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Harold Davies Baths (C) L'pool Record Office

Swimming is Britain’s most popular participation sport, the country is well stocked with historic pools, and it all began in Liverpool.

A new book published by English Heritage tells the story of Britain’s indoor pools and explains how Liverpool led the way

Simon Inglis has co-written Great Lengths – The historic indoor swimming pools of Britain and says that when it came to public baths Liverpool was ahead of the rest of the country, "Liverpool was actually at the forefront of this," he says.

"Liverpool had the first publicly funded baths in 1829, also the first publicly funded laundry as a result of the cholorea outbreak, the famous Kitty Wilkinson story."

The first baths in Liverpool were built in 1756 at New Quay, with a plunge pool fed with water from the Mersey or swimmers could use steps down to the river itself, the baths were purchased by the local authority in 1794.

Their replacement, and the UK’s first publicly owned baths to be constructed, was St George’s Baths, designed by Liverpool Corporation’s surveyor John Foster, they opened in 1829.

St George's Baths (C) L'pool Record Office

St George’s baths may have been owned by Liverpool Corporation but the price of admission was still beyond the reach of the working classes.

It was the cholera epidemic of 1832, and the influence of Liverpool's Kitty Wilkinson that brought about the opening of Britain’s first combined public baths and wash house at Frederick Street in 1842.

The menace of cholera and Liverpool’s experiences contributed to the 1846 Baths and Wash-houses Act which set a requirement for public washing facilities, "The experience that had been gained in Liverpool was a very important part of that," explains Simon Inglis.

"These buildings are an extremely important part of our cultural heritage and our sporting heritage.

"Some of them are very beautiful buildings and their numbers dwindle every year."

Nothing can be seen today of Frederick Street or St George’s Baths in Liverpool.

Cornwallis Street (C) L'pool Record Office

Cornwallis Street, which was the only Liverpool baths to make a profit in the 19th century, became more rundown as the years went by and closed in 1967 after 116 years of operation.

"The one thing that Liverpool doesn’t really have now is a very well preserved high quality historic pool," explainsĚý Simon Inglis.

"Probably the closest you would get to this would be Woolton, which is a genuinely lovely pool.

"There’s a lot of small community baths like Woolton that the public really love but obviously the financial pressure on them is enormous.

"The oldest in Liverpool that actually operates is New Hall, which is closed at the moment although there are plans to refurbish it.

"Woolton is the oldest operational pool in Liverpool that is open at the moment.

"Woolton is a very good example of a small Victorian pool that in many ways doesn’t conform to any of the requirements of modern sport.

"It isn’t 25 metres long, it’s got no leisure attachments, there’s no flumes or slides, it’s a bog standard rectangular pool and it has a very strong devoted number of users but there are a lot of people for whom it just simply wouldn’t appeal."

Lister Drive (C) Simon Inglis

While each year more pools close Simon Inglis believes that this doesn’t mean that the buildings should also vanish, he argues that new uses can be found for many of the structures, and in this respect Liverpool has set a good example.

The front of the old Picton Pool is now a One Stop Shop for Liverpool City Council while Lister Drive, which closed in 1987, has been changed to a pet store, with the old first class pool now operating as a fisheries.

In Southport the former Victoria Baths still survives in part, although now in private hands.

The men’s side of the building is occupied by a leisure and fitness club while the former ladies’ side is now split into bars and restaurants.

While Liverpool’s Lister Drive survived for 83 years some of the cities pools built later in the 20th century had much shorter lifespans.

William Roberts and Harold Davies pools in Norris Green and Dovecot were built in the inter-war period, "These lasted barely 40 years," says Simon Inglis

"Striking modern buildings, but just far too expensive to maintain and in areas of inter-war housing developments where there wasn’t a lot of money."

The future for many of the UK’s indoor pools still remains uncertain, as Simon Inglis explains they are far more susceptible to changes in lifestyle and usage than other publically owned buildings, "Unlike libraries and schools, swimming pools, although they’re public buildings, are dependent on demand and their usership."

Great Lengths – The historic indoor swimming pools of Britain by Dr Ian Gordon and Simon Inglis is available from English Heritage.