Your childhood memories of bolton town centre

Yes im hijacking this part of the forum already

The town centre is no where near like it used to be.  I remember my grandad taking us to olympus for two cones of chips and us sitting on the elephants to eat them.  Thats my earliest memory.

Paying 6 quid to do all day laser quest in the summer holidays.

Bella pizza.  A quid for a 7inch pizza.

The fish market. Mainly because i worked there when i was 14 and my mum made me quit when i got expelled.  (How is stopping me from working a punishment?)

Stolen from ivor.  Again i worked here when i was 16 til 18.  2 pairs of combats for 20 quid

Then the nightlife.  10 quid with drinks free all night in temple.

Jungle. 

Atlantis. 

Walking home from town to harwood because I'd rather get a pizza or kebab than a taxi

I have to say that I've done the same thing with getting a kebab instead of a taxi and walking all the way back home down Blackburn Road in the early hours.  

Does anyone not remember pizza land? That used to be facing alliance and Leicester On the market place side I think it was? 

They used to do a good salad bar and pizzas before Pizza Hut and the like come to Bolton.

Used to always love looking in the model shop close to Cash Generator on Bradshawgate as well Although that's moved now.

I used to have a job selling stuff door to door when I was about 14, it was supposed to be for charity but clearly wasn't. Me and my mate earned good money from it and if people didn't want anything they just give donations which we weren't supposed to accept so pocketed.
We then used to get dropped off in town and spend what we'd collected in pizza land. They used to do a combo of half a pizza, a jacket spud and coleslaw

i used to love being taken in Boydells for a treat, it was a great toy shop. When i was a bit older i spent most of my time in the various record shops like HMV and Our Price but i remember WH Smiths and Woolworths also selling a lot of records as well. I used to like a bookshop that was in St Andrews Court but i presume that's gone now?

I also used to shop in Stolen from Ivor as a kid, i remember having a matching bright orange polo short and jumper from there in the mid 80's 

The biggest loss to the town centre for me was the Water Place closing down, used to love going there as a teenager

I was going to say going to Boydells as well, usually to buy a new Subbuteo team or some Lego.

My mum used to take me in Whittakers and I used to think it was very up market.

Think the last time I went to Bolton shopping was a couple of Christmases back and that was only to Toys r Us.

And everyone I knew seemed to have a birthday party at McDonald's.

i remember Wimpys opening! That was seen as posh and a treat back then 

A few eateries from when I was a child in town some of which my mum and dad used to take me too others when I was old enough to go in on my own I used to go in. Golden Egg used to be on Deansgate near where the RBS is now, Tognarellis which was down one of the streets off Deansgate, Derek Guest cafe (now some poncy place opposite the Market Place entrance) and Wimpy on Victoria Square.
Used to think it was great to climb on the lions.
Does everyone remember Bernard who used to sell the Bolton Evening News outside BHS, every time Bolton played at home the away fans targeted him, I think it was the Wolves fans once that lifted him into one of the fountains.

Norpig wrote:i remember Wimpys opening! That was seen as posh and a treat back then 

An international grill in the Wimpy was a veritable feast

I remember laser quest but there used to be a cheaper one near Tim's Gym called Laser Strike which was a lot better.

Used to go to the Crown and Cushion every Sunday afternoon for a few games of Snooker. Then an American pool hall opened a few years later (upstairs next to Argos).

Sabini's ice cream parlour and ABC cinema in Churchgate. Windetts in Bradshawgate for subbuteo, Newport street when cars went down. Odeon when it had a restuarant. Bulloughs and co op for records.

Had a job for a short time collecting glasses in Spencer's snooker club, used to think it was awesome talking to John Spencer the snooker player off the telly.
Then years later in Bergerac's used to bump into Tony Knowles another snooker player off the telly and think "what a wanker"

Soul Kitchen wrote:Sabini's ice cream parlour and ABC cinema in Churchgate. Windetts in Bradshawgate for subbuteo, Newport street when cars went down. Odeon when it had a restuarant. Bulloughs and co op for records.

Was it Manfredi's the Sabini's used to have ice-cream wars with

Used to go to the ABC cinema in town and call into poundstretcher on the way through town for a big bucket of toffee popcorn. Those were the days when they didn't look at you like you'd just pissed in their kids when you walked in with your own grub in a bag rather than buy them in the cinema.

Studio 1,2 & 3 where we went to an all-nighter once on Halloween where it showed Halloween 1 -5 all together. And when I got older Scamps next door where Peter Reid once tried to chat up my sister who was about a foot taller than him - comical

whatsgoingon wrote:

Soul Kitchen wrote:Sabini's ice cream parlour and ABC cinema in Churchgate. Windetts in Bradshawgate for subbuteo, Newport street when cars went down. Odeon when it had a restuarant. Bulloughs and co op for records.

Was it Manfredi's the Sabini's used to have ice-cream wars with

I think you went up steps to Manfredis but can't remember. There was also tognarellis in town but forgotten where.

Soul Kitchen wrote:

whatsgoingon wrote:

Soul Kitchen wrote:Sabini's ice cream parlour and ABC cinema in Churchgate. Windetts in Bradshawgate for subbuteo, Newport street when cars went down. Odeon when it had a restuarant. Bulloughs and co op for records.

Was it Manfredi's the Sabini's used to have ice-cream wars with

I think you went up steps to Manfredis but can't remember. There was also tognarellis in town but forgotten where.

Tognarelli's was up some steps on the street that ran by the side of Burton's if I remember right, used to go in there for pasty chips and peas (may have been Carr's pasties even back then). Can't remember where Manfredi's was just remember the wars between them and the Sabini's, they used to set each others ice-cream vans on fire.

anyone remember this in the Arndale?