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King’s Meadow Swimming Baths

King’s Meadow Swimming Baths were a fundamental stepping stone in “swimming for all”. Previously there was no suitable place for women to swim. The current pool finds its ancestry back in 1860 as a bathing area and then where the Corporation built the largest pool in the South of England (260x80ft). The current pool (120x45ft (37m)) opened in 1903 with much celebration was to be the first in the line of pools built in Reading. It had changing booths and showers and very high degree of architectural detail.

From the 50’s to the 70’s the pool offered a place where whole families could go for the day and whilst enjoying the sun, were able to dip in the clear water. The pool was sympathetically managed, cheap to use and served by a friendly attendant. Unlike the Arthur Hill Pool, King’s Meadow’s weakness was that it was not heated. Incidentally, one source says that the pool was later equipped with heating but it was never switched on. These old pools never benefited from re-cyclatory solar panel heating systems as are available today, because people were unaware of the techniques. As heated pools were introduced, the unheated ones were quickly scrapped. However, the current revival of lidos all around the country has been helped by a new approach to solar heating. Even the heating technology of 10 years ago has been improved on. However, the modern architecture does not seem to have become more durable or more aesthetic than was produced at the turn of the 19th century.

Un-supervised swimming in the Thames is not to be encouraged. East Caversham has a community crisis. The Council recognises that young people from this area have a shortage of things to do. Indeed they have recommended giving out fishing licences to them –but what might happen if they cannot swim? During last summer many people from this area were “intrigued” to dive off the Reading bridges. Once a few did this, many others followed. Thames Rescue agrees with the Environment Agency that this practice is highly dangerous. Not everyone is lucky enough to fly off to sunny Mediterranean beach resorts for swimming. Some people are aghast at the idea of swimming in heavily used chlorinated pools where the pungent smells linger with you long after you leave the pool.

The commercial profitability aspect of any publicly owned facility is at the heart of the council’s planning. Swimming pools are thus less valued than hotels, restaurants and flats. However, the public should have a right to education, health and fitness. The current government says that it wants people to get fit. They want this to extend to all walks of life not to just the most able bodied people. Parks and open recreation facilities are a closer step to this goal than restaurants and hotels.

The reason why I and others may not have brought up the question earlier of why this pool was no longer available for public swimming may be caused by the belief that a dive club were actively benefiting from the water for training divers.

I would like to start off a discussion with a baseline suggesting:

• That the pool should not be demolished
• That the pool should be kept public
• That the pool could be restored and that funding is not impossible
• That with solar heating and a sliding translucent roof the pool could return to being a 7 month a year open swimming facility complimenting the other sports facilities in the park
• That when the pool was no longer warm enough or was not sufficiently in demand, could be used for canoe and other all-season watersport training.
• That over the coldest winter months, the pool could be boarded over and then serve as a temporary ice-skating rink (similar to the successful Somerset House project in London).
• That a café/restaurant be put in one end of the building looking out onto a terrace to cater for all day visitors and enhance the park for the evenings.
• That visitors to the superstore might take to the idea of making a family day out; both shopping and visiting a recreation area/pool.

Robert O'Neill