Historic pool deserves a reboot
Afew months ago I received a telephone call from a regular reader, an affable chap who had seen my final column of 2018 and wanted to share a memory.
I had written about the proposed demolition of the Municipal Pools on Victoria Street, lamenting the Hamilton City Council’s decision to devote $1 million of ratepayers’ money to the task.
Very late in the year the HCC somewhat reversed themselves, giving the facility a stay of execution, offering the public a chance to have its say before the bulldozers move in.
My friend’s recollection dated back to 1967. He remembered sitting in the pools, watching as the neighbouring Civic Theatre was being pulled down.
The Civic had begun life in 1905 as Hamilton’s Town Hall.
Shortly after it opened it served as the venue for a Salvation Army group which travelled the country, screening religious themed films and also shooting and showing original material.
The Sallies were the first to make a motion picture in Hamilton, filming Victoria Street then projecting the quickly processed result the following night. Hundreds gathered to see if not themselves then their main street, in all its bustling glory.
The event proved prophetic. Throughout the silent era the Town Hall functioned as Hamilton’s third film theatre. With the coming of sound, its civil functions ceased altogether. Repurposed and fitted out with the new technology, along with an aesthetically pleasing Tudor style facade, the Civic Theatre was born.
In 1961 it became the first place in Hamilton to screen a film on a Sunday, a milestone in a country which clung stubbornly to its Sabbath prohibitions. The city’s youth turned out in strength to see Elvis Presley in one of his rare nonmusical parts, Flaming Star.
My father’s cousin was one of them and remembers the excitement of the evening rather more than the movie itself. Another friend, one with a near photographic memory, recalls seeing police outside the theatre. The constabulary were so fearful of teenage hooligans they had brought their attack canines. Any tempted into anti-social behaviour by the King of Rock ‘N’ Roll would presumably have had the dogs set upon them.
Just three years later the Civic Theatre shut its doors forever. Much as in recent times, with the closing of the Founders Theatre, the Hamilton Central Library and – indeed – the Municipal Pools, the Hamilton City Council took the decision upon themselves. An application from Amalgamated Theatres to continue trading was declined. Much as with the Municipal Pools, the theatre was allowed to fall into a further state of disrepair. By 1967, its demolition was a fait accompli.
It seems remarkable that a building that was central to the political and cultural life of the metropolis for over six decades was dispensed in such a cavalier fashion. Then again, the same fate befell the other Victoria Street theatres, its contemporaries, sometime rivals and replacements: the Kings Theatre, the Theatre Royal/The Embassy, The Regent Theatre and The State/The Carlton. Older, wiser societies build and preserve; in Hamilton construction comes with built-in redundancy. Some might see this relentless drive to destroy as a hallmark of progress. It could just as well be termed an insecurity or a banality. Out with the old, in with the new, without a thought given to history or heritage.
All of which leads me back to the Municipal Pools. They opened seven years after the Hamilton Town Hall and persist to this day, 107 seven years later. According to an archaeological assessment commissioned by the HCC and used conveniently to rubber stamp the proposed demolition, they ‘‘display very little historic heritage value’’. This conclusion is arrived at because of alterations to the facilities since 1912 and because the building was erected after 1900.
I doubt that the gentleman who remembers bathing in the Municipal Pools in 1967 would agree with this view. He would more likely draw parallels between the violence visited upon the Civic Theatre and that which council would wish upon his former water hole. Generations of Hamiltonians would agree with him.
Looking at old photos of the Civic Theatre, the Tudor facade reminds me of Rotorua’s Government Gardens and of the historic Blue Baths on the same grounds that once too faced destruction. Thankfully, wiser heads prevailed. The Blue Baths were repurposed. The Municipal Pools could well be, too. Submissions to the HCC regarding the Municipal Pools close on March 20. Any who wish them preserved should register their opinions immediately.