Bolton:
This article/story is by far the most difficult that I have ever undertaken, mostly due to the shear lack of photographs and information.
I was fortunate enough to be invited to view this beautiful building in all its glory, however, photography was forbidden and information online is far from easy to come by.
I will add a couple of stock photos of the exterior, but sadly very few if any interior shots exist to this day.
Whitakers opened it's Bolton Department Store doors in 1829 trading for 167 years, before being purchased by Beales in 1996, however, the name remained unchanged until 2011 when it was changed to Beales.
I would normally start with a nice photo here, however, on this occasion I can only describe what I saw on the day.
Firstly let me explain that there is no way for anyone to get inside of this building without explicit permission being granted!
Upon entering this beautiful old building, I was instantly taken back in time to my childhood, memories of the old department store came flooding back to me I felt like I was 8 years old again.
I recall shopping there with my mum when I was a child and much of the layout remains unchanged in that respect, the stairs and lifts are as they where and how you would remember them, many of the in store signage can still be seen in perfect situ.
However due to good old mother nature, sadly the building did suffer from water ingress, causing some damage in the process and leaving behind that distinct odour that always comes with old buildings.
Oddly the tour started on the first floor and so our next stop was the ground floor, this was much the same as the floor above, yet still equally fantastic to see and it did feel strange to standing on the inside of the blacked out windows, however, on this floor its possible to see where the tills would of once been located and again much of the old signs could still be seen.
The strangest thing about this floor, was one particular room behind one of the big plate glass windows, it was very different to the rest, in the way that it was decorated heavily with mosaic type tiles, green in colour and reminding me of an old Victorian Baths else an old arcade style precinct, this room was hard to explain not only by myself but also by the property manager.
Heading down to the basement I recalled seeing the former public stairwell was blocked, and so we must of used a “staff only” stairwell to reach the basement level.
As we reached the basement I noticed a change of atmosphere, the others flours just felt like an old disused department store, however, this final level felt different, not unease or unwelcoming, but it did feel different.
Mostly likely the new atmosphere was caused by us being in what felt like an undeveloped part of the old cellars, the corridors was narrow with many little side rooms on both sides some complete with old toilets, most of the rooms had formally been used as store rooms, old shelves, garments rails etc. could clearly be seen in almost every room.
The floor was mostly made up of very old stone paving slabs, the walls seemed somewhat undecorated and the lighting conditions would have been close to zero if it wasn't for our very powerful torches, but as we progressed you could see and feel the changes between the parts that were built at different times in history, until suddenly we appeared back in a more modern area and to my amazement we were faced with an old disused cafe.
I did have an idea about this Cafe from the property manager, however, the internet really didn't provide much information and well talking to people about town didn't help either, it was almost as if this place never existed, however, I can confirm that it very much does and it was known as Cafe Nova.
The old cafe was not fully intact but it was clear to see that it was a cafe, a nice big white sign with blue writing to indicate the name, the old seating area appeared to be surprisingly clean and most of the kitchen also appeared to be intact.
I find it very strange that the internet doesn't yield any information and even stranger that the local townsfolk do not seem to recall this cafe either?
We now started to head back upstairs to see the final areas of this beautiful old building, climbing the stairs we reached the third floor that was once home to the in-store restaurant that I believe was ran by Beales directly, there was no tables or chairs left, however, it was clear to see that it was a canteen style setup, long old glass display cabinets where still as they would have been when the place was open, but the best part by far was a huge glass domed roof/ceiling.
Now finally last but by far not the least, we headed to one remaining area that was left to see, the “Turret” room, this is the found tower that can be seen on the front of the building and it really does have an atmosphere of its own, the room is pretty small with a very old style or untouched decoration.
Back in 1907 I believe that “Turret” was used as yet another Cafe/Tea Room, however, the thing that intrigues me the most about this room would be “why do they call it it the turret room?”, as of today I don't not know the reason for the name, but it would suggest a possible old gun placement, the “turret” is facing onto Deanesgate and possibly once had a better line of sight to the church…..
This is where my visit ends, however, it has started some new lines of research for the Historic Bolton team and I can only hope that we can dig up some more information from the deep depths of history.
Once again, I need to stress that there is absolutely no access to this building whatsoever!