Derby Baths Blackpool | The UK's FIRST Olympic Swimming Pool
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- čas přidán 9. 03. 2021
- Do you Remember Derby Baths Blackpool | The UK's FIRST Olympic Swimming Pool. We've been to take a look at the site where it once stood, on Blackpool Promenade at North Shore. Leave your memories in the comments below! Filmed on Monday 8 March 2021.
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We're going to start this walk-around video at the Dickson Road end of Warley Road - at the north side of the site. Join us for a look at the long-empty site - now a grassy field.
Find out about the past history of Derby Baths Blackpool - when it was opened and what it looked like. It was the UK's first Olympic sized swimming pool and home to many trials.
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The Derby Baths was the reason that we first went to Blackpool as a family in the late 60's. My brother was representing the south west of England in the National Swimming Championships. It was a beautiful building, I remember sitting high up in the spectator gallery and the great height of the diving board.
We loved Blackpool and when Dad retired in 1974 we moved to North Shore to live. I was married there at North Shore Methodist Church.
I live in Dallas USA now so really enjoyed the memories, such happy times and Blackpool is much missed by this Brit.
Thanks for sharing.
Derby Baths should never have been demolished in my opinion!🤗
I agree entirely Kristine. The building lasted so little time and barely justified the cost of constructing it. Sadly these days some modern facilities are closed wihin the time i took to get from the building being finished and the opening ceremony! One thing that saddens me is that the materials it was finished in were unlikely to have been recycled. What a waste of a resource. I am not sure [looking at the facade] whether it would have deserved listing for if the grand portico on each side is removed the remainder looks like a factory or school extension. However, it deserved better and my opinion agrees with yours! :) xx
We had our family holidays in Blackpool in the 60s,(mum, dad and my sister) going to Derby Baths was always a place to go when the weather was bad....happy times
Brings back memories . I have photos of me at baths with my brother . On diving boards x
The Derby Baths was the first public swimming pool I'd ever been to, I must have been about 7 years old so it would have been the mid 60s. It was pretty cold and it was salt water! I've never been in another indoor salt water pool. A couple of years later we learned to swim with the school but that was the pool at the Norbreck Hydro (later Norbreck Castle) Hotel. From aged 11 I went to Baines Grammar School in Poulton and the annual Swimming Gala always took place at the Derby Baths in Blackpool, attendance was compulsory. I was never a particularly good swimmer, it was the only sport at school in which I didn't participate.
The Derby Baths were once the venue for the UK National Swimming Championships. The pool was the Olympic sized 50 metres and the diving boards were 3, 5 and 10 metres. Occasionally at our school Swimming Gala somebody would have the nerve to go off the top board in the diving competition. It was pretty scary I can tell you!
I was a bit of a water baby myself - the only sport I did like!
I loved the Derby baths on holiday I just about lived in there, never did the top high dive though the second high dive was where I dived from.
A tram journey would be nice.Tower to Fleetwood and back,people would love it...perhaps in a few weeks,top floor or lower deck.love all.mart
Baines Grammar School used to have its annual swimming gala at Derby baths in the 1970s. On the south side of the pool (current hotel side) were large windows letting in plenty of light. On the north side was tiered seating for spectators. At the east end of the pool (the deep end) were the diving boards, including a high board (probably 10m). In the basement were Turkish and other specialist baths. I can remember events being televised by the BBC in the 1970s. The design was definately Art Deco (like the cafe in Stanley Park) and it was a tragedy when the Council closed thd bsths and demolished them
I went lots as a kid. Clearly remember the hanger and baskets for your stuff, handing them over in the freezing changing rooms which never seemed to be illuminated and jumping off the springboard. Yes, it was saltwater, too! The high platform was legendary. My younger sister swam there for Lancashire shortly before it closed. Seems like yesterday.
Oh yes, the wire baskets!
Just found out that the great Charlie Cairoli lived in Warley road. Watched him at the Tower circus many times.
Awe Jane i love your videos, you always have all the info about what your showing us, but i had to chuckle in the middle of it when you said oh that wouldn't be a good look getting run over by a hearse! i was creased, 😂😂😂 look forward to your next one, thank you for cheering me up 👌
Well it might cut out the need for the morgue 😂
Thanks for the video
Oh my goodness Jane!! Just thought the sirens/ bobbies were after you then? You're not safe to let out are you!! 🤣😜🤣🤪
No!
I used go to derby baths with the school as a kid early 70s
Wish I had later on when I was older regrettable know it’s long gone with the open air also gone into history with it 😔
We went there every time we were on holiday in Blackpool throughout the sixties and seventies. Also at some point in the week we would usually go back there for a hot bath as quite often the B&Bs we stayed in didnt provide one.
Goodness, they were the days. I remember the slipper baths when I was little and people using them because they didn’t have baths at home. How things change
Last time I went to Derby Baths was 19 JULY 1973. You must think I have a great memory, but I don't. I went to Hodgson School in Poulton and our swimming lessons were at Derby Baths. I still have the swimming certificate sent by Lancashire Education with the date. At least I remembered I had the certificate, ha ha !
Thank you,well done plus excellent research on your part,super interesting ,enjoyable
Glad you enjoyed it!
Commenting past midnight with the wind sounding like an express train. The new arrival time of VFC will need getting used to. After a day's calligraphy my fingers need their rest but change is as good as a rest they say . .
I am glad that the remaining hotels are protected by what looks like a sturdy wall and that it runs the full length back to front of the curtiledge of the Rufford Hotel. If I was the owner of that establishment and this was temporarily a car park I would be hoping to put a temporary hotel sign up announcing its name - the least the owner of what was the Ambassador could grant as compensation for what must have been five or so years of concern ending in a crescendo of terror when he cracks appeared.
I have been pleased to keep my distance from swimming pools for many decades, the exception being when I suported the renovation of the incredible Victorian Baths to the immediate east of Manchester City. As much of an architectural gem as the Grand Theatre in Blackpool.
I am saddened that this building could not have been altered within and used as maybe an arts centre or a theatre for amateur dramatics with a dance hall / dance tuition as part of the mixture. Arts courses for all ages for coastal residents.A gallery for the Grundy to have an outreach facility to show the many items they never have room to show. A gift to the public with a reasonable admission fee and in the same spirit as Nuffield and Carnegie had for broadening the scope of so many people's lives. I have spoken to many people enjoying the Grundy and the public library who have said that many residents want something different to the razzamatazz of the Blackpool season, that is available all year round.
I am wondering just why the Grand Hotel has not made use of the large grassed area as a car park or external conservatory. The space has been unused for a long time and the council gets no revenue from it.
Questions . . always questions :)
That brought back memories! My friends and I would either cycle along the prom to Fleetwood swimming baths or catch the tram to Derby baths. I wish I'd taken more notice of the architecture back then, but I do remember it being pretty much in its original state inside. It seemed very old fashioned to me as a child, nowadays of course I would love the Art Deco style! The only modernisation I remember was when the water chutes were added in the early 1980s. I do remember being told that the sea water was still used somewhere, for the showers maybe? Can anyone remember being given a metal basket to put your clothes in instead of a locker, or has my memory totally misled me? In my defence, it was nearly 40 years ago 😄
We had metal wire baskets at our local baths, with a slot at one side for your shoes!
@@visitfyldecoast ahhh, yes! I'm glad it wasn't my mind making it up! Thanks Jane :-)
They were giant coat hangers with a basket at the bottom for shoes. You got a metal tag with a number on and the lady hung them on a rail behind the counter in the changing room.
Trying to imagine what it must have been like when it was there. Great seeing the pictures of the Derby Baths. I wonder if they will ever build anything there.👍
I wondered that. Prime building plot, someone must own it.
i do believe when they built the Sandcastle no impact survey was carried out re the derby baths
great video no i did not go 2 derby baths xx
Hi jane, i can not imagine the bath's there now !!
I’ve swam there
We used to go as teenagers in early 70s I liked going with my mates but as I needed glasses it was like a warren getting from changing rooms to pool and difficult without your specs and of course once you got to the huge pool it was tricky trying to find your friends
My lasting memory is having watery chicken soup from a vending machine, tinged with hot chocolate from the previous customer’s drink...
Such a shame they didn’t find a way to keep the outer shell and convert to apartments
Oh yes the vending machines!
I seem to remember it being a long walk down a passageway to get from the changing rooms to the pool and there being a really large foot bath
I haven't forgotten the freezing sea water in Derby baths.
They look like heavy duty concrete blocks as Breeze blocks don't go up that high.
I wonder why it was called Derby baths if it was at the Warley road side of the site? I seemed to think it was at the other side of the site on the south side.
I wondered if it had something to do with Lord Derby?
Swam there a few times in the early seventies. All I can remember was it was dark, not much natural light and green. Large high diving board.
I went to primary school with the current Lady Derby.
I remember on holiday in the early sixties,my one and only visit to the Derby baths and my intrduction to salt water..Yuk!
Why did they nock down the Darby baths ?
Why did they pull down the Derby Baths?
Presumably it was going to cost too much to maintain - different times -as the outer architecture would certainly have been worth saving and converting into apartments
I think the outside could have been saved to make housing the art deco style was lovely