Blasts from the Past: The Swimming Pool

I rarely speak to anyone who has happy memories of the old swimming pool. Mainly because it was cold. Very cold at times. As were the changing rooms. Yet, when it opened in May 1936, the swimming pool had been ‘immensely popular.’ No doubt it part because pupils no longer had to make the journey to and from the Wimbledon Public Baths, then situated on Worple Road, close to Wimbledon Hill Road, opposite where Elys department store now stands.

Securing an onsite pool had not been easy. There was space available: a strip of land next to the cricket field, on the boundary with the Ridgway, had been acquired in 1926 and was partly being used as the junior school playground (‘tarmac’ would not move to closer to the Priory until 1955). There remained, however, the question of paying for the new facility. Alumni and parents came to the rescue. In the school magazine of December 1934, the headmaster, Dixon, extended his thanks to all the parents and friends who had contributed towards the cost of the new swimming baths. The project had been expected to begin over the Easter break in 1935 but was delayed and did not start until that August (there only seems to have been one objection to the plans: a local resident made a complaint to the council about the location of the diving board which was very conspicuous from her house). The initial budget of £2,000 was to be raised by voluntary subscriptions and ‘Tuck Shop’ profits. The actual cost was closer to £3,500.

Swimming had long featured as a sports option for both school fixtures and as a fiercely competitive inter-house sport. There was a School Swimming Club even in the nineteenth century. In 1896, swimming sports took place at the recently opened Westminster Public Baths in Great Smith Street and four events are recorded as being contested that year: the u14 handicap race of 44 yards, an open handicap race, an open handicap 88-yard race and ‘plunging’. There was also an exhibition of ‘ornamental swimming’ and a water polo match.  The ‘club swimming dress’ was available to buy from the school porter for a shilling. When the school relocated to Wimbledon in 1897, swimming continued at the Wimbledon Public Baths until the school had its own pool in the 1930s.  

Outdoor and unheated, reports of the swimming season suggest that the school pool was rarely operational before May.  Nevertheless, it became a feature of school life. Aside from swimming, over the decades the pool has been used for diving, water polo, lifesaving, canoeing and scuba diving lessons. At Commemoration Days, these skills were displayed to parents and former pupils – by that time in the summer, being in the water might actually have been enjoyable.

Even during the Second World War, apart from the summer of 1944 when the threat of flying bombs was too great, swimming continued. In July that year, a V1 did indeed fall on the cricket pitch close to the pool; anecdotal reports suggest that the impact caused a crack in the bottom which would cause problems for years to come.  

New changing rooms were built in the mid-1950s but it was not until 1970 that major improvements took place. These included the installation of an oil-fired heating system which, theoretically, extended the use of the pool from 1st April to the end of October. How well this worked in practice is unclear. Entries in the school magazines in the early 1980s still refer to arctic pool temperatures of approximately 55 degrees Fahrenheit (12 degrees Celsius). A thermo-insulatory cover was used overnight from 1983 onwards which had some success in retaining a steady temperature and extending the use of the pool throughout early summer.

Further improvements took place at the end of the decade. In 1988, more than 15 years after it was first suggested, a roof was added to the pool. The school knew it was not a permanent solution; it could only be expected to last 20-30 years. In the end, the new roof served its purpose for 28 years: during this time, finally swimming could be enjoyed in PE lessons, games days and lunchtime sessions throughout the whole school year.

In 2017 the pool was closed permanently as part of the redevelopment of the sports facilities. Two years later, a 25-meter indoor pool opened within the new sports centre, which also included a multi-purpose sports hall, a gymnasium, a strength and conditioning suite and exercise studio (as in the 1930s, the project was in part funded by the donations from members of the King’s community). The old pool was demolished and replaced with six floodlit tennis courts and three new cricket lanes (the new sports centre was built on land where the tennis courts had been).

The new pool, surrounded on three sides by floor-to-ceiling windows and topped with a wave-shaped roof, is a world away from the stark concrete of its predecessor. Nostalgia aside, few people will mourn its disappearance.

As ever, please do email if you have stories to share or questions about the school archive: I can be contacted at archive@kcs.org.uk. Or click here to complete a written questionnaire if you have memories you would like to submit to our Recollections of King’s project.

Dr Lucy Inglis | School Archivist 

Article co-written with Cathryn O’Hare, archive volunteer.