Swimming Lessons
Swimming lessons: The early days and different schools
Johnny Pearce
To get away from all the boring COVID-19 rubbish we are constantly getting, I watched BBC morning news and was amazed that after the last lockdown over 200 swimming pools never reopened. I have been trying to get to some swimming classes for 'water aerobics’ for OAPs and, at the moment, cannot find anywhere to go unless I pay for David Lloyd’s, which I do not wish to join. Do you all remember how many swimming pools we had as kids? I can count about 5 open air and 6 closed in pools. I also remember what great fun we had at these pools. Highbury Fields was great fun, and Sundays all day at Finchley Pool. Any recollections from you lot at the great times ahead and where I can go now????
P.S. I look terrific now in McGuinness swimming costume.
Frank Tepper
I can remember the one in the Caledonian Rd. and one in Hornsey Rd. As you say the open air one at Highbury was great, as was the Ruislip Lido.
David Chapman
The Finchley Lido was a great day out I seem to remember. As for indoor swimming, me and my brothers got into the Tib in Greenman Street for two old pence each; more if you wanted mixed bathing. And you could stay there for hours if the weather outdoors didn't encourage more bathers!
The Ironmonger baths were a bit further to walk but a great facility. Are they still there?
One of my sons swears by "cold swimming" for its positive health properties, and it seems to be growing in popularity. But choose your river/pond etc carefully!
Mickey Isaacs
I sometimes used to go to Finchley Lido up on the 609 trolleybus. I remember it it had two pools (one was for the younger I think) and was on two levels, a great place.
Along the coast from me is the fabulous Saltdean Lido which by heroic local efforts against property developers has re-opened. Fantastic art-deco architecture. And, of course, the best of the lot, the sea, which I spend a lot of time swimming in, as well as lounging on the beach. In the summertime, anyway.
I believe the old L.C.C. wanted all children to be able to swim by the age 12, and I remember trudging up Hornsey Road from Eden Grove to the baths with our towels under our arms. At the time it was Mr. Petherick who took our group and actually taught me to swim, and actually used to get in the pool and show us the strokes. Could you imagine a teacher doing that these days!!
Anyway his teaching paid off because I became a really good swimmer, and even now, as an old codger, I'm not too bad.
Alan Weyman
The last time I was around that area, Ironmonger Row baths were still there. As I lived just down road from them they were my local baths. Quite an amazing building, had main pool, apparently olympic size. If I remember it had 5 diving boards, one very high, but pool was 12 ft. deep at that end. Just off the main pool was the child's learning pool. Above that was the gallery and cafe. Used to love my beans on toast after a swim.
Building had an area where you could book a bath and Turkish bath area. One thing you could do was hire towel and swimming trunks If you forgot your gear. Nice pool and friendly staff in those days.
Remember Merlin Street, Hornsey Road, and Sobell baths. All good in there own ways.
John Tythe
Swimming was a big part of my schooldays, with classes at the Tib when I was at Hanover JM, where the class was held in the Women’s pool. That was tiny, about 30 x 10 feet, whereas the Men’s pool was 33 yards long and the Mixed was 30 yards.
I learned to swim in the Men’s pool which cost 2d a swim, then when I joined the Islington Swimming Club, which was held in the Mixed pool, I would swim in there, which was double the cost @ 4d. I swam my first Mile in the Mixed pool. I say a mile, but a nice round 60 lengths was 40 yards over the mile, although that was a trifle to the training at the club, which was 30 lengths each of front crawl, backstroke and breast stroke and an easy 10 lengths of butterfly, which was followed by half an hour of Water Polo! The Club would have Galas with other local clubs, so went to the other club’s pools – Ironmonger Row and Kentish Town pools.
When at Eden Grove, we were taken swimming at the Cally by our form teacher Mr. Campbell - Oh how he enjoyed some rough & tumble in the pool with 38 boys!
From Camden Road we went to Hornsey Pool, where in 1965 I was Court House Swimming Captain, and got banned from swimming because I wouldn’t dive, or throw myself off the top diving board. I could swim, but heights was not my thing! I did a week of Rugby (got banned) and two weeks Cross Country Running before I was allowed back, after arguing my case with the Bonk. How could I be House swimming captain and not be allowed to swim!
In the good weather I went to the open air pools at Finchley. Got to, like most people, on the 609 trolleybus, and on our bikes to Highbury Fields and Parliament Hill Fields pools.
I never ventured into the Hampstead Heath Pond!
The Tib was my favourite pool and after a swim there, on the way home, I would have an egg & tomato roll from the Greenman Cafe. I miss those!
