Sixpence or so entry fee
Visits to Black Rock swimming pool played such a large part of my life in the late 1940s and the 1950s as one of my favourite places. I lived about ten minutes away in Bennett Road. If I remember rightly, the pool opened in April at the start of the season. You went through the big turnstile, paying the sixpence or so entry fee. Then on to the changing rooms where you exchanged the ticket you were given at the desk for a clothes rack which was numbered that had a little corresponding numbered disc on it which you pinned to your bathers.
Freezing in the early season
The changing rooms were freezing cold. When you had changed and pinned on the little disc you handed your clothes rack to the attendant just keeping a towel to take with you. You were supposed to go through the little shower, or sometimes we dodged it as it was freezing that early in the season. The big pool was also freezing cold so early on in the year, but the quicker you were in water the better and warmer it seemed. I always looked at the high diving board and wanted to try it. I could already swim as I learned very early on to get the hang of it.
Plucking up courage for the diving board
I remember starting at the board at the side of the pool and gradually working up the courage to climb those slippery steps to the first diving board. It did not look too far up from the ground but when you were up there it looked a lot higher. After a few times jumping off the intermediate board, you could get brave and go on to the highest one. Again it did not look too far up from the ground, but my knees were knocking by the time I got to the top.
No chance of ‘bottling out’
I remember dithering for a while but that was thwarted as there was another swimmer waiting to dive off, and there was no chance of cowardly ‘bottling out’. So I just jumped into the water feet first. What an experience that was, it seemed like a lifetime until I broke the surface again. I got used to the height of the board but always jumped off instead of diving, as diving hurt my ears too much for some reason. I never did get used to how slippery the steps were and would hang on for dear life going up.
Reluctantly home for tea
When the summer gradually came around and the weather was warm it was hard to go home after such a lovely enjoyable day. Even though we always took sandwiches along, hunger always got the better of us. So it reluctantly it was through the little shower to wash the salt from our bodies, then to the attendant where you swapped your numbered disc for your rack of clothes.
The price of progress
This was a very vivid part of my young life which I will never forget. It was so sad to see the destruction of those beautiful Art Deco buildings being smashed to pieces in the name of progress. But the Marina has brought so much happiness to people as the pool did for me all those years ago, so I suppose that is progress.
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I used to go there on the number 44 bus from Preston Circus, I loved it there! I can only remember going when it was warm weather. I also plucked up courage to go off the top board but, I did dive in and not jump! This was in the summer of 1961 when I was 12 years old. It felt like I was flying, I still remember it so well, it seemed so high up. I moved from Brighton in 1965 and was so upset when I went back to visit my dad and saw what they had done to it. I much prefer it the way it was – progress as you say has a lot to answer for! I think they could have kept it even with the Marina!
I think that the reason the Black Rock Pool was closed was that the huge amount and force of the pile-driving necessary to construct the West Arm of the Marina, meant that the sub-structure of the pool was severely weakened and eventually badly cracked. It was deemed too expensive to rebuild and was eventually demolished. Quite why nothing has ever been done with the site is a mystery.
So many great memories of Blackrock, I lived in Whitehawk Road and used to walk down to the pool with my two younger sisters almost every day of the school holidays, once there I used to go and join my mates from school and spend the time in the pool and playing table tennis and swimming over the back of the pool at high tide. So many fantastic memories. Why oh why have the council never rebuilt the pool, or at least developed the land for other uses for the public? What a wasteNo wonder the kids of today sit in front of the tv all the time. I loved my youth. So much to do
Progress? Because Asda and a car park surrounded by a mass of concrete is so much better than a sociable, scenic deco building used for fun..sickening isn’t it?
I used to love spending a good part of my summers at the pool with friends. I remember those little metal discs well although sometimes, when we didn’t have the sixpence entrance fee, we would hop over the low wall to get in and wouldn’t get a disc. Great days!
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