  Next we visited the Superintendent’s flat at the top of the building and ended by climbing the clock tower. The views from up there across Manchester were fantastic as the light faded.  We had no sooner finished than the bell noisily struck the 4 o’clock chimes!

 

 

 

Victoria Baths

It appears to have become a tradition to go slightly astray from the our usual NT haunts and spend a day in the autumn at Victoria baths. Once again I took the day off - so thankyou to Daniel for the text and Nathan for the photos.

Today ten of us volunteered at the Victoria Baths in Manchester (www.victoriabaths.org.uk). It’s not a National Trust property but we know Neil Bonner, one of the staff there, and visit once a year. The building won the BBC’s Restoration programme in 2003 and with it prize money from the National Lottery. That was spent making the building weatherproof and refurbishing the stained-glass windows across the front. Work continues to restore the baths to their former glory and return them to public use.

We did a number of jobs in groups of twos and threes:

Removing cables from the Males 1st Class cabins
Removing the pool cover mechanisms from the Females and Males 1st Class pools
Vacuuming the flooring over the Males 2nd Class pool
De-weeding the car park

Cleaning the basement windows inside and out
Cleaning the paths at the front of the building

In between work sessions Neil gave us a fascinating tour of the building, from the farthest corners of the basement to the top of the superintendent’s flat and all places in between.

Victoria Baths 10 Oct 2010

When it came to setting up this autumn's program we were unable to make arrangements for this session.

As our program planner is also a volunteer at Victoria Baths - we decided to fill the gap with a session there (and sneak a peak at progress).

Our planned task was to clean the gallery around the gala pool (Gents first class), as some dirt/debris had been left behind by recent work on its ceiling / roof, but is was a glorious day so most of use spent the day marking out bays in the car park. One volunteer took on the unenviable task of pressure washing the gents first class gents - that hasn't been in official use for many years. We are told this is the first step to resurrecting them as usable facilities as part of future plans.

Victoria Baths

A small group of our volunteers turned out on saturday to help a different charity.

By all reports they enjoyed their day working behind the scenes.