One sunny afternoon during lunch break there was a ripple of activity round the toilets on the top floor in Ward Hall. The rumour went round that there was some female nakedness visible from the toilet window which overlooked the large Victorian building next door. This was some kind of club, definitely the seedier side of Victoria Park, Rusholme in the sixties. I expressed my disbelief as I was and still am a confirmed sceptic. However, when I looked past the scrum which had now gathered around the window, I could clearly make out a young woman’s head visible over the top of an open suitcase. The next minute she closed the case and her totally naked top half could clearly be made out by all of us. A tremendous cheer went up. Whether she heard us or not I have no idea. To the best of my recollection we were summoned back to class and certainly had a lot to occupy our fertile imaginations on that long, hot summer day.
When I try to analyse what was going on next door to Ward Hall I suspect the club was either hosting a photo shoot or even was a cover for a brothel – there were rumours that a functioning bordello was situated next to the church on Thurloe Street so it wasn’t completely out of the question.
The Brothel was the Brookfield Hotel round the corner. Not really a Brothel but a hotel specialising in one night bookings for Manchester Prozzies to take their Clients, hence the profusion of small white balloons filled with milk, left around the place, that used to confuse us all. The building next to Ward Hall belonged to the shadowy catholic organisation Opus Dei (look it up), that used to hold seminars and lectures there.