This was the second part of a trip out with Ojay who was desperate to get back down the arches as it had been at least a couple of days since his last visit 
Much thanks again for taking the time to show me around, help with lighting, and for the history lessons
It's nice to have seen it with my own eyes at last.
Pictures are done with fisheye to try and give it a slightly different perspective but it's still the usual tourist shots.
Short into borrowed fron Canute's excellent report (hope ya don't mind)
The Arches were built out into the River Irwell as part of a road widening (and level raising) exercise in the 1830’s. There were some pretty spectacular collapses earlier and further along the river so they seem to have decided to build it really well, plus the spaces were to act as landing stages, work places and storage (the south end arches may have been exclusively for storage as they had no daylight). They were used for smelting metal, making boiler cleaners, travel agents, a battery and testing station for the city electrical department (some of whose equipment survives), and as pleasure boat landing stages (although the toxic river was a bit of a downer) reached via a timber stair overhanging the river.
Flooding caused them to be less used in the 20th century until they were adapted for use as air raid shelters before and during WW2. The work cost £10,000 and included building the low level blast walls in most of the vaults. Different capacities have been given – say about 1600 people used these shelters (1030 people for 6 hours in unventilated conditions or as many as 5600 in an emergency if ventilated)
Cheers for looking
Much thanks again for taking the time to show me around, help with lighting, and for the history lessons
It's nice to have seen it with my own eyes at last.
Pictures are done with fisheye to try and give it a slightly different perspective but it's still the usual tourist shots.
Short into borrowed fron Canute's excellent report (hope ya don't mind)
The Arches were built out into the River Irwell as part of a road widening (and level raising) exercise in the 1830’s. There were some pretty spectacular collapses earlier and further along the river so they seem to have decided to build it really well, plus the spaces were to act as landing stages, work places and storage (the south end arches may have been exclusively for storage as they had no daylight). They were used for smelting metal, making boiler cleaners, travel agents, a battery and testing station for the city electrical department (some of whose equipment survives), and as pleasure boat landing stages (although the toxic river was a bit of a downer) reached via a timber stair overhanging the river.
Flooding caused them to be less used in the 20th century until they were adapted for use as air raid shelters before and during WW2. The work cost £10,000 and included building the low level blast walls in most of the vaults. Different capacities have been given – say about 1600 people used these shelters (1030 people for 6 hours in unventilated conditions or as many as 5600 in an emergency if ventilated)
Cheers for looking