Addendum
As my memory slowly mulls over the ’Tib’, this came back to me:
In the late 1950s, on Sunday mornings we, (me & my dad), could be found sitting on the wooden benches in the Men’s Hot Baths waiting room until it was our turn. It all took an age, but was infinitely better than the Sunday night ‘tin bath’ in front of the fire, which was filled with saucepans and kettles of boiling water until there was enough hot water, cooled off as necessary with cold. First the kids went in, bathed dried and sent to bed, then mother, followed by dad. The bath was baled out using saucepans emptied down the kitchen sink.
So, equipped with a hired towel (that hardly absorbed any water) and a small round of soap about 2” diameter and about ½” thick. Upon hearing “Next” I would go in first into a wooden cubicle in which there was a bath and a fixed wooden bench. The bath water was controlled by a large brass lever on the outside of the cubicle, operated by the attendant, who was the custodian of the lever, just the one lever for all the baths! He would have set the water running when you entered the cubicle and would turn it off when you shouted “Stop” followed by your cubicle number, e.g. number 6. If you wanted more hot water, you would shout out “More hot, number 6” followed by shouting “Stop, number 6”, when there was enough. Usually, there would be a delay in the hot water being turned off, so the bath would then be too hot! You could really pee him off by then asking for cold, and the inbuilt delay would then have the bath too cold!
Once you had had your bath, got dressed and vacated the cubicle, the attendant would go in and clean the bath with a large long wooden handled brush that he had first rubbed in a bucket of used soap rounds, give the bath a scrub and a rinse, then start to fill it with a shout of “Next!”
I would then make my way home with wet hair, even in the depths of winter, when it would freeze on my head! I didn’t have a hat, except for my Cubs cap, but wasn’t allowed to wear it because that was for Cubs, like the Sunday Best shoes that I wasn’t allowed to wear until they were too small. No wonder my feet are deformed! I and about a dozen others at Hanover JM, had to have foot correction classes every day instead of Morning Assembly to teach us to walk properly! “Heel, Ball, Toe - Heel, Ball, Toe“ still runs through my head when I’m out walking! I was a poor little sod! And people now, are moaning about having to wear a mask!
David Chapman
You remind me, John, of the little window opposite the Tib baths where a woman would offer a slice of crust of bread and dripping for 1d or a slab of treacle toffee or honeycomb for not much more. Anyone remember palm toffee slabs? All are whetting my appetite as I write!
Roger Osborn
Hi David. As kids we used to use the Tibby and Highbury fields open air pool, which had lockers all around and a cafe at the shallow end. In the summer when really busy if full you would queue up outside until people left. iI had a spring board and I think two diving boards one which was quite high (to a kid).
I think Tibby had girls and boys only pools and a bigger mixed one with lockers round side and gallery upstairs. I also think it had a space behind lockers on both sides where if all lockers were full you could get changed.
I well remember slabs of honeycomb and toffee but from a similar shop (open window) on our way home up New North Road opposite entrance to New River Walk in Canonbury. We could not wait to spend our pennies. Dripping I don’t remember buying from a shop. That was always our Sunday tea unless, as a special treat, cockles and winkles off a barrow passing our flats in Liverpool Road.
Mickey Simmonds
I remember the sweet shop with the lady in the open window. I got a prize at Shepparton Junior School and, as a treat, Dad took me there for my favourite sweet – a slab of honeycomb.
Bertie Worster
I remember the window lady. I always asked for the red jelly on the dripping slice. Cholestorol galore. I can taste it now.
Paul Kenealy
I remember the Tib baths well. We lived at Newington Green. My dad taught me to swim in Clissold Road pool when I was 5, but went to Newington Green school, along with Micky MacDonald and Chris Bunting. Once a week in the summer term we would WALK from Newington Green to the Tib. We boys went in the Men’s pool, and I guess the girls went in the smaller pool. I remember that the lockers were alongside the length of the pool and had no doors.
We would come out of the lockers and line up along the length of the pool, dive in and swim two widths then get changed again before walking back with our wet trunks and towels back to Newington Green. I also used to go to Highbury open air with my sister, if you got in before 9.00 it was free, and you could stay all day. These days I hardly swim at all. Shame.
David Chapman
Yes, very good memories, one and all! There used to be a bloke who occasionally swam in the Tib boys only pool who was always a topic of conversation because he didn't use swimming trunks but what, looking back, must have been something resembling a jock strap!
Barry Page
This is my contribution about the Tib.
