Sea Bathing Lake 1966

No..... Pedoja and I are NOT amongst these bathing beauties!

Sea Bathing Lake

I always remember the Sea Bathing lake as a great day out, and have many happy memories of time spent there with my family and friends. It is a shame that these type of venues are considered old fashioned, and now we have to have crazy slides and other water features.

Peter 52,
The sea Bathing Lake was one of the best Attractions Southport had.

It sure was Nell..... and I think that if Southport still had it today, it would still be as packed as it was years ago.

My Aunt Hilda and her friend Joan at the Sea Bathing Lake

Anyone remember when "Its a Knockout" was broadcast from the open air baths?

Yes

My memories of summer holidays are begging for pop bottles to take back so we could scrape enough money together for bus fare and entrance to the baths (bunked in a few times but it wasn't easy). Armed with a pile of jam butties(only jam, no butter) we would spend a good 8 hours in there for the pricely sum of 6 old pence. That was value. I remeber looking longingly at all the people in the cafe having meals, completely beyond my budget but we had some wonderful times , Oh happy days, I am sounding like an old lady and I am still only 18 in my head

MissE,

I used to collect pop bottles on Ainsdale Beach

Potted Meat butties I used to take to the Open Air,yes we didnt have much,but we knew how to enjoy ourselves on what little we
had

Potted meat butties eh Nell, you were a posh one, I bet you had margarine under yer potted meat as well.

I didnt like jam butties MissE,but I did have butter under my beef
paste butties,my Mum and Dad made sure we had butter and plenty of milk to drink,any other drink would have to be good old Corporation Pop

In the summer of 1961 or 62 my mum worked in the ladies changing room at the Sea Bathing Lake (with the late Molly Holmes from Canning Rd and a Mrs Baxter from Waterloo). I was allowed in free and had to go down there every night after school to be given my tea. I also had to spend every day of the summer holidays there (sheer hell !!). I have wonderful memories of being the only person in the water on rainy days (rain didn't make the water any colder !!). Luckily I had two other kids to play with - Molly's son Phillip and Mrs Baxter's daughter Anne, so was never ever bored.

It was exactly 110 yards in length from the high diving boards by the mens changing rooms to the diving boards at the ladies end - so 16 lengths made one mile. I seem to remember it being 16 feet deep at the mens end and 8 feet deep at the other - the stretch away from the diving boards being 6 feet deep. I was told that it was a quarter mile in circumference. The water was always very cold but once you were in you could relax and enjoy the day.

I remember the manager's name was Mr Henderson and he seemed to manage the place without ever leaving the cash office at the front entrance. He certainly didn't believe in management by walking about !

Mum was forever moaning about how *****y all the bathing beauties were to each other and the staff behind the scenes. I seem to remember that the contest took place every Wednesday and was judged by a celebrity. For some strange reason the only celebrity I can remember was Ivor Emmanuel who was a Welsh singer who appeared on TV fairly often, though there must have been bigger names than him judging over the course of that summer. The results were published in Thursday's local paper (the Southport Journal or Southport Guardian ? - one came out on Tuesday as well I think).

It was not a particularly good summer weather wise - gales blew down part of Billy Smart's circus tent on Princes Park and some elephants stampeded in panic and made the national press.

As much as I will welcome the Aqua Dome (if and when!) I would much prefer the old Sea Bathing Lake to still be there. With heated water perhaps

Never seem to be any photographs of it from later than the 60s, anyone got some?

Why did it close down anyway? Was it just lack of maintenance or because the admissions dropped?
It was certainly not as busy in the late 70s as it seems to have been in the 60s.

The ideal would to have put a sliding roof over the whole place......

Only later does everyone realise what they have lost.

I still can't believe that our beloved sea bathing lake is gone or to give it it's local name (the pool) I think it was just allowed to get into disrepair at the time when the 70s recession arrived it dosn't take long for huge structures like this to pass the point of no return, two young architects who set up localy did draw up a scheme to enclose it in a dome but thier were no takers at the time and they told me it had a huge crack across the middle of the pool which rendered it almost beyond repair such a shame all we can do is keep on remembering all the good times we had there

The last time I went was in the early 80s and the whole atmosphere had changed. I think it was then being run by a company leasing it from the council, rather than by the council itself. Although there had always been pop music played over the tannoy system in the background it had then become very loud and intrusive. Wasn't the excuse given that the filtration plant had failed and it would not be economical to repair it? It was probably a classic example of being a victim of the tensions between the north and south ends of Sefton - priorities for people living in poor social and housing conditions in the south of Sefton did not match those in the more affluent north (which gradually went into decline). The irony is that the south of the borough probably has better swimming and sports facilities nearby (in Crosby & Everton) than Southport, and has had those facilties for mmany years.

The irony is that the south of the borough probably has better swimming and sports facilities nearby (in Crosby & Everton) than Southport, and has had those facilties for mmany years.

You forgot the excellent Leisure facilities at Bootle

http://www.sefton.gov.uk/leisure/sportsfacilities/

Some more old pics. Sorry Rainbow, I can't find anything later than the 60s!

The first two are dated 1930.

Great pics. The last one shows the "chute" - that was a really good twin track water slide - no frills, but about 30 feet high, and fast!!

You can also see the "raft" in front of the cafe - that was really a boat shaped deck fixed to the bottom at about the three foot depth of water spot. Sometimes they used to rig a temporary catwalk out to it for the beauty contestants to parade along.

On the first pic you can see the two waterfalls that ran down either side of the steps leading up to the cafe.

Does anyone remember the sandpits attached to the ladies and gents changing rooms where I believe nude sunbathing was permitted? They were great sun traps and were surrounded by wooden changing cubicles.

I remember these sand areas .They were 'private in that they were surrounded by wooden changing cubicles.When I worked for the Borough Council I would go with a senior man and give Mr Henderson the employees wages ,he used to tell us of the odd suspicious character that turned up in this area and the measures he took to 'turf' them out..

I remember one of those odd suspicious men trying to pick me up when I was about ten, whilst I was innocently watching the divers at the deep end it makes my flesh creep to this day. he wanted to give me a ride on his motor bike creep! although we were all quite un-worldly in those days at that age, I knew it wasn't right these people seem to love swimming pools and I never let my kids out of my sight when visiting one

Attached picture is of the 'Open Air Pool' as we knew it about 1942.

My father was very friendly with Mr Henderson so we were able to get in the 'pool' before the crowds arrived. I am with my father who is holding my younger brother, Graham.

One of my last recollections of the 'Open Air ' was when I was on the beat on nights in the late 1950's having to chuck out 'skinny dippers' at midnight during a heatwave. See what we are now missing!!!!

Sorry people!

I am having problems attaching the relevant picture.

(Seeking help ) Normal service will be resumed as soon as possible.

Is the pic in the correct format and size? jpg and 640 x 480 re the best format for pics.

Thanks for help but file is jpeg and under 640x420. File size is 17Kb.
Although I've browsed to the picture file location and it shows in attachment box, as soon as I click preview the browse box clears!

Can't preview attachments sandyken, just have to submit it.
If it comes out wrong you can always delete the post.

Thanks Rainbow. I'll try again!