The Victoria Baths

When The Victoria Baths opened, they had a strict admission policy, with three front doors: one for all the Females, one for Second-class Males, and one for First-class Males.

We would’ve been allowed in the First-class Males’ door, if we’d brushed up and it was still open. I doubt that either the man who hit the other man in the face with his Mountain Bike or the man who got hit in the face with the Mountain Bike would’ve been allowed in the First-class Males’ door. They would have had to use the Second-class door.

We got to Big Hands on Oxford Road. We had some drinks, probably. It got dark. We were there to see Frank Black from The Pixies play four songs in the street. He had sunglasses on, but I was sure he was looking into my eyes. It was a special moment with my friends, and a woman I was falling in love with. She would have had to use the Females’ door at The Victoria Baths. But that is a whole other thing, and is getting away from the subject.

The Victoria Baths fell into disrepair after they were closed. But then, in 2003, The Victoria Baths won the BBC’s Restoration TV programme competition. The Heritage Lottery Fund promised around £3 million to restore the building. It has opened again to visitors now. We haven’t been in to see the inside yet.

When we were stood outside Big Hands, waiting for Frank Black from The Pixies to arrive, the man who had been hit in the face with the Mountain Bike came up to me.

At first I was worried that he had seen us laughing at him being hit in the face with a Mountain Bike. But he had not approached me to deliver comeuppance or rebuke. He asked me for 50p. He told me that his father was in hospital, and he needed to phone him. I gave him 50p. He went into the phone box. He rang someone. I did not believe that he was ringing his father. I assumed he was ringing someone to talk about getting some drugs, or how he had been hit in the face with a Mountain Bike.

The funding promised to The Victoria Baths is intended to make it a Healthy Living Centre for local residents of the Hathersage Road and Longsight area. I can’t remember if I walked back home that night, past The Victoria Baths, or if I went to the woman who I was falling in love with’s house. But that is a whole other thing. I remember the man hitting the other man in the face with his Mountain Bike, opposite The Victoria Baths, in the sunshine.

Aiden Clarkson is a third-year English and Creative Writing student at Manchester Metropolitan University. He has previously had words published in Man Met’s Muse 6 collection, and the Animals issue of Succour. He is going to visit The Victoria Baths. http://spookyactionspookyaiden.blogspot.com/

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