Tag Archives: Swimming

Happy 150th Birthday Woodcock Street

Woodcock Street Baths in Gosta Green first opened in August 1860 and there’s been public swimming at the location ever since. Steve Beauchampé reports on the history of Birmingham’s oldest operational swimming pool complex on the occasion of its 150th birthday.

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Potential for Energy and Water Savings at Moseley Road Baths

I’m happy to share this article which has been compiled by John Newson from Balsall Heath is Our Planet….
BHIOP is an alliance of organisations and individuals in Balsall Heath, whose aim is to cut the neighbourhood’s carbon dioxide emissions. Our Action Plan identifies Moseley Road Baths as a site of importance for achieving carbon reductions.

Moseley [...]

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Memories and Memorabilia Day 2010

Our third annual Memories and Memorabilia Day will be held on Saturday, October 30th (the 103rd birthday of Moseley Road Baths) at the Mary Street Church Centre, cnr Edward Road/Mary Street, Balsall Heath (around 400 yards from the baths). Provisional times are 12:00-4:30pm.  The annual celebration was well received last year, when we were lucky [...]

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Greetings From Moseley Road Baths

We now have for sale Moseley Road Baths greetings cards. The front of the card shows what we believe to be the earliest known image of the building, taken just prior to its opening in October 1907. We’ve left the inside blank for you to write your own message, while the back explains some of [...]

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Petition for more Women Only swim sessions

You can now sign an online petition to request that Birmingham City Council increase women only provision at Swimming Pools across the city.

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More women only swimming sessions needed

Many women across the city come to Moseley Road Baths for the Women Only swimming sessions. The reasons for attending these sessions are as varied as the women who attend – modesty, cultural reasons, self-consciousness, a space to socialise with other women – to name but a few reasons. It is apparent that these sessions are needed, and for many women and girls, it can mean the difference between regularly swimming or not doing any exercise at all. As such, these sessions need to be encouraged throughout the city.

Moseley Road Baths are popular as the pool doors can be closed to the general public, and the cubicles around the side of the pool make the walk from changing to swimming so short. However, the current timetable cannot meet the demand and many sessions are too busy. The sessions are also held in the evening, excluding many women and girls who would prefer to use the pool earlier in the day – particularly important for women with children. Some swimmers also prefer female lifeguards, which cannot always be guaranteed.

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Derelict

As a much needed kick up the **** to Birmingham City Council, Editorial Girl has penned an excellent blogpost highlighting the dire state of Moseley Road Baths and the Council’s inaction on even doing the most rudimentary of repairs. Great stuff.

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Abandoned

The Guardian put out a request for readers’ photos on the theme ‘derelict’ last week. The result was a collection of some of the most heartbreaking pictures of buildings which are a shadow of their former glory.

Amongst the pictures was a photo from Emma Jones of the Gala Pool at Moseley Road Baths which you can view on the Guardian’s site. I’m not sure how I feel about it: the pool is absolutely gorgeous, even in its present state, and I think that the more publicity the building has the better, but it’s absolutely shameful that such a building remains in the ownership of Birmingham City Council in such a state. I feel embarrassed that my local pool should so frequently be on ‘most endangered’ and ‘most neglected’ lists, but it seems that our local politicians share no such concern.

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Sparkhill Consultation

As part of the Council’s ongoing plans for replacing Sparkhill Pool and Fitness Centre they have called a series of consultations for this week.  So far it appears that consultations have not had any mention of how the building should be financed and managed, something which campaigners over in Sparkhill believe is absolutely fundamental to [...]

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Another view of Moseley Road Baths

We’re getting more and more interest in Moseley Road Baths from people who have been inspired by the building to do interesting and creative stuff. Alex Gamela came along to our Memories and Memorabilia Day last year and gathered a fair bit of footage and photography. He’s used it to create a Flash [...]

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