The 'Before' picture
Introduction
The photograph on this page of The 'Before' picture by David Long as part of the Geograph project.
The Geograph project started in 2005 with the aim of publishing, organising and preserving representative images for every square kilometre of Great Britain, Ireland and the Isle of Man.
There are currently over 7.5m images from over 14,400 individuals and you can help contribute to the project by visiting https://www.geograph.org.uk
The 'Before' picture
Image: © David Long Taken: 18 Feb 2009
"The History Shop" on the corner of Library Street and Rodney Street, just before restoration and refurbishment work began. Built in 1878 as Wigan's Free Public Library, designed by Alfred Waterhouse, who is most famous for the Natural History Museum in London. He also designed many prominent buildings in the region, including Liverpool University's Victoria building, of similar red brick to this - because of which the new generation of young Universities soon became tagged as 'red-brick universities'. Manchester Town Hall was another of Waterhouse's designs. Among his earliest public works are the set of Cemetery buildings less than a mile away on Warrington Road, Lower Ince. Sadly, the 1855/56 chapels there are being allowed to decay by the same Council which boasts of their care of this building.... All are Grade 2 Listed.
Images are licensed for reuse under creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0
Image Location
Latitude
53.544389
Longitude
-2.629708