Swimming

Talking of swimming my brother Frank took me to Lambeth Road Swimming Baths when I was about eight years old. The second visit I got a bit too bold and found myself out of my depth and started to panic. The lifeguard armed with a long pole with a hook on the end hooked my swimming costume and brought me spluttering to the side. He then said to me "Get in and stay in the shallow end". I was afraid to get in again but I was even more afraid of this big man with the pole so I got in again.

The Baths was a very big building. Besides the swimming pool there were facilities for washing oneself and one's clothes. There were often queues for the slipper baths where one waited on wooden forms for one's turn to have a bath. There was also the washhouse where you could do your laundry. Many people did not have access to even cold water. The tap might be in the yard and have to be shared with several other families. We were lucky enough to have a cold water tap in the kitchen and a copper under which you lit a fire to provide hot water for baths and doing the laundry. This latter was only lit twice a week, on Mondays for the washing and on Fridays for baths.

I enjoyed swimming and during my schooldays swam at Westminster Baths near Buckingham Palace. 1940 was a hot summer and as I was often on night duty in Brixton I would go in the daytime to Tootimg Bec Lido for a swim. After the war, while living in Dulwich, I swam at Brockwell Park Lido. These were excellent places to spend a summer afternoon. I think Tooting Bec is still in use. Lambeth Baths, at the corner of Lambeth Road and Kennington Road, was badly damaged during the war and has been demolished. I expect the many places in London where you can swim are vastly smarter than in my early days.