Radford Baths

[gareth 0]

Hey all, doing some research on Radford Baths, got a couple of questions you might be able to help me with:

Does anyone know when they actually shut?

Even better has anyone ever been inside that could tell me about it?

Even better than that, does anyone have a picture of the actual pool?

Cheers

[Carol Dickens 3]

Hey all, doing some research on Radford Baths, got a couple of questions you might be able to help me with:

Does anyone know when they actually shut?

Even better has anyone ever been inside that could tell me about it?

Even better than that, does anyone have a picture of the actual pool?

Cheers

Radford Baths closed in the early eighties when John Carroll opened. I used to go every morning and stopped after it moved. Of course, it's still standing - it may be listed but there's a lot of buildings around it that have been left derelict so maybe not. Last year I visited an old baths in Northern France that had been turned into a museum and restaurant -it was wonderful. I can't see it happening in Radford though!

[mick2me 3,033]

I lives on Norton Street as a kid. We had no inside toilet, and no bathroom.

I remember going there where you could hire a Bathroom.

This was Victorian with quit ornate wooden fixtures.

A hot steaming bath was a luxury.

That would be around 1965.

[gareth 0]

Thank you both, remember anything about what the pool looked like inside, steel frame, victorian detailing, tiles etc?

The council seemed intent on knocking it down, one of their reports calls it an eyesore! Sure it's run down, but the facade is beautiful, so I'm trying to find a way of preserving it whilst accommodating a new use.

Mick, '65 was that about when all the other 60's looking buildings went up? When the Mill was owned by Jersey-Kapwood?

Also I've been looking at some old maps and photos and there was a big reservoir behind the baths with a bridge over into the mill, anyone remember that being there or know where the water came from? The photo is from picture the past, I've cropped it to meet the upload size.

Apparently Tom "the Torpedo" Blower used to train at Radford baths, have a read of this article: http://vault.sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vau...75301/index.htm

What a legend!

[Fynger 841]

I remember it was the first baths i ever saw where the water came right up to the top....I was used to Bramcote baths where the fill level was set in under the edges.

[radfordred 6,284]

Try the UK Urban Exploration Forums.

This is not Radford Baths , but you get the idea.

http://www.28dayslater.co.uk/forums/search...searchid=693261

[Carol Dickens 3]

Radford Baths closed in the early eighties when John Carroll opened. I used to go every morning and stopped after it moved. Of course, it's still standing - it may be listed but there's a lot of buildings around it that have been left derelict so maybe not. Last year I visited an old baths in Northern France that had been turned into a museum and restaurant -it was wonderful. I can't see it happening in Radford though!

if you do a google image search for 'la piscine roubaix' you'll see pictures of the baths museum - actually the area it's in isn't particularly affluent - just a northern textile town similar to nottm.

[firbeck 860]

When I was at Firbeck School we used to go swimming at Radford Baths every week in the late 50's early 60's, it was past it's sell by date even then.

We had a Bartons bus that picked us up outside school and Mr Galloway, our teacher, used to give Henry Newton a lift into town for his Forest training sessions.

I recall the changing areas being painted light blue, the girls got changed down the deep end and we were in the shallow end, we had to put an old towel on the floor so that we didn't get verrucas, though everyone did, including me.

I hated it, I had a terrible fear of the water in those days, and despite our teachers best efforts, I never learnt to swim there. I recall the water being very cold and ivy growing through the roof down the deep end and into the filthy toilets which had a high level door leading to the outside. There always seemed to be a qeue of old blokes wanting baths that seemed to coincide with our swimming lessons, I presume that these days they would be classed as peadophiles.

I didn't realise that the place still existed, but what are we supposed to do with it. Victoria Baths in Manchester won the Restoration prize 5 years ago, 5 million has been spent on it to achieve absolutely nothing as far as the public are concerned, it needs another 16 million spent to open it up, but who will go there, historians?

I love Victorian buildings, but who wants to go and swim in an antiquated old place designed over a hundred years ago, certainly not me. We have a lovely pool nearby in Sudbury, Suffolk. It has a beautiful, massive laminated timber roof, a beach with loungers, palm trees, a flume, wave machine, a proper warm, laned swimming pool, and all the stuff that goes with it, jaccusis, cafe, health suite etc etc, you can't beat it, I'm sure that the 16million required to restore Victoria Baths for the enthusiasts would be better spent on something that the public would really appreciate and enjoy.

A relic of the past it may well be, how many other old Victorian baths are still extant in Nottingham, would anyone ever use them, unlikely, once the publicity has died down.

[gareth 0]

Thanks for the comments so far everyone, really useful stuff.

Sorry you had such a miserable time at the baths Firbeck, in part answer to your question, I don't want to re-use the building as baths but rather find ways of re-using fragments of the architecture as historical reference sculpture. The site has great facades all around that are let down by shabby buildings behind. Parts of the facade have ornate white terracotta detailing that, if cleaned up could look great, so I was thinking about keeping the facade and then enlarging the window openings down to the ground so you can walk through, like a collonade. Then putting a newer, fit for purpose building behind, set back a ways with some green space in between.

[quicksilva 1]

We used them when I went to Bentink Primary as I recall....the water was full of chlorine...These were the swimming baths just tucked behind Alfreton road as my memory serves me, right?..THat wopuld have been 75-77 or so...I only remember the hot chocolate machine for 2p a cup :-)

[firbeck 860]

Sorry Gareth, I don't get the point, you make enquiries about the baths and it's status then come up with the rather ridiculous idea of turning it into a soulless, self indulgent architectural statement, or perhaps we should call it a folly, on behalf of whom, yourself.

I've just looked at the pictures of it on Google Street, it is magnificent but, brought back a lot of mainly bad memories, my worse nightmare as a kid was having to get out of the bus and view that facade.

I'd love to know what it's like inside, surely someone on here knows.

I would try any excuse to get out of going swimming, I'd deliberately leave my swimming kit on the stairs at home, or suddenly have stomach ache, anything to avoid going. I was terrified of the water following an incident in the Trent at Barton ferry, but neither parents nor teachers had any sympathy for my phsychological problem. When I took my 11+, I was so desperate to get to BGS because they didn't do swimming lessons, that was my overiding factor.

Eventually, when I got to 16 and was about to go independently on holiday with my mates for the first time, it occured to me that I was going to look a bit of a durk with the girls on the beach if I couldn't swim.

I subsequently bit the bullet and went off one sunday morning with my two best mates and their dads who were both coppers, to a police training session at Victoria baths. The police swimming instructor in charge was so terrifying that he would have rendered the instructor in 'Full Metal Jacket' to a jibbering heap.

It worked, I was so frightened, that first time in, I swum a length on my own unaided, that was the end of my fear of water, clever old police knew what they were doing, I take my hat off to them, I've never looked back since.

[poohbear 1,360]

I only went there once...our lot at Ellis used Northern Baths but they were being cleaned.The teacher put me in charge of the class ("Me sir??? )...about thirty kids.

We got to the bus stop at Nuthall Road and the conductor was in no mood for a load of kids...

"C'mon C'mon hurry up you lot C'mon" ....The impatient sod wouldn't wait for them all, and when the last four or five were getting aboard,he rang the bell...the last just managed to jump aboard as the bus roared off....

Guess who didn't make it and was left on the pavement clutching the roll of prepaid tickets

Can't remember what happened after that,but the next trip somebody else was put in charge

[mick2me 3,033]

Was Northern Baths on Noel Street?

I remember going there early 60's.

Was there a rusty hand bar all around the edge of the pool?

[plantfit 7,630]

Ayup Mick,

Northern baths were on Highbury vale opposite Catchums corner, the council sold them some years back now and more or less rented them back off the buyer for storage reasons

Rog

[Fynger 841]

Northern Baths was where we used to go swimming from school ( Henry Mellish ...just up the road )...were the first swimming baths i saw with 'public "baths"' in the rooms leading up to the pool...also the first i saw with goal nets hanging over each end of the pool....was a very small pool compared to Bramcote baths that I was used to.

[BilboroughShirley 1,120]

firbec, thans for sharing your memories of Radford baths. I searched for a thread on Radford baths as I also had a bad experience there. When we were told about swimming essons at Portland School it seemed quite exciting. It was not! We were taken in a double decker bus to the baths. The swimming teacher told us to sit on the side of the pool, put both hands down on the edge of the pool beside us and then jump in. I did as we were told, jumped in, slipped on the bottom and went under. I can still remember surfacing from this. Nobody asked if I was OK. This started the dread of swimming lessons. The next week I did not jump in as told, but waited until the dreadful instructor had stopped shouting at us and gone on to take notice of those who could swim. I got up and went in down the steps. I did not learn to swim but just developed a hatred of swimming baths. Each week I did not sleep well the night before. I hoped that the bus would not turn up, or that it would break down on the way. I still remember the bus turning by the brick wall with the pattern of holes in. What saved me was 5 verrucas. A note from my mum put a stop to going swimming and I was happy. When they got better mum did not tell the school so I did not have to go again. When our son was very young he went to the swimming pool with friends and their parents. I could not swim. I decided that if I expected him to learn to swim I had to do the same. It is not good to expect things of your children that you are not prepared to do yourself. I went to classes at our local baths. The instructor was totally different to my experience at Radford baths. She realised that we were not confident floating and did not understand that it is quite hard to sink. Once I could confidently float then back stroke was for me. Brilliant! You cannot see how far it is to the other end of the pool and you cannot see how deep it is! Our son learned to swim at the local swimming club. When he wanted to enter in the gala the teacher told me to talk him out of it as he would be disqualified because his stroke was not good enough! I reluctantly talked him out of entering the gala and soon after he made his own mind up that going to music lessons was better than swimming!

[Tompa 285]

The second photo ( #6 ) reminds me of Bath St Baths opposite Sneinton market, that's where I learned to swim, when I was a pupil..( pupil ??? that's a posh word lol ) at Shelton St School.....My form master was Mr Spungin. Anyways when I was too grown -up to bath in front of the fire in a tin bath, I popped up to Bath St baths.......( crikey theirs a lot of baths around ) I think it cost sixpence.

I think the place is called Victoria Leisure Centre now.

[Guest]

First used Northern Baths in that hot summer of '76. We had a back boiler only system- it was simply to hot to light a coal fire. Got into the habit then- hop off the 44 black as the ace of spades- go in 'ave a soak- bus home -clobber on- all roads led to the Sal. ( used to peek into Brough superior) and imagine Lawrence bike testing in that yard!! Memories eh?

[Radford 17]

I swam every week at the Northern baths in the fifties and sixties,a toffee crisp afterwards was a great treat.

After my dad died in1964 carrying the tin bath and filling from the copper across the yard became to much for my mum.Friday night became bath night ,as much hot water and pink carbolic soap as you wanted.It was always misery then waiting in the cold for the bus back to Bulwell.The bathrooms were private,spotless and tiled in white metro tiles luxury then.