SWIMMING AGAINST THE TIDE

05-08-2008

An architectural historian will take on the Birmingham leg of a challenge with a difference this week as he continues his attempt to visit each of England's listed Victorian and Edwardian public pools. What’s more, he’ll swim a length for every year the buildings have been standing.

In a bid to highlight the importance of historic public swimming pools, Dr Ian Dungavell, Director of national heritage charity the Victorian Society, will continue his epic task, which will see him swimming 104 lengths (22 miles), on Thursday 7 August at Aston University's Grade II-listed Woodcock Centre.

The following day – Friday August 8 – he’ll do 100 lengths at Moseley Road Baths, the country’s only Grade II*-listed Edwardian pool in which it is still possible to swim.

Ian hopes that his visit will help demonstrate the importance of the historic pool and encourage Birmingham Council to pledge to maintain the building with its working Second Class pool and reopen the outstanding First Class pool which is currently derelict.

“I'm delighted to be visiting both the Woodcock Centre and Moseley Road Baths,' he said.

"It's great to see Aston University taking such good care of this piece of living history [ie Woodcock Street] and we congratulate them for that.

“Moseley Road Baths is the best working Edwardian pool we have left in Britain and should be a
real source of pride. I hope that highlighting it in this way will encourage more people to use and enjoy it so that it can stay in public use for many years to come."

From Moseley Road Baths, Dr Dungavell will go on to visit the five remaining pools on his list, rounding his challenge off with 116 laps at Dulwich Leisure Centre on Friday 29 August. Swimming a total of 1543 laps at fourteen pools over the summer, he will cover a distance more than equivalent to crossing the Dover Strait of the English Channel.

"It is a big task,' continued Dr Dungavell, 'But the distance should be far longer than it is. With well over 50 listed Victorian and Edwardian pool buildings dotted around England, it is shocking that only 14 remain in use and open to the public, whilst many of the others have been closed and left to rot.

“Pool buildings are notoriously hard to find new uses for. All too often, a decision to close them is effectively a decision to write these nationally significant buildings off. We must work hard to ensure that adequate funding and expertise is available to keep our remaining historic pools open to everybody for many years to come."

Ian Dungavell will be at the Woodcock Centre from 5.15pm on Thursday 7 August and at Moseley Road Baths from 7am on Friday 8 August. For more information about the 1000 Year Swim, Visit the site here