Chelmsford Baths aka Riverside

The open-air bath at the Waterloo Lane site was opened on 5^th May 1906 by the mayoress, Mrs Frederic Chancellor. The pool measured 150 feet by 100 feet, held 437,000 gallons of water and cost £850 to build. The pool was 3 feet deep at the shallow end and six feet at the deep end. There were 36 dressing boxes and an open dressing shed, with room for bicycles. The bath was surrounded by a corrugated iron fence. There was a purpose-built platform with two spring diving boards. The pool was fed with river water that was filtered.

Washhouses were added in 1914.

Chlorination was introduced in 1933.

In 1939 a plan was proposed to replace the pool with one that was 165 feet by 60 feet and up to 9 feet deep but the costs of this work on the site were considerably more than building a new pool elsewhere. The recommendation was that an outdoor pool should also be adjacent to indoor facilities so another site should be sought. It seems that WWII intervened, and the old pool was not replaced.

In 1965, new adjacent buildings including an indoor pool were opened, finally fulfilling the recommendation from 1939 for adjacent leisure buildings.

Things changed again in the 1980’s when most of the pool was infilled and replaced with a kidney-shape much smaller pool.

In 2014 asbestos was found settled at the bottom of the pool. It wasn’t clear how this occurred but the suggestion was that some fibres had entered a water circulation pipe following damage. The council decided that the pool would not re-open as the usage had reduced considerably over the previous few years. The pool was infilled at a cost of around £200k. Suggestions were put forward for alternative leisure uses but eventually the land was turned into a car park earning the council significant income.

A new leisure facility was built including an indoor pool, a refurbished skating rink but no outdoor pool.

The outline of the kidney shaped pool was scribed into the surface of the new car park.

1906

1914

1965