One of my favourite physical pastimes was swimming. This activity, too, was encouraged by the education authorities, and the Laycock pupils used the swimming baths located near Tibberton Square in Greenman Street just off Essex Road. Tibberton Square gave the baths its nickname: ‘Tibby Baths’ or just plainly the ‘Tib.’ The building also contained public baths and a public washhouse (laundry). On swimming days it was usual to see ‘crocodiles’ of schoolchildren—each clutching a rolled up towel containing their swimming costume, and chaperoned by several teachers—making their way from the school to the swimming baths. For us it was a relatively long walk from Laycock Street to Upper Street, Canonbury Lane, Canonbury Road, Essex Road and Greenman Street. Opposite the baths was the Peabody Trust estate of working class tenement flats. At the bottom of one of the blocks was Ada’s sweet shop where, after the swimming period, excited boys and girls eagerly queued up at the shop’s open window to buy a selection of confectionery. The favourite of all was Ada’s homemade treacle toffee. For a threepenny bit (3d), you could buy a small bagful of this super-sweet toffee—a sort of brickle—that took for ever to dissolve in one’s mouth.
David Chapman
Loved the reminiscences John. Bullying was rife but, as you say, one just had to get on with it. I learnt early how not to attract attention to myself from those who were likely to wish me harm for their own personal reasons.
Hornsey was a bit too far to travel for me and my family, but we used to use the Tib for a weekly bath, and clothes washing in the washhouse, before we moved to Bentham Court in 1949 where, contrary to popular belief, we didn't keep coal in the bath because we had a coal bunker in addition to a bath!
And thanks to the GoBB whose memory is clearly better than mine. Yes, of course, it was Ada who served up bread and dripping from her window in Greenman Street after a few hours in the water opposite! She was quite a character!
Paul Lomas
I can still remember the time that I was running around the edge of the pool at the Tib baths with some of my Barnsbury school friends playing tag when to try to get away I dived into the pool, but being so excited I forgot it was the shallow end and had quite a shock when I smashed my head on the bottom. But apart from a large bump I was OK.
Les Wallage
Hi everyone, I, too, learnt how to swim in the Tibb. Think I went every Friday morning with Hanover school. It was only a short walk from the school and, as I lived just around the corner in Burgh St., I went there often. I also went swimming in the open air pool at Highbury. I had a very bad accident there when I was 14 years old. If you remember, half way up the pool on each side lifeguards would sit on a platform keeping an eye out on the swimmers. I could not stand cold water and would normally get in slowly so as I would get "used" to the cold temperature. I decided on this day to run along the side of the pool and dive in thus getting the effects of the cold water over and done with in one go. Needless to say I hit my head on the lifeguards platform which knocked me out. When I fell into the water that brought me around again and the next thing I knew was sitting in the first aid hut, blood pouring down my face. I was taken to the Royal Northern Hospital and X-rayed where the found I had fractured my skull. I was told if it had been 1/2 an inch to the right I would have been dead. The last time I went to Highbury swimming pool I got a severe case of sunburn; could not walk for 2 days. That was 1968, I was 20 years old at the time.
Johnny Pearce
It seems everyone one went to the Tib. Funnily enough I did not ever go there. I went to the Cally baths where we often had a proper bath there in the early days before the Mansions. Where I lived had no baths. So they used to hold the boxing there. I remember Johnny MacDonald having a fight there and outside as well, probably with Georgie Burns.
John Prysky
I remember walking from Eden Grove to Hornsey baths with my swimming towel in all weathers, and having a short time actually swimming. As I was born in Eastbourne and lived there till I was nine years old, I learnt to swim in the sea, so I had an advantage over some of my classmates. When we moved to London, I lived in various places from Hackney to Kings Cross, and I went to primary school in Dalston and secondary school in Islington, and over time I have been swimming at London Fields Lido and Highbury Fields Lido as well as Caledonian baths. I have a recollection of representing our school at boxing at Caledonian baths, and fighting a boy called Alfie Harp from Isledon School, who was apparently the London boxing champion. This boy was built like a brick shithouse, but Mr.Richards (who press-ganged me into the team) said I would beat him easily. However, he knocked six barrels of crap out of me, and if it wasn’t for my mate, Johnnie Bewley, shouting for me to give him hell, and getting the fight stopped for a few moments while he got a bollicking for shouting as it was an amateur fight, and shouting wasn’t allowed. In those few moments my head cleared and I spent the rest of the fight trying to avoid getting slaughtered. Suffice to say I lost on points and have never been in a boxing ring since.
Rob Drew
I never went to the 'Tibs', I always went to the Cally or Hornsey pre and post modernisation.
When I started work and was based in Soho, I went to Marshall Street baths near Carnaby Street in my lunch break. These days I need my wet suit to swim in the Solent, but I must confess now it's getting chilly the old bones object.
Ken Pratley
I don’t remember going to the Tibby Baths when I was at Laycock Street, but I have a vague memory that other classes may have done so. Probably it was