Another quickie for you. I have been meaning to head over to the forbidden land (north of the M6) and check if this building was even still there let alone explorable for ages.. Today i had a reason to go and must have got lucky, despite my laziness not only was it still there the door was swinging in the breeze!
I cant find much on the history of the baths other than it was erected and opened on 6th May, 1925 and comprised of a swimming bath, suites of washing baths for men and women, and a Turkish baths. I think other than Moseley road this is really the last baths of this era left in Birmingham that hasn't either been replaced, converted or totally modernised. Over the years we have done a few, Stirchley, Northfield but also missed a few Harborne, Sparkhill, Tiverton, Kent Street etc.. This one closed a few years back along with Northfield, Tiverton Road and a couple of later 60s pools to be replaced with brand new facilities.. Apparently its 'cost saving' to spend millions on new buildings rather then just a few 1000 on maintaining the ones they have got! That said after a wander round this one i could see it was very much due for an upgrade. It was hardly inviting! Reminded me of school swimming lessons. Ugh..
I managed to find a couple of old shots of what it used to be like.. Sadly the original ticket booth thing is long gone..
Its a nice enough place from the front
Quite plain compared to some but still better then the monstrosity thats replaced it..
Still has the original chimney
Inside theres only the one pool.
The changing rooms are non existent. You got a cubical!
Still some nice old features left tho.
Showers at the shallow end.
This one really was the height of basic..
The entrance lobby still retained its nice partition.
To the right hand side of the pool there was another nicely glazed door.
This lead into a nice glazed brick room, converted to a dance studio now but possibly this was the public baths originally?
On the left hand side of the pool there was a number of modern office type rooms and the Turkish baths.. These were unfortunately pretty modern so i didn't bother photographing it all.
Annoyingly the industrial section of the pool was locked up.. It looked old from a few peeks though the window tho so maybe i might head back one day..
I cant find much on the history of the baths other than it was erected and opened on 6th May, 1925 and comprised of a swimming bath, suites of washing baths for men and women, and a Turkish baths. I think other than Moseley road this is really the last baths of this era left in Birmingham that hasn't either been replaced, converted or totally modernised. Over the years we have done a few, Stirchley, Northfield but also missed a few Harborne, Sparkhill, Tiverton, Kent Street etc.. This one closed a few years back along with Northfield, Tiverton Road and a couple of later 60s pools to be replaced with brand new facilities.. Apparently its 'cost saving' to spend millions on new buildings rather then just a few 1000 on maintaining the ones they have got! That said after a wander round this one i could see it was very much due for an upgrade. It was hardly inviting! Reminded me of school swimming lessons. Ugh..
I managed to find a couple of old shots of what it used to be like.. Sadly the original ticket booth thing is long gone..
Its a nice enough place from the front
Quite plain compared to some but still better then the monstrosity thats replaced it..
Still has the original chimney
Inside theres only the one pool.
The changing rooms are non existent. You got a cubical!
Still some nice old features left tho.
Showers at the shallow end.
This one really was the height of basic..
The entrance lobby still retained its nice partition.
To the right hand side of the pool there was another nicely glazed door.
This lead into a nice glazed brick room, converted to a dance studio now but possibly this was the public baths originally?
On the left hand side of the pool there was a number of modern office type rooms and the Turkish baths.. These were unfortunately pretty modern so i didn't bother photographing it all.
Annoyingly the industrial section of the pool was locked up.. It looked old from a few peeks though the window tho so maybe i might head back one day..
Last edited:
