Description: The stone wall on the left was part of the Town Mission Ragged School built, 1858. Centre, is a row of lock-up shops, demolished in 1973, which were open on market days (Wed. and Sat.) for the sale of second-hand goods. On the right is Victoria Baths which opened in 1876. Municipal baths were a vital part of urban life in the Victorian period. Elsewhere on this web site you can see the cramped dirty conditions of housing which once filled the streets in this area. The rows of terraces usually had no running water, and people shared a communal standpipe in the yards. Conditions were squalid and disease was rife. Councils realised that public baths, such as the one seen here, would provide a place for recreation as well as improve health and hygiene.