Bolton - Culture and Society

Culture and Society

According to a survey of the British Association for the Advancement of Science Boltonians are the friendliest people in Britain. Humphrey Spender photographed Bolton calling it Worktown for the Mass-Observation Project, a social research organization which aimed to record everyday life in Britain. His photographs provide a record of ordinary people living and working in a British pre-War industrial town.

Bolton has several theatres including the Octagon and independent groups such as Bolton Little Theatre and the Phoenix Theatre Company. Inside the Town Hall there is a theatre and conference complex, the Albert Halls. Le Mans Crescent, home to the central library, museum, art gallery, aquarium, magistrates' court and town hall, is to be the centre of a new Cultural Quarter. The library and museum are to be extended into the area now occupied by the Magistrates Court. Bolton Museum and Art Gallery has a fine collection of both local and international art.

Bolton Central Library was one of the earliest public libraries established after the Public Libraries Act 1850, opening in October 1853 in the Exchange Building on the old market square (Victoria Square) before moving to Le Mans Crescent in July 1938. The Bolton Symphony Orchestra performs regular concerts at the Albert Halls and Victoria Hall in the town centre. The 2008 BBC Radio 3 Adult Choir of the Year and three times gold medal winning barbershop chorus The Cottontown Chorus is based in Bolton.

The town's daily newspaper is The Bolton News, formerly the Bolton Evening News. There is a weekly free paper, the Bolton Journal and Bolton Council's monthly newspaper, Bolton Scene. The town is part of the BBC North West and ITV Granada television regions, served by the Winter Hill transmitter near Belmont. Local radio is provided by Tower FM which broadcasts across Bolton and Bury and a new radio station, Bolton FM began broadcasting in 2009.

The industrial village of Barrow Bridge became Millbank in Benjamin Disraeli's novel Coningsby. Spring and Port Wine by playwright, Bill Naughton was filmed and set in Bolton and The Family Way based on Naughton's play All in Good Time was also filmed and set in Bolton. Peter Kay filmed comedy TV series That Peter Kay Thing in the town.

Bolton buildings have stood in for other towns and cities. Le Mans Crescent has featured as a London street in the Jeremy Brett version of Sherlock Holmes and a Russian secret service building in the 1990s comedy series "Sleepers". The 1990s BBC drama "Between the Lines" also filmed an episode in Victoria Square.