Take a dip into pool’s great past
THE water has gone and the paint is flaking but many happy memories were stirred when Newcastle City Pool was opened for a last time before a £6m refurbishment begins.
Free tickets for a series of guided tours were snapped up so extra tours were laid on.
The pool opened on November 7, 1928, so has been a factor in the lives of many North East people, young and old.
But it was closed by the city council in 2013 and few would have put much money on it ever reopening.
Cait Read remembered that when the city council finally put it on the market saying they were open to any offers, she was told the best she could hope for was that it would become a nice bar.
Cait was one of the women who became the Reopen Newcastle Turkish Baths group and can claim to be the saviour of the building as a health and fitness venue.
The group’s name is the clue to the fact that the Northumberland Road building was always about much more than its pair of swimming pools.
The Turkish Baths below street level were famous and well used – and while there would always be other pools, the nearest Turkish Baths since the building’s closure have been in Edinburgh and Carlisle.
Surveying the building’s rather dusty and scuffed interior this week Cait recalled how she offered her services as a professional publicist to the group led by Turkish Baths user Joan Hewitt.
“There were about seven women in the group, including Joan and myself, but right from the start we got incredible support and feedback from the public, so we knew it wasn’t just us that didn’t want the baths to be closed.”
Cait and the group first managed to get the building listed as an Asset of Community Value, giving the women six months before any sale to come up with an alternative business plan.
“This was the first building in the city to get the listing. St James’ Park was the second, Elswick pool was the third and the Gibson Street Baths (Byker) was the fourth,” said Cait.
“The charity I rang up to ask about the listing, Locality, was very helpful. It helped us to secure £10,000 to raise awareness and go for other funding.”
With the council’s hand stayed and a publicity campaign in full swing, an approach was made by another charity called Fusion Lifestyle.
Fusion’s director of operations Anthony Cawley, also present for the tours, said: “We like to take on listed buildings such as pools and lidos and get them back into community use.”
The upshot is that Fusion Lifestyle have obtained the City Pool on a 125-year lease from the city council – along with the adjoining City Hall which has been sub-let to the Theatre Royal Trust.
Already £300,000 has been spent on stripping asbestos from the old building.
Computer-generated images show that when it reopens – the target is next November, marking its 90th birthday – it will be what Fusion Lifestyle terms “a stunning, top quality fitness and wellbeing centre” with its best 1920s features intact and visible.
Memberships will be available but, said Anthony Cawley, people would be able to turn up and pay for a session, just like in the old days. Unlike in the past though, Anthony Cawley said mixed sessions would be available when the building reopens.
But some things won’t change. The wood pannelling, for instance, is protected by the listed status.
What, though, of the plastic palm tree, a 1970s survivor which still stands proudly in the changing rooms?
“Well, that tree is Marmite,” Anthony laughed. “Some people seem to love it and others don’t. I quite like it – but we’ll see.”