The Whale

Thank you so much for all posts about the whale. I never thought there would be so many responses!! I was beginning to think I had imagined the whole thing!! The photo is great. I was born in 1950 so looks like I was 9 or 10 years old.

houghton1854. Hi, I think you were a little younger, I would put it mid-fifties not sure, I believe it was moved from Trinity street to Corporation St because of complaints. At the time I thought it was classed as a big flop, it as been mentioned here on other topics, sorry if I disappoint you.

Hi everybody, I'd forgotten all about that whale, it was quite something at the time. I put the year at either early 1955 or 1954. I was at Courthouse Green School at the time and our teacher organised a trip to go and see this whale but unfortunately only so many in the class could go and to decide who they would be a lottery was arranged. Each child picked a piece of folded paper out of a container, if it had a cross on you were on the trip no cross, tough. One enterprising girl put her own cross on the paper and was shown up in class for cheating, something I don't think she forgot in a hurry. I decided to see the whale by myself and remember it was night time and people filed past it behind tarpaulins lit by electric light bulbs. I don't recall any bad smell although there was a notice warning people not to touch the animal because it was covered in some kind of chemical which could burn the skin, to preserve it I think. I wasn't particularly impressed, being so close to it one couldn't get a good idea of what it looked like and my height was a disadvantage too. The only thing that impressed me was the texture of its skin, it looked almost artificial, I didn't think much more about until now. Nostalgia, wow. Cheers

Once smelled, never forgotten .