Young people with their towels at Kingstanding Baths, 1946
1946 · Warren Farm Road
Kingstanding Swimming Baths 1946. Copyright Dennis Elwell. Dennis Elwell is far left.
Shared by Dennis Elwell for the Voices of Kingstanding page of memories of Kingstanding Swimming Baths on Warren Farm Road.
Charles Southam recalls there: “If you hadn’t got a swimming costume you could hire what they called slips … A lot of swimming trunks in those days were woollen. When you came out of the water they were sagging and you had to be quite careful they didn’t come off.” He also remembers the baths being boarded over for dance nights in the 1940s. Harry Felton remembers the free pass, earned by swimming a couple of lengths in a set time, and “the hot 1d OXO in the cafe that overlooked the little pool”.
Notes
The photo shows a group outside a brick building; Voices of Kingstanding captions it at the baths. The demolition date is a commenter’s guess.
About this place: Kingstanding Ex-Servicemen’s Club · Kingstanding Baths
In Voices: “Dennis Elwell on the baths and the Settlement” (Dennis Elwell)
Local memories
What people who knew this place have said about it, in their own words. These are memories, not checked facts.
“I used to walk up Warren Farm Road to the swimming baths which was on the big island which had prefabs on it and the brook ran through the middle; they have all gone now, just the island remains. The swimming baths was next to the ex service club, that’s still there with a space beside it which was the swimming baths.”
“You mentioned the brook in the middle, I walked all the way along that to Witton Lakes. In the middle of the island was the coat of arms which my grandfather laid.”
“I learned to swim in Kingstanding Baths when I was 4 years old. The little baths was not in use in the war, I think it was used as a medical room … I always had a free pass; you had to swim a width to get one. This was increased each year and then a time was added and each year you had to swim faster.”
“I regularly attended Kingstanding baths where I taught myself to swim, eventually diving off that 16’3″ board (just the once). I remember it cost one penny weekdays to go in and three pence on Saturdays.”
“I remember the kiosk where you got your ticket to go in, girls changing rooms were on the right, boys were to the left. You got ready in a cubicle and had to remember the door number, so when you came out the pool the lady with the key could open the door for you.”
“Most of the kids had to wear the blue council cossies because we never owned one of our own.”
“I also remember having my feet inspected after having to scrub them with the long handled brush on the foot rest until red.”
“The attendant had a long pole with a loop on to go round your waist, so they could teach you to swim.”
“Nearly every kid I know went to Kingstanding Baths as the ‘free pass’ allowed us in every day … We started going in about 1978 … I learnt to swim in the small pool and remember passing the exam to transfer into the bigger pool … The working-mens’ club was next door.”
“My mom used to tell me she used to go to dances there as a teenager.”
“To think my father helped build the swimming baths.”
“I think the Kingstanding Swimming baths was pulled down and demolished in about 1985 ish? Or was it later than that, the beginning of the 1990s?”
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