Durnsford Road Swimming Pool

Now the Sunshine Garden Centre, this North London pool was much loved. Also known as Muswell Hill Open Air Pool in some documents.

Opening announcement

The open-air swimming pool at Durnsford Road was opened on August 4. The opening of the pool was to have taken place on July 28 but this was postponed owing to the Metropolitan Water Board refusing the corporation permission to fill the pool from the ordinary water supplies owing to the drought. But the corporation have obtained water from an artesian well at Southgate and from another on the North Circular Road. Two thousand-gallon milk tanker lorries have been used for transporting the water.

Baths and Baths Engineering August 1934

Durnsford Road Swimming Pool

Feature article from Baths and Bath Engineering, January 1935

This swimming pool in Durnsford Road, Wood Green, was opened in August last by the borough council.

The pool itself, which runs from east to west, is 165 ft. long on its centre line and 92 ft. wide. On the south side, as will be seen from the plan (fig. 1), the two corners have been cut off for a width of 25 ft., so that the length on this side is reduced to 115 ft.

The depth at the eastern and western ends is 3 ft. 6 in., increasing to a length of 48 ft. to 5 ft. 6 in., from which point the depth increases to 8 ft. 9 in. on the southern side and 15 ft. on the northern side, where the diving area is formed. The pool is of reinforced concrete. Before the reinforced concrete floor slab was constructed a mat of plain concrete, 2 in. thick, was laid over the whole of the excavated bottom to provide a clean bed for the reinforced concrete work.

In the shallower portion of the pool, where the depth is from 3 ft 6 in. to 5 ft. 6 in., the thickness of the floor slab is 5 in., where the depth is from 5 ft. 6 in. the thickness is increased to 6 in., and in the diving area, where the maximum depth of 15 ft. is reached, the slab is 9 in. thick.

The thickness of the walls also varies with the depth of water, in the shallow portions of the pool the wall is of a uniform thickness of 6 in., but in the deeper parts the thickness is increased by the introduction of a batter of 1 in 18 on the external face of the wall from a point 15 in. below the water level.

To provide against contraction three construction joints were arranged in the floor at 41 ft. 3 in. centres down the long way of the pool, with two other joints at right angles in the opposite direction. These joints, which were 2 ft. wide, were filled in after the main slab had been allowed to take up its contraction due to initial setting. At each of the points where the construction joints intersect the walls a specially designed contraction joint was formed.

The floor of the pool is finished with a ¾ inch rendering of ”Snowcrete” white Portland cement and sand and the walls with a 1 in. thickness of special “Snowcrete” cement concrete which was constructed monolithic with the reinforced concrete wall by the use of a steel sliding shutter.

Black diving lines are inserted in the floor of the pool. On the south side of the pool is the main entrance and café (over the filter house), tea terrace, kitchen, lavatories and offices.

From the entrance hall open pergolas on the southwest and south-east sides connect with the dressing box halls, in which accommodation is provided for approximately 1,000 bathers.

Lighting

The pool is lighted by ten 1,000-watt lamps in “Duoflux” reflectors. A minimum illumination of 5-foot candles and an even light. The effect of the lighting is very difficult to portray in a photograph, and even more so in words.

The roofs of the dressing-box halls are used as promenading space and are lit by ten 300-watt spotlights fixed on the flood lighting columns. A lighting expert was taken to the top of the diving stage at 10 p.m. one night to examine the lighting, and several startling points were outstanding. The top board is 32 ft. 10 in. above water level and the depth of water 15 ft. A 4 in. wide tile line is easily discernible on the bottom of the bath, which is a striking testimony to the efficiency of the lighting, but an even more stringent test was applied by dropping a halfpenny into 9ft. of water. Although this halfpenny actually fell in the shadow of one of the walls of the pool, it was nevertheless quite easily seen.

The floodlighting is not the only successful feature of the lighting scheme, the cafe, 48 ft. by 2 ft., with its barrelled ceiling, is illuminated by six Benjamin Shadowlites with 300-watt opal lamps. Praise for this lighting has been given unstintingly by all visitors and patrons, and the general effect is easily described as no shadow light.

Even the box-halls, so often sadly neglected from a lighting standpoint, are a fine example of adequate illumination. Most careful thought was given to the whole question of lighting particularly by the technical department of Benjamin’s. Of the 198 fittings specified, over 180 were Benjamin.

The plans for the work were prepared by Mr E Prentice Mawson, F.R.I.B.A, M.T.P.I., F.I.L.A (of Thomas H Mawson and Sons, London and Lancaster) in collaboration with M R H Matthews, A.N.Inst.C.E., M.Inst.M and Cy.E., borough engineer and surveyor of Wood Green.

We are indebted to the Indented Bar and Concrete Engineering Co., Ltd., of London, and to Benjamin Electric, Ltd., of Tottenham, for the foregoing particulars, and also for the loan of the blocks. The former prepared the reinforced concrete details for the pool. The sole contractors were Messrs. Perrys (Ealing), Ltd.