The tradition of going to public swimming baths dates back centuries. Roman baths provided the model for the bath houses that emerged in Britain from the 17th century onwards. As our cities expanded during the Industrial Revolution, local pools were considered vital for public health, to provide sanitation and curtail epidemics such as cholera.
In the early 20th century, it was decided that every home in the city of Bristol should be within one mile of a swimming facility. And so between 1922 and 1937, six pools, including Jubilee Pool, were built by the Bristol City Corporation.
Today, all those pools have been demolished, with the exception of Jubilee Pool and the Grade II-listed Bristol South Baths. Its architect, CFW Dening, who helped create a number of Bristol’s new garden suburbs, also designed Jubilee and so campaigners have applied to get it the same listed status; however their attempts have been rebuffed.
Jules Laming, chair of Friends of Jubilee Pool, explains they are now launching another rather more audacious bid: to take control of the pool from the council and run it as a not-for-profit community enterprise.
Next week, they plan to lodge a formal expression of interest with the council to take on the building on a 35-year lease and begin addressing the backlog of repairs, which are estimated to cost more than £300,000. If the bid is accepted, they have until the end of March to submit a detailed business plan – otherwise the pool will close.
‘A combination of Covid and not being able to exercise or socialise for two years, plus the injustice of closing the pool, has galvanised the community to come together and try to save it,’ Laming says.
Since the campaign launched, membership has nearly doubled, from 320 to 620 people (each pays a monthly subscription of around £20). At present, she says, around 2,400 people are using the pool every month.
Laming, 50, works full-time for a planning consultancy, and says her two children, who are 12 and nine, have been swimming here since they were infants. However, she insists that Jubilee Pool is much more than a play pool for children or a place to simply keep fit.
The unusually high water temperature of 30C makes it ideal for people with certain medical conditions. Patients from a nearby NHS pain clinic are referred here to swim in the warm water to help soothe their symptoms, and a session is held each Friday for disabled adults, who otherwise would have nowhere nearby to swim.
