Central Baths: the final chapter

hinch its not just central baths it is all the other buildings that have gone st albans church and school parish church now nye bevan centre
the old market i know you cant stand in the name of progress just wish i had been more active with the camera all those years ago

So sad to see this beautiful building being flattened. I spent my Saturday mornings being "taught" to swim by my Dad, then having tomato soup and toast upstairs in the cafe. Happy days.

More recently, my son had swimming lessons there before being frightened off by the wonderful Veronica, and he's been working there for the past year as a Lifeguard whilst doing his A Levels.

I'll miss it

Veronica is still there
I went swimming this morning to the 'Prime Time' for over 50's, nice and peaceful.

I know, she's his boss now!

I've got some photos somewhere of the mill that stood where Croft Shifa now stands, in the process of demolition.

I remember it well. The coach trick from primary school, the cold changing rooms, the cold water (except for the lovely warm learner's pool), being hit by bits of plaster falling from the roof...
The only surprise is that it was not replaced 40 years earlier.

That has left me feeling really quite sad, I have many fond childhood memories there, mainly the amazing chips and gravy in the cafe upstairs!

By the way, the first 'slipper baths' were built in the 1930's. A survey in Islington in 1928 discovered that only 4% of working class homes had bathing facilities and there was a general spate of baths and public wash-house building.

They were called slipper baths because the tub was shaped like a slipper, with a high rising back, designed to keep the water hot for longer and to protect the modesty of the bather even though they were alone in a cubicle.

So now you know.

Charly, do you remember the public wash-house at Harpurhey? A lot of the women I worked with remember them very well. I think they survived into the 70's.

Yes Hinch i remember the wash house at Harpurhey, I once went inside with my friend and her mum (we was posh coz we had a washer!) The things I remember about it were the massive sinks where women did hand washing and the massive pull-out drying racks.
As i grew up in the Collyhurst area that was our local baths and the one where we learned to swim with the school. I remember the day I passed my 25 yard length the teacher told us on the bus going home that the queen had given birth to Andrew.
There was a 'herbalist' across the road where you could get a hot Vimto or Oxo, we used to spend our busfare home in there.

It was Rochdale County Borough Council, not RMBC who did for the market - but the result was the same.

Growing up elsewhere in the 1960s, Rochdale used to be home where we visited in our holidays. We travelled on a Yelloways Coach and also seemed to arrive in the town centre just as it was going dark. The grand stone buildings looked magnificent and sophisticated compared to the tiny village where we lived.

On arrival Mum would take me to visit the large Department store which was at the bottom of Drake Street (facing the Duke of Wellington?), where I would buy a present for my Grandma, usually a brooch.

Some of the highlights of our visit would be going swimming at the Baths and fine dining at the "Minah bird" cafe in the indoor market; a hot buttered toasted teacake washed down with a strawberry milkshake, yummy! Next day, a visit to the cinema.

What I loved most was the people. I loved the strong Lanky accent which seemed to be much broader back then. I remember seeing cheerful women walking around with bright chiffon scarves and rollers in their hair. The majority also seemed to have ladders in their American Tan tights and shopping bags over their arms. Wherever you turned there was a gang of kids or dogs and Newspapers blowing in the wind. Doors and windows were always open and music blared out. Happy music mind you, not the dirge of today.

My cousins would take me on treks across the tops and there was always a trial which involved crossing the iron waters.

I never appreciated the glorious landscape. Growing up in a chocolate box village down south I found the Northern countryside bleak and desolate. I was unable to grasp why mum loved the North so much and longed to be home. "One day you'll understand," she used to say. I thought she was deluded. I know better now.

The store was Haworths - Halfpennies was somewhere else.

Survived into the eighties if I remember correctly.

Haworths rings a bell

Haworths is correct. Always looked bare and dismal to me. Rarely went in it.

As for the Iron Waters - top end of Syke beyond the water pumping station. Always had a drink. Put iron in yer pencil so it did. Who wants lead when you can have the real thing?

Drove past today, very sad watching it vanish.

I learnt to swim there when I was at Primary School.

Chill37 wrote:Drove past today, very sad watching it vanish.

I learnt to swim there when I was at Primary School.

Me too spent many a happy day there when my boy's were growing up I will never forget the taste of beans on toast in the cafe
Hope the new build is appreciated and as well used

No more beans on toast, chips and gravy or toasted teacakes for us now.

Charly wrote:No more beans on toast, chips and gravy or toasted teacakes for us now.

At what price now Charly ?

I think there is a drinks machine not sure what else, but definitely no cafe.
I used to take Charlotte after her swimming lessons, there was a lovely lady named MIA who worked at the cafe she gave Charlotte a tiny gold ring which she treasured for years.

First and foremost a cafe has to be purposely built. Any old corner no longer sufficies. The staff must be qualified and carry the appropriate certification - which means any change of staff must qualify before hiring or allowing near the food etc. There has to be sufficient uptake of the cafe's wares to substantiate the wages and overheads - which means at least 50 persons per 'shift' each spending not less than £2 per person as a minimum. Over and above the administration of the cafe takings and stock controls has to be done by someone else other than the staff - add more 'persons' per shift. And you begin to see the problem. One hundred paying customers per day may cover it. How many swimmers/onlookers would patronise the cafe at each visit? It's never as simple as it sounds. Ergo - a machine. I know the feeling.