Does anyone remember when the indoor pools also had baths?
By katerina
@thea09 (18305)
Greece
July 30, 2009 9:36am CST
When we learn to swim in the UK as children we went from the school to what were referred to then as the swimming baths, rather than pools. Alongside the changeing rooms there were cubicles which had actual baths in them and some people used to pay to go in them and take a bath, maybe they didn't have indoor bathrooms in some of the older houses. Does anyone else remember this or does it still happen? Was it unique to the UK?
2 people like this
3 responses
@ANTIQUELADY (36440)
• United States
30 Jul 09
I never learned how to swim. It wasn't taught in my school & we didn't have a city pool back in the olden days
as my sons like to describe when i was growing up.I think it would have been a neat thing to have after being in a pool. Pople do things they shouldn't in a pool.
as my sons like to describe when i was growing up.I think it would have been a neat thing to have after being in a pool. Pople do things they shouldn't in a pool.@thea09 (18305)
• Greece
30 Jul 09
[b]Hello Jo, well things are different now and my son learnt to swim in the sea and they have showers on the beach for after. The baths in the swimming baths weren't there for people to use after the pool, it was for people who went there specifically to have a bath as may not have had facilities at home (in the UK people without bathrooms used to fill a tin bath in the kitchen and use an outside loo but nowadays everyone has bathrooms).
I met a lovely Greek granny on the beach the other week and she was warning me not to swim in the sea if anyone was eating watermelon nearbly[em]sad[/em[/b]]
1 person likes this
@ANTIQUELADY (36440)
• United States
30 Jul 09
I misubderstood the baths. People who didn't have bathrooms were lucky yp have thos places. I'm glad everyone has one now. I would hate to do w/out mine for sure. i guess i am thick headed today [every day] but i didn't understand the watermelon story unless it meant u have to go more when u eat it. I have always heard that. Is that what she meant? Sorry, i'm so dumb today. Haven't been thinking to straight all week i have been so upset about my son moving.
@thea09 (18305)
• Greece
30 Jul 09
[b]Hi Jo, don't get upset about your son moving, you'll still have plenty of contact I'm sure. When you said about people doing things in the pool they shouldn't it reminded me of what Vangelina had told me about watermelons.
Yes, we couldn't do without our bathrooms now but mine would be a big improvement if it had water in it more often. I've been out this evening and secured two new places where I'm welcome rou[/b]nd to take a shower if my water is off for too long.
@scarlet_woman (23465)
• United States
30 Jul 09
my area never really had public bath houses except the beach.
they have a few "summer cabin" type things,and they kind of have to.
1 person likes this
@scarlet_woman (23465)
• United States
2 Aug 09
yes,that's exactly right.
one of my friends had one of those shared bathroom flats in new york.
some are still like that.
my state's never been big for the shared public anything.they do very little for the public bathroom wise,as the poor tourists often find out.
@thea09 (18305)
• Greece
30 Jul 09
Hi scarlet woman, I presume you mean some sort of structure with a shower in on the beach and possibly a loo. I would have thought there would have been some kind of public bath system in older days when people didn't have facilities or maybe they had the tin bath thing like in the UK. I know that showers caught on much more quickly in the States than in England as I remember from lots of books that people had a shower rigged up in the corner of the kitchen in the 40's. There were shared toilets on the landings and showers in the kitchen, at least in some novels I've read set in New York.
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@ShepherdSpy (8544)
• Omagh, Northern Ireland
22 Dec 09
I had to come looking for this discussion after You mentioned it in the other one,Thea! I was just thinking back to when this was,so the time We were making use of the facilities there would have been at the beginning of the '70's..I revisited Glasgow a few Years ago..the Tenements were gone where we used to live,but the Public Baths were still there..I didn't go in then to check it out,but having access to the interweb now,I can see from their site they now offer a Beauty therapy salon,and a Dance studio (No mention of Baths) so I suppose the space got put to other uses..Something I had forgotten,but the Pool dates from the '20s..
@thea09 (18305)
• Greece
28 Dec 09
Hi ShepherdSpy, you used them as facilities. We just saw them when we went in to use the pool. I doubt the place you remember still has the baths in them if they've revamped into beauty therapy salons. The thing I recall is no one ever said they were going to the swimming pool but always to the swimming baths. I never remember going in again after primary school.
@ShepherdSpy (8544)
• Omagh, Northern Ireland
29 Dec 09
Same Here..the Name of the place was "The Victory Baths",and I remember that's how it was always referred to.."We're going to the Baths"..never "The pool"..
