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.