Victoria Baths

I went on a tour of Victoria Baths with Carole and Pat and it was fascinating. They were opened in 1903 and there were three separate pools, first class men's, second class men's and women's: the photo is of the women's pool. When they opened it was obviously in the days before chlorine was added and so the water was emptied from the pools every three days. They would empty the water from the first class men's pools and put it through a filtering system and it would then go into the second class men's pool. After three more days it would go through the same process then go into the women's pool...urgh. The system was still in use into the 60's and of course the filtering was not brilliant.

The baths were open for 86 years before they closed in 1993, as well as the three pools there was a Turkish Bath, laundry, and an Aeroatone. It is a grade II listed building and it is used in many films and TV shows. In 2003 it won the BBC2 Restoration series. The restoration is on going and it is going to take millions more to complete. It was freezing inside and thought of swimming there makes me shiver thinking about it. Heating bills would be astronomical and even though it was great to see the enthusiasm of the volunteers who work there, I wonder at the viability of reopening as a public baths. It is in a student area and there is little parking too.

There were cubicles round the pools and the first class and women's pool cubicles all had doors on them. In second class they didn't have doors because most of the men and boys couldn't afford trunks so they swam naked so it was pointless having cubicles with doors on them.

I had swimming lessons in the old Eccles Baths and we had cubicles around the poolside. Sometimes bits of the roof fell in and the high chlorine levels left me nearly blinded every Friday evening but it was great fun. Those were the days when you did your bronze, silver and gold medals and used pyjama bottoms to make an inflatable as you learnt life saving methods. Oh those were the days.