Here is a scanned image of the long gone Hoylake outdoor swimming baths. I can only presume that photo was taken on a nice summer afternoon – as I type this, it’s cool, breezy, grey and raining and not really sunbathing weather in Hoylake 🙂
There must be a good couple of hundred people in that photo so it demonstrates how popular the pool was on a nice day. What was that rock (?) feature in the foreground? Is that slide on the left the killer?
Feel free to comment!
Thanks to Jackie Hall for letting me borrow her scrapbook that contained various local press articles about Hoylake pool.
This looks like a a b&w copy of a post card, I’m pretty sure I’ve got a colour version somewhere.
It would have been taken a few years into the Hoylake Pool and Community Trust’s tenure which started in 1976 and shows the pool after being remodelled into an L shape with the help of “job creation” grants from the Manpower Services Commission. The area in the foreground was filled in to make extra sunbathing space and one of the 2 fountains relocated there. The fountains added visual interest but their main function was to oxygenate the water so helping water clarity I believe.
Yes, on the left is the ‘killer’ slide and on the far side the ‘curly’ slide.
Happy days!
Yes, it was a colour post card …I was having some technical issues with my scanner so it ended up becoming black and white.
Hi.
I actually worked in renovating the pool in the job creation scheme.
Pete Rogers
The photo of Hoylake baths brought back a lot of happy memories of the times my friends and I spent there during our school holidays. It was a very popular place but we always seemed to have good summers all those years ago – but maybe I have a selective memory !! Have to say the water never seemed to get very warm even in the heat of the summer. I am pretty sure that the ‘rock’ in the foreground was a cascade of water. Don’t know if the slide on the left was ‘the killer’ but there was another slide lower down on the same side of the pool and also diving boards. There was a baby slide next to the slide at the top of the photo. We all had entry contracts for the summer and practically ‘lived’ there. They used to close for lunchtime and we would hang around until they opened again and go back in for the rest of the day. The changing rooms had half size wooden doors and wooden slatted floors inside. There was also a cafe for snacks and drinks. Great days !!
Regards from Sheila (Dubai)
The photo was taken in July 1976 on a very hot Sunday ,and is coloured, and was sent to a Postcard company in Leicester who produced I think 500. We then sold them at the cashdesk in aid of the Pool.
The Water cascade was removed in the winter of 1976-77 to increase the size of the area under a job creation scheme.
We have set up a display of old photos etc for the meeting tonight at 7-30 in Melrose Hall to save the Boating Lake.
I have been trying to find size of pool – I think it was 50 yards (prom to sea) by 75 yards.
Is this correct?
I started with the Saturday morning contract and progressed to the more expensive 7 day contract.
Spent the whole summer and autumn evenings when water temperature dropped below 40 degrees.
Too cold for attendants to haul us out.
Hello Did you say the Boating Lake is under threat now, why and in what sense? If so that is a disgrace, the heart and character of Hoylake has already been destroyed with the loss, mysteriously of the pool, where did all that money go that was raised to save it, the Cinema and all the lovely glass, wrought iron coverings on the shops on Market Street.
This is a wonderful picture and brings back many happy memories.
Hello Liz,
The boating lake needs repairing/renovating. Currently unusable as it loses so much water. There was a public meeting about it yesterday evening and residents are hoping to get the model boat lake restored …hopefully I’ll do a new news item today/tomorrow about it. Cinema is now an apartment block of course.
Hi. I spent many happy hours in that swimming pool. The water was always freezing! I remember the water fountains and the diving board. The changing rooms had horrid wooden slatted boards to stand on. Yuk. I also remember going swimming with the school in the winter. The teacher instructing us from the side wearing a fur coat while we were freezing. Happy days! A long time ago. Cynthia
,
I spent many happy days at the baths when I was a boy.When did they close down and where exactly where they on the promenade.I have looked recently and down near the new lifeboat station there is a garden which looks to me if it could be the swimming baths filled in to create a garden
Emlyn. The baths was to the right if you are looking out of the fromt door of the house No32 on the Promenade. To lhe left of the baths also on the beach was a block of toilets. Also now demolished.
front door. Sorry Emlyn.
I remember that Summer (1976), I have a season ticket (cost £4). Used to walk along Trinity Road and along the front…wasn’t that the year there was a ladybird epidemic? We’d get there for about 9am and stay until 5:30pm…every day during the Summer! Anyway, many happy memories. I remember the turnstyle gate at the far end and the sticky bun races. Lost my snorkel/mask going down the Killer…I was gutted. And weren’t there two water cascades? Tom O’Connor judged on the Miss Wirral beauty pageant. Lots more memories…sunbathing on the roof!! Great photo, thanks!
I learnt to swim in this pool when I was 7 (1955). My Dad had a boat and told me that I was not allowed to go in it until I could “swim” 25yds with my head above water. With a combination of splashing, doggie paddle and sheer determination I succeeded. I did learn to swim properly later because my brother and I attended Meols Primary School and used to call in every night in the summer on the way home. Happy days
Chris, I saw your name and wondered if you are the same Chris Cowx who I lived next door to in Drummond Rd. in the mid-60’s. We lived at number 23 for two or three year.
Best wishes,
Mike Ryall
I seem to remember there were two ‘killer’ slides side by side and the slides were at about 45 degrees to the water making sure you hit it at some speed. The slides’ surfaces were made out of wood???? with water running down them to aid movement. Is my memory correct? I know the whole family travelled from West Derby, Liverpool on the 18c bus and then the underground railway to Manor Road station and walked, as it was closer than Hoylake station. It was a grand day out, it was always very sunny and the water was always icey cold. Such brilliant memories!
Thanks for posting the picture and all the memories it evoked, helped by everyone’s comments above. I remember going to the Hoylake outdoor baths as a very small child in the 50s. I remember the turnstile exit gates, and those wire coathanger baskets you put your clothes in, in the changing rooms. It was always very busy, kids rushing around all over the place. There was a big sunbathing area to the right, a suntrap. There were at least 2 big bubbling “fountains” outside the pool (like piles of rocks) which to my child’s eyes looked like big bowls of white cornflakes! Someone above said they served to oxygenate the water. So theres no sign of it now along the front.. I haven’t been back to the Wirral in years, but still miss it.
I lived at 76 Trinity Road 1947-1952 or 3. I was aged 7 to 12 then, now I am 80. Used to live in the baths most of the summer. Either there or Hilbre Island when the tide was right.
Wonderful childhood memories.
We used to always swim in Harrison Drive and I remember that as having blue water and fountains ( and floating flies on the pool) but when we went to Hoylake my memories are of sea water, and the feeling of sand on the floor. I’m guessing we were swimming in the boating pool? The walls were pebbledash. Wherever it was we enjoyed it, and isn’t it amazing the number of pools there were?
Such a terrible shame what is happening to the once beautiful Hoylake beach. The outdoor pool was so gorgeous and after that was demolished, the beach was the only remaining amenity area. Now that is under threat in favour of weeds and rubbish, I fear there will be no safe place for children to play and paddle.
Sad times
My mum and dad took me to the Hoylake pool around 1947, I was 4 then and we lived in Flixton. My abiding memory is having to take off my shorts in public to put on my trunks. I was mortified. Now I’m 80 and living in Spain and half an hour ago I was swimming naked in my pool! Those were the days, we had nothing but we’re happy.