Helensburgh Swimming Pool

Replaced with an indoor pool in the 1970’s then a new leisure centre built on the old site, the outdoor pool at Helensburgh was on a prominent position on the shorefront. I visited the site in 2022 and notes and images are below. No trace of the old pool remained save for the plaque commemorating the opening day fixed to the wall of the 1970’s indoor pool building. I hope it has a new position now that brand new leisure centre has opened. Hopefully I can go back and check one day.

The Baths Journal, April 1950

HELENSBURGH TOWN COUNCIL SWIMMING POND

By J I Learmouth, A.M.N.A.B.S.

It is too often that open-air swimming pools receive the stigma of being rather crudely fashioned affairs; general belief not infrequently taking the form that at best, the difference between the pool and the sea is merely a few degrees of temperature, less seaweed, a dressing-box and ninepence.

May I hasten to agree that, although such conditions may yet be observed, this outlook has, due to progressive and enterprising authorities shown an obvious decline in recent years. This development need occasion no surprise. No activity can engender such general interest as a well-equipped swimming pool; it is a veritable “multum in parvo”. Here one may exchange the robes of office, dignified or humble, for the swimming costume, feel an appropriate number of years younger and have one’s consequent jubilation pass completely unnoticed; and the matter does not end there, for there are few sports which give the happy outlook so necessary in these dubious times than salt-water bathing whether one swims for two miles or two breadths.

At the pool, the ever-present worry of “Where’s wee Johnny got to?” may be forgotten for a while. At Helensburgh Pool, “Wee Johnny” will invariably carry out marine explorations in the six inches or so of water of the paddling pool, where no interruption will be appreciated. Next stage for him will be the pool shallow end – about three feet six inches – where there is a step the width of the pond and measuring approximately 1 and a half by one and a half feet. Besides housing the five adjustable inlet nozzles, this step serves also as a temporary resting-place tor the learning kiddies and keeps the steps clear. For the swimmers, there are the rival attractions of the shower, chute, diving stage and springboard or the pond cafe.

For those not swimming, the pond gallery is equipped with two rows of seats which extend for two sides of the pond, giving an unobstructed view of the pool. At appropriate times, musical recordings may be heard over the loudspeakers. Frequent galas are held, and once a week, weather permitting, flood-light swimming forms an additional attraction.

EI Dorado? Perhaps not quite. Baths masters well know that although the frequency of accidents may be reduced by constant care and vigilance, such happenings can never be entirely eliminated. To quote, appropriately enough, from Ambrose Bierce’s ‘Devil’s Diary ”, an accident is “an inevitable occurrence due to the action of immutable natural laws ‘. Immediate medical aid is the antidote and must always be at hand; this reputation last year bringing more beach casualties for treatment than occurred in the pool. To cope with the lighter type of accident such as “tumbling in,” there is a gas heated drier which has relieved many a troubled mind.

Such, to the bather, appears Helensburgh Town Council Swimming Pool.

A few technical details may be of interest. Last year experimental break-point chlorination effectively eliminated algae growths in the pond. The pond itself is 150 feet by 50 feet, deepens progressively from 3 ft. 6 in. to 7 ft. 9 in. and holds approximately 240,000 gallons. Water is collected from the deep end through four adjustable outlets, brought up through reflux valves and fed through sieve baskets to two shunt-fed electrically driven centrifugal pumps, primed by a hydralette air-exhausting system. Filtration is effectively dealt with by a 23 ft. long by 9 ft. diameter duplex Pulsometer filter of capacity 667 gallons per minute. The equipment also includes the normal coagulation, ph. correction, and aeration tanks and during reasonable weather ample heat is supplied by a three-stage Vesta gas boiler shunt-coupled to the supply.

From a simple “fill and empty” pool, Helensburgh Swimming Pond progressed with the times by the addition of a compact filtering unit in 1937, and in the light of experience, always 15 contemplates yet further improvement.

February 2022 Field notes

Helensburgh Amateur Swimming Club was founded in 1891 and for 38 years the waters off the pier were used for club activities. In 1929 future provost, Andrew Buchanan, gifted the outdoor swimming pool to the town – supposedly heated! The plaque, currently fixed to the indoor pool noted that the pool opened on the 9th of July 1928.

Galas were particularly popular. An annual swim from Helensburgh Pier to Craigendoran Pier (around 1 mile) continued until the 1970’s. The lower information plaque says that the pool had been fed with heated salt water but not hot enough for modern swimmers.

In 1976, an indoor swimming pool and leisure centre was built alongside the outdoor pool. They finctioned together for just one year but then the outdoor pool was closed and eventually demolished.

For many years, a skateboard park occupied the site. A childrens play area opened in 1995.

In 2020, construction started on the new leisure centre much closer to the sea, with the height of the surrounding infilled land considerably raised.

Construction work was stalled due to the pandemic so when I visited in 2022, it was still unfinished but it did look lovely with all the large rocks surrounding the raised area. The facility opened in September 2022.

Google maps still shows the old indoor pool so I don’t know whether it has been demolished yet.

Baths and Bath Engineering, September 1937

Installation of Purification Plant
During last winter the Burgh of Helensburgh decided to equip their sea-water swimming bath with an up-to-date purification plant. The pool holds 240,000 gal. of water, and a circulation period of 6 and a half hours was finally decided upon. The Pulsometer Engineering Co., Ltd., of Reading, were the contractors for the plant.

A foot valve was fitted at the lower end of the suction pipe to fucilitate priming, but since during pumping the suction lift amounts to some 15ft. it was feared that trouble might be experienced from air separating out from the sea water and air-locking the pumps. Continuous air exhausting was therefore considered advisable, and a cross connection was taken from the aerator air-feeding apparatus for this purpose.
Two circulating pumps have been installed, so rated that when operating singly during light load periods the pool can be treated in 10 and 18 hours respectively. Provision is also made so that either pump can be used for operating the suction sweeper through its appropriate strainer box.

The layout is a little unusual. Though the filter house is over 50 ft. long, the internal width had to be limited to just over 12 ft. A single filter some 23 ft. long was therefore installed, and since a bed of this size is too unwieldy to wash satisfactorily, advantage was taken of the makers’ duplex design, whereby each half of the filter is washed separately.

The air service already referred to is of the “Hydralette”‘ type operated by a small booster carried on the tail end of the larger circulating pump.

The remainder of the plant follows the usual practice. Coagulation is of the parallel feed type with a pedestal type flow meter, and sterilisation of the chloramine type is by Wallace and Tiernan ammoniator and chlorinator. Finaally, a Vesta gas-fired boiler has been installed for heating the water in the pool.