Welcome
The Friends
Support The Park
Park Events

#3 The Swimming Pool

Originally part of the Water Works the area in front of you now was converted into a swimming pool in 1869 and was very popular for many years.

Quick Navigation

Close Quick Navigation

Stage 1 - Grosvenor Rocks
Stage 2 - Marnock Lake
Stage 3 - The Swimming Pool
Stage 4 - The Hub
Stage 5 - The Wetlands
Stage 6 - Folly Shaw
Stage 7 - Roundabout Wood
Stage 8 - The Community Orchard
Stage 9 - The Oast House
Stage 10 - Our Lost History

The Swimming Pool: History

Once there was a huge swimming pool in the park! It covered the area where the hardball court, children's cycle track and blue-painted part of the playground now are. Originally it was one of three reservoirs, which were built in the 1820s to supply the town, using water from Jackwood Spring. These became redundant after a new reservoir was dug at Pembury, and the largest one became a swimming pool in 1869. It remained open for some 80 years, closing in 1948.

The pool was below ground level, accessed by a flight of steps. In the pictures the changing cubicles are on the railway line side. At first it wasn't anything like the kind of pool we are used to now - there were rough brick walls and banks covered with grass. The spring that supplies the Dripping Wells filled the pool with a continuous flow of very cold water. It was deep and there was no shallow end. Because it was open-air, soot from the railway line and leaves from surrounding trees could fall straight in, and there were frogs and newts!

Below is a link to a water polo match photographed by the Strand magazine in 1899, which shows what it was really like.

More information

Close

Philanthropic organisations, notably Cygnus Swimming Club, rented the pool from the local authority, with the aim of teaching as many people as possible to swim. Swimming teachers were employed, with one of the more famous being Professor John Pearson Luker. He was very well-known, as he trained Captain Matthew Webb before his successful attempt to be the first to swim the English Channel in 1875.

The swimming pool was for men only until 1882, when 'ladies bathing' one morning a week was allowed. The times gradually increased and in 1898 women could swim from 12 to 2 each day, as well as Monday and Thursday afternoons. A female instructor was employed in 1903. But men and women didn't swim together until 'family bathing' was introduced one afternoon a week in 1912. The open-air swimming pool surged in popularity when mixed bathing at all times was introduced in June 1933.

Cygnus Swimming Club organised frequent races and competitions, and from 1882 there were annual Aquatic Fetes until 1905. These often included a Top Hat and Tails dressing up race, and in 1900 Cygnus Swimming Club staged a demonstration for the Strand magazine - follow the link below to read the article.

The new sport of water polo was popular, with frequent matches. The local team Cygnus were hard to beat at home, as the cold deep water and lack of a shallow end made the pool notorious. Cygnus had a triumphant year in 1893, winning the All-England Championship and retaining the Kent Challenge Shield. After the indoor swimming pool in Monson Road opened in 1898, the outdoor pool became less popular. Most of the water polo matches were played there instead of at the outdoor pool.

From 1927 the spring that fed the pool was diverted to supply the nearby electric power station, so the water supply became erratic. The pool was filled infrequently from the town water supply, and there was no chlorination or filtration. In 1932 the water was described as looking like pea soup, also as stagnant and dangerous to health, with rotted leaves on the bottom and soot from the railway line on the surface.

The Council made extensive renovations in 1933, and the baths flourished in the 1930s. But water purity again became an issue in 1943, and the baths were closed in July 1948 after a polio scare. They never reopened and were officially closed in 1950, before it was filled in during 1954.

Just For Kids

We don't think the old swimming pool would have had an octopus in it but can you find the one in the playground, how many legs will it have?

Playgrounds in the Park

When the Park opened in 1889 it included a play area for children. That was roughly where the current Bowling Green is and included swings for children. In 1895 a shelter was built for the children's playground, but it was converted into a bowls pavilion when the Bowling Green opened in 1912. The playground was moved, with local oral history suggesting it was put near the Auckland Road entrance.

More information

Close

There were tennis courts, with the first opening in 1904. In the 1970s there were two courts next to the bowls green, where the zip wire part of the playground now is.

After the Lower Lakes were filled in during 1934, play equipment was moved there. In 1971 a new playground was built next to the bowls pavilion. The equipment included a helter-skelter slide and a mini fort (much smaller than the current one). There was also a toddler playground by the Auckland Road entrance, with swings, a slide and climbing frames. In July 2001 a new playground opened where the current one is now, but the old playground remained open, accessed through a gate.

The playground was rebuilt entirely under the Heritage Lottery refurbishment of the Park, opening in 2016.

What Next: The Hub

Continue along the path until you reach the Hub.