The swimming baths of LondonDudgeon, R. E. (Robert Ellis)
History
The swimming baths of London
Dudgeon, R. E. (Robert Ellis)
Swimming; Swimming pools -- England -- London
_Greenwich Swimming Baths_.—The first class bath is 17 yards
long by 6 wide. Depth from 3 ft. 6 in. to 5 ft. 6 in. Sides and
bottom covered with a sort of asphalte painted white. Fourteen
open bathing boxes painted light blue, with curtains and mirrors,
along one side of the bath. Footway in front of the boxes of
slate. A narrow stone ledge at deep end, and in front of it
a plank across the bath for a spring-board. Walls of brick,
whitewashed, rise directly from the bath at the shallow end and
the side opposite the boxes. Ceiling, of iron work, double slope,
with glass let in at the top. Ventilation and lighting good. The
second class bath is almost precisely the same, differing only in
the colour of the boxes, and there being no curtains to them.
_Hammersmith Swimming Bath_, Bridge street, Hammersmith.—This
bath is 20 yards long by 7 wide. The sides are of white porcelain
tiles with round black spots at the angles, the top row having a
blue flower pattern. The bottom of white and black glazed bricks
forming a pattern. Depth from 3 ft. 6 in. to 5 ft. 6 in.; 22
bathing boxes, painted drab and blue, with small mirrors and half
doors, run along one side and the shallow end. The footway in
front of the boxes and at the deep end is of wood, and projects
over the water. A narrow stone ledge runs along the opposite
side. The walls are sized stone colour. The ceiling is moderately
lofty, arched, and whitewashed. Gaseliers depend from it.
Daylight is admitted by two large windows in the side wall, and
three semicircular windows at each end. Panes of thick unpolished
glass are let into the roof all down the side where the boxes
are. The illumination is good. There is a spring board at the
deep end. The warm water is admitted at the surface of the water
at one corner of the bath, whereby the heat is very unequally
distributed. At my visit the top of the water in many parts was
quite warm, while the depths of the bath were very cold. The
water is clear. This bath is first class on Mondays, Wednesdays
and Fridays, and second class on the other days of the week. It
is an excellent bath, of good size, well lighted and ventilated,
and very clean—perhaps because it is new, and the only fault to
be found with it is in regard to the heating of the water, which
would be better if the warm water were admitted at the bottom
of the bath about its middle, in place of at the surface of the
water at one end.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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