Aerial view
Aerial view of Black Rock swimming pool
Image reproduced with permission from Brighton History Centre
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In the years 1947 to 1950 I used to live in the top flat of the centre house of Arundel Terrace immediately above the Lido – it can be clearly seen in the aerial photograph. I was a pupil at St. Mark’s primary school just a few hundred yards up the main road – centre right. I have so many memoires and I was only about 7 years old at the time!
I was born in Brighton in 1950 and I have fond memories of visiting the pool with my family of six children. We migrated to Australia in 1960, this is the first time that I have seen a photograph of the complex in 44 years.
As a teenager in the late 1950s, I used to buy a swimming pool season ticket for 7 shillings and 6d – entry from May to September! Pete Savage, his sisters and friends used to ‘live’ there – a paradise. On rainy days we would build giant camps with deck-chairs, and play Jokari, or flirt with the foreign students, or taunt the lifeguards. Tragic that so fine a building was demolished.
I was taught to swim by my father at the pool and we attended most Sundays (weather allowing) during the summer of the sixtys. To us it was a family day out with up to 15 of our extended family joining us. Later in 1976 I joined the staff as a lifeguard and worked in the bar at night. It was well known to all the staff that the pool was in a poor state of repair and the filtering system, the original fittings I think, was on its last legs and the councils policy was to keep the pool operating all the time. No monies had to be spent on the sight. A great shame as the sight, so close to the Marina, is still a derelict empty plot which could have been a great asset to the town.
Does anybody remember the open air swimming pool at Rottingdean? I went there as a boy in the 1950’s. It was much smaller than Black Rock pool.
Another sad indictment of rotten Brighton planning vandalism and a great loss to the town, especially as the Marina is now pretty much a dull slum and the pool site is a waste-ground. Something really good could have been done with it. Saltdean Lido still manages as an outdoor pool. I went swimming there in 1970 and remember having to make a big effort to get to the side .because it was filled with fresh water.!
I and my brothers and sister spent many a day here. I remember I broke my big toe in the baby pool and had to be taken to the rsch by ambulance. Felt very silly being carried out. I lived in Hervey road. Had 5 brothers and one sister. Frank (now sadly passed away) Ken, Brian, Robin, Antony and Carole my sister. Someone out there must remember us!
Yes, Black Rock swimming pool – we spent every day we could there in the summer, the crowd from Manor Crescent. Anyone remember the brown man – great diver – there everyday. Always dobbed you in if you sneaked in by way of the rocks from the beach!!
During the fifties if you passed your life saving exam you got a free pass for the season. I spent most of my summers there and don’t think I ever had to pay to get in. A lot of the Brighton Tigers ice hockey players worked as life guards (mainly Canadians) Wonderful place with great memories.
Having lived in Sussex Square and Church Place in the 1940s and 50s, Black Rock swimming pool was one of our summer afternoon haunts. As with most things associated with the Council in Brighton another asset lost to the town along with the lack of maintenance to the Madeira Drive arches. They, all the members of the Council, should be ashamed of themselves. Who votes for them?
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