South Bay Pool Scarborough - Page 6
The South Bay Pool - Plant Rooms
At the back of the Men's locker room were a pair of glass double door leading into the area containing the pool's machinery. This was an irregularly shaped room full of chlorination and pumping equipment, pipes and valves. It was pitch dark and very difficult to photograph. Former lifeguard Kenneth Blogg said; 'One dangerous job was to adjust the chlorine levels to ensure the water was sterile. In the pump room there was a large cylinder of chlorine which had to be tested for potential leaks. Dangerous stuff.'
Squeezing through a narrow corridor bought you out into what was presumably the chlorinator operators office, as there was paperwork and other administration material present.
Pic 5;1-2. Chlorination apparatus, 1999. At left can be seen the extremely narrow slightly curved corridor that went round into the office, accessed by squeezing past the pipes. (D Stuart Photography)
Pic 5;3. One of many valve handles on the pipes. (D Stuart Photography)
Pic 5;4. The office in 1999. Seen here is the external double doors that were at the far end of the changing room block. (D Stuart Photography)
Pic 5;5. Some paperwork was still present in the office in 1999, such as this chlorinator operators handbook with pool filtration form on the left hand side. Handwritten notes in the book were dated 1974. (D Stuart Photography)
The South Bay Pool - The Laundry & Beach Huts
Next to the women's changing rooms was a large structure with a row of beach huts on top which originally functioned as the pool's laundry. In the early part of the twentieth century, it was common for people not to have their own towels or costumes, making it necessary for them to be hired. In the early 1930's, a towel or costume cost 2d. (Scarborough and District Red Guide 1930) and this was a significant part of the pool's revenue. The washing was then dried on lines above the laundry building.
This building was not in place when the pool opened in 1915, but can be seen in pictures taken a few years later. It was extended and the beach huts were added c.1930. The extension included two new archways, blended seamlessly with the original structure, and two large swing open hatchways. These hatchways were for stalls that sold beach toys and floats. According to former lifeguard Kenneth Blogg who worked at the pool 1967-74, these were closed down in about 1970 due to lack of revenue. The laundry was no longer in use, and he described the interior of the building as being dark and dank, and used for storage of machinery and tools for the upkeep of the nearby chalets and gardens.
Pic 5;6. The original laundry c.1925, without the later extension and beach huts. Rows of towels can be seen drying on washing lines on the roof. (D Stuart collection)
Pic 5;7. The building after having undergone major re-development c.1939. It has been doubled in length, two hatches have appeared on the right (open in this picture) and the beach huts have been added. The beach huts were also clearly altered at a later date, in this picture they are shallower than they appeared later and have a row of cylindrical columns outside. These alterations were made sometime before 1952. This picture also shows the protective canopy over the bandstand, which was sited on top of the tunnel entrance. (D Stuart Collection)
Pic 5;8. The laundry and beach huts in 1999. (D Stuart Photography)
Pic 5;9. A view of the building looking down past the women's changing rooms in January 1999. (D Stuart Photography)
Pic 5;10. Looking towards the changing rooms in 1997. The last two archways shown here are part of the c.1930 extension, but had been added almost seamlessly. (D Stuart Photography)
Pic 5;12. The laundry at left with Scarborough behind. Two hatches can be seen at the end. The wire surrounding the pool can be seen on the right. (D Stuart Photography)
Pic 5;13. The interior of one of the beach huts. They consisted of a single room with storage cupboard and shelves through the door at the back. (D Stuart Photography)
The South Bay Pool - The Cafe
The pool's cafe had been an especially vibrant place during its hey-day. By the late 1990s it was in a decayed and dangerous condition. The cafe had not been part of the original structure - contemporary images of the pool in its first few years are without the cafe, but it appears to have been in place before the end of World War One. The cafe does feature on the 1913 plans and on the builders model however, proving that it was always planned and suggesting that its delay was one of the cutbacks necessitated by the First World War. By the mid 1930s, the cafe was in need of expansion. The kitchen had originally been a partitioned section at the back of the cafe, but in 1935 the corporation hired William Birch and Sons to remove the partition to expand the cafe floor space, and construct a new kitchen block adjoining it. (Yorkshire County Record Office)
Pic 5;14. The Pool cafe around 1925. This unusual photograph was probably taken from the cliff above the beach huts. (D Stuart Collection)
Pic 5;15. The pool cafe in 1999. In this photograph you can see that vandals have been smashing the skylights in front with a concrete block. (D Stuart Photography)
Pic 5;16. The derelict cafe in 2000, after having been vandalised. (D Stuart Photography)
Pic 5;17; A digital illustration based on photograph 5;16, which gives an impression of how the cafe looked before closure. On a warm day, all the window shutters would have been opened up, and there would have been chairs and tables out on the terrace. On the ground in front of the cafe can be seen the skylights above the changing rooms below. Several different Cafe signs were in use in different periods, and a rectangular sign can be seen in use during the 1920's (see pic 3;6) The sign shown here first went up in the 1930's and was in use for many decades afterwards. (D Stuart Photography)
Pic 5;18 The derelict pool cafe in 2000, showing the effects of eleven years of neglect and vandalism. (D Stuart Photography)
Pic 5;19. The 1930s kitchen block next to the cafe. The cafe can be seen at left, and in front of the kitchen, the roof with arched skylights above the women's changing rooms. (D Stuart Photography)
This picture, c.1930, shows a group sitting in deckchairs immediately in front of the cafe terrace, facing the pool. Behind them to the left can be seen customers of the cafe. Picture: D Stuart Collection.
Pic 5;20. The cafe and kitchen block in 1937. (D Stuart Collection)
Pic 5;21. A view across the pool cafe from behind the counter, and a pile of objects in a back room of the cafe, 1999. (D Stuart Photography)
Pic 5;22. A room in the kitchen block in 1999. (D Stuart Photography)
Pic 5;23. A view across the main room of the kitchen block. It contained a large, partially collapsed wooden storage unit, (centre left) probably used for crockery, and a large number of chairs. I could see into this room, but it was too dangerous and too blocked by debris to go in. (D Stuart Photography)
Pic 5;24. In the early part of 2000 the cafe was subject to large scale vandalism, and one day I found that much of the cafe contents had been strewn on the terraces outside. It proved to be my last ever visit to the pool. (D Stuart Photography)
Up next; The end of The South Bay Pool.
