Glossop Road Swimming Baths

[willybite 10]

No. You've got the right pool. I went from about '53 to '59 with Pomona street school and later with Greystones. We got the bath cards and used them during the school holidays. All the cubicles had doors on them and the horrible coconut matting. Did my first dive off the top of the steps. Looked really high but I suppose it was only about five feet from the pool side. The mixed bathing pool was where they had the dances on Saturday afternoons run by Walter Collinson. I used to go to his dance school on Havelock Square and he used to have his medal presentations at Glossop road. I used to lead off with him when he was doing a dance his wife didn't like.

But back to the swimming. We never bothered with the vending machines but we used to go to the cafe on Convent Walk (opposite the entrance to the boy's baths) for a doorstep dripping crust. It cost a penny (lovely). Does no-one remember the cafe?

 

hiya i've just been reading your post about the cafe on convent walk, it was not opposite the entrance to the boys bath opposite was a door to the notre dame school, i can remember the entrance the pupils used was in cavendish street there was an 8/10 ft wall all around the school ,convent walk,cavendish street ,bolton street, victoria street, convent walk again, the cafe was between cavendish street and west street/ glossop road, at the corner of cavendish street was furnaces paper shop (alwin the son) bluets joke shop ,the cafe , and leadbeaters and peters , all opposite the bank on convent walk.

[vicky240964 10]

Anyone remember the 3 swimming pools at Glossop Road......the ladies pool, the gents pool and the mixed bathing pool ?

I use to live in Victoria Street as a child and went to Springfield Junior School, we use to get issued with a baths card ( a card made up of a number of small squares with serated edges), on producing the card on entry the attendant would tear one of the small squares off and charge us 6d.

The gents pool was very basic in layout with a 3 height diving platform, the ladies pool was much more elegant but also had a 3 height diving platform, behind which was diagrams showing how to dive. The mixed bathing pool had a springboard and a very high diving board

Remember standing on the end of it and looking down at the water below - seemed a long drop, took me a while to muster courage to just jump off it and when I did the stomach turned over !!

One of the best bits of my visits to the baths, was going to the vending machine afterwards and getting a packet of those cheese nibbles you could get along with a plastic cup of that thin watery chicken flavoured soup with the green bits in, then going to the nearby papershop in Cavendish Street for my comics: Hotspur, Victor, beano or Dandy.

 

all my family swam there. we used to go to an evening session where we could learn to swim. mums friend used to take 6 of us. we loved it. also remember Heeley swimming baths with the cubicles round the sides of the pools. thats was about 40 yrs ago!!

[fatrajah 10]

In the late 1950s I was a regular swimmer at glossop road baths. The mixed pool was the longest of the three, about 30 yards long with a 7 foot deep end. There was no access to the top board though. This pool was somewhat newer than the other two. The ladies pool had a rather battered look (chipped tiles etc) until its complete refurbishment in about 1958. The men's pool was the smallest of the three, about 20 yards with only a 5 foot deep end. This was in a poor state, but was never refurbished. I believe it was closed in the 1970s & the space used for changing rooms.

[vicky240964 10]

In the late 1950s I was a regular swimmer at glossop road baths. The mixed pool was the longest of the three, about 30 yards long with a 7 foot deep end. There was no access to the top board though. This pool was somewhat newer than the other two. The ladies pool had a rather battered look (chipped tiles etc) until its complete refurbishment in about 1958. The men's pool was the smallest of the three, about 20 yards with only a 5 foot deep end. This was in a poor state, but was never refurbished. I believe it was closed in the 1970s & the space used for changing rooms.

 

that sounds about right. i seem to remember when we went i was about 7ish and they had just been refurbished

[Janber 10]

Hiya Willybite

What can I say. The old memory is not what it was and it is a very long time ago.

[willybite 10]

Hiya Willybite

What can I say. The old memory is not what it was and it is a very long time ago.

 

hiya janber i've just read your post i don't know how it works but i have to see a name and it sometimes brings a memory back to me, like reading the posts about the mens pool, i think it was 25 yards long, the big one where they had the dances in the winter was 33 1/3 yards long, in the mens pool my dad took me to teach me to dive from the splash but i never did learn, in fact he stood on the splash and swam the length under water he was 40 at the time, another time there was one who plunged the full length of this pool, when i told my dad he asked me what he looked like and when described him he said that it sounds like my cousin joe weston.

[brian1941 11]

no. You've got the right pool. I went from about '53 to '59 with pomona street school and later with greystones. We got the bath cards and used them during the school holidays. All the cubicles had doors on them and the horrible coconut matting. Did my first dive off the top of the steps. Looked really high but i suppose it was only about five feet from the pool side. The mixed bathing pool was where they had the dances on saturday afternoons run by walter collinson. I used to go to his dance school on havelock square and he used to have his medal presentations at glossop road. I used to lead off with him when he was doing a dance his wife didn't like.

But back to the swimming. We never bothered with the vending machines but we used to go to the cafe on convent walk (opposite the entrance to the boy's baths) for a doorstep dripping crust. It cost a penny (lovely). Does no-one remember the cafe?

----hi ya janber, yes i`d already mentioned about the cafe on

quote 49 and looking at your 1953 at the baths i used to go in

the cafe in 53, i come along with hunters bar school and call

for a bread cake but couldn`t afford the dripping or the

margarine, i`ll bet i could have stood behind you in the queue.

And we use to ask for any damaged cakes we got them for now`t.

[willybite 10]

HI JOHN HABS----

TO BE HONEST JOHN I DONT REMEMBER THE PRICE TO GET IN, I WAS IN AN

OR`PHANAGE HOME AND BEING IN WITH A GROUP KIDS GOING TO THE EVENING SWIM

THE ADULT STAFF HANDLE THE MONEY.

---- BUT THE 6d YOU MENTIONED I LOVED IT .

 

hiya when i was young late 40s the prices were 4d and 6d don't ask me but i think the 6d were for adults, but when we went we always asked for a 4d , the school card was one card with the name and school on the front and folded in half with the tickets on the back which cost 2d per ticket, 12 per card

[RJRB 688]

In the sixties,when we were about 18,we used to go to the Turkish baths early Friday evening before heading down West St. And on to The Nelson.

The heat in the steam room was over powering until you became acclimatised,and the sweat slicked cold plunge took your breath away.

The place was like a club,and although the regulars,who seemed to be ex boxers,market traders and other town characters,were mainly a fair bit older than us they were all friendly enough and full of banter.

It was extremely relaxing,and it was usual to retire to one of the cubicles for a rest and a cup of tea.

I never tried the marble slab massage,which looked a bit punishing to me.

The first pint of the night never touched the sides

Was anybody else a regular down there?

[pigiron 10]

Oh! The memories of Glossop Road baths. I was taught to swim there under the tutelage of a Mr. Wall who used to walk along the edge of the pool trailing a broom just in front of you as a confidence booster in case you needed to grab something. And the tin flotation devices were unbelievably crude but effective I suppose. Wonder what Health & Safety would make of them these days? As mentioned in another post after swimming we would go to a shop in Division street for hot pikelets - would give my right arm for a supply of those today as they are as rare as hens teeth out here. Good grief I'm drooling. I have just unearthed my certificates from all those years ago. 25/100/440 yards whilst at Greystones Primary and 880 yards whilst at Nether Edge Grammar. These are dated between July 1953 and July 1955.

[JOHN HABS 10]

In the late 1950s I was a regular swimmer at glossop road baths. The mixed pool was the longest of the three, about 30 yards long with a 7 foot deep end. There was no access to the top board though. This pool was somewhat newer than the other two. The ladies pool had a rather battered look (chipped tiles etc) until its complete refurbishment in about 1958. The men's pool was the smallest of the three, about 20 yards with only a 5 foot deep end. This was in a poor state, but was never refurbished. I believe it was closed in the 1970s & the space used for changing rooms.

 

Hello fatrajah,

Sorry but I have to correct you on a couple of points you have raised.

1) The mixed pool was not 7 feet at the deep end but 13 feet 6 inches - my friend and I use to swim in the school gala's and my friend use to go in for the high board diving event due to being good, anyone diving off the high board into 7 foot of water would have come to some grief no matter how good they were.

2) The mens pool was 25 yds and its deep end was 5 feet 6 inches - I use to spend most of my time there having a free pass which I won at junior school for being the best boy swimmer in the school over a yearly period.

[le-joker 10]

Hi John, me and my mates used to go to Glossop road baths on Saturday mornings, this would be the mid 1950`s when we were just school boys. We had two bob, it was sixpence each way on the old back loader bus, and sixpence to get in. Its hard to remember now but walking up from West Street and then cutting off left along a narrow lane with shops, the normal entrance was the continuance of this lane down on the left, the mens pool. Then sometimes they wouldn`t let us in there and we had to go to a bigger entrance at the front and it was very much posher in there, I think it may have been mixed. Oh, yes, the Brylcream machine. Somebody would push a penny in and we would all make a grab for some, what with the water and Bryllcream your hair stayed wet all day.

Then afterwards, on this narrow lane was a shop where we could buy this gigantic dripping cake that you had to leave some because it was so big. But when someone bet you couldn`t eat it all you used to make yourself feel sick just to force it all down. Or there was a tiny little loaf that we used to eat the middle out and then fill it full of chips.

Best wishes,