Victoria Baths opened in 1906 on Hathersage Road in Chorlton-on-Medlock, a short walk from Manchester's Oxford Road corridor, and its Edwardian builders did not treat a municipal swimming baths as something to leave plain. A tiled entrance hall and a sweeping staircase lead into three separate pool halls and a Turkish baths suite, all finished in the ornate Arts and Crafts and Art Nouveau style the city's great Victorian and Edwardian civic buildings do so well. It closed as a working baths in 1993 and would very likely have been lost for good had it not won the BBC's Restoration series in 2003 — a public vote that funded the repairs keeping the building open today, Grade II* listed and cared for by its own charitable trust.
Weddings use the Gala Poolhall as the main ceremony or reception space, with the Turkish Baths Rest Room — home to the building's best-known feature, a stained-glass window called the Angel of Purity — and the smaller Pineapple Room and 2nd Class Males Poolhall available for a ceremony or as breakout space, so several rooms can be taken across a full day on site. A dedicated wedding coordinator comes with the booking.
Where the band plays
It is a genuinely unusual room for a band. Tiled walls, a high glazed roof and none of the soft furnishing of a hotel ballroom change how a PA behaves in the space, so it is worth talking through the room with your band before the day rather than on it.
How the evening runs
There is no published word from the venue on a sound limiter or a fixed finish time — worth asking about directly when you book, since a room like this can go either way and your band will want to know in advance.
Bands available in Manchester and perfectly at home in a venue like this.
More live music in Manchester.
- Manchester Wedding Bands
- Manchester Events Bands
- Tribute Acts in Manchester
- Wedding DJs in Manchester
- Corporate Entertainment in Manchester
Worth reading before you book: Sound Limiters Explained. More questions answered on our England & Wales FAQs.