Among the highlights of any visit to Bolton,
Lancashire’s delightful town centre is a trip to the galleries and museum in Le
Man’s Cresent, just behind the
magnificant Town Hall.
Le Mans Cresent
is a Georgean terrace, that
looks as if it has been borrowed from regency Versailles. Much of the cresent
arc belongs to the municipal, crown and magistrates courts, but the end section
contains the town Museum, art gallery, library and even an aquarium – all free
admission – all neatly held in one building.
THE LIBRARY
The Library is a general reading facility, with an
excellent archive – and a gift to students of the nearby university campus,
(where I studied in the late 1980’s).
Membership is required as with any library, if you wish to borrow books.
THE
AQUARIUM
The basement contains a superb aquarium, with
several rather over-lit fish tanks with lots of exotic catfish and Amazonian
Pirhana among the exhibits.
THE
MUSEUM
The Museum boasts several stuffed animals, dinosaur
castings, toys through the ages (including many that you can play with), and
there is an excelent egyptology room,
with some real mummies on display. In many ways, the museum is a smaller
version of Manchester’s Oxford Road based University museum,.but tat is not a
bad thing.
THE
ART GALLERY
The real highlight of a tour to me is the gallery,
which has many wonderful paintings and scuptures from the 17th
century to the present day. There are
works here by Lowry, Pre-Raphaelites,a nd Henry Moore. The best work is the
scattered display of bronze sculptures by Jacob Epstien, including a startling and instantly
recognisable bust of Einstein.
The gallery is well worth a visit, especially on a
rainy day.
Arthur Chappell
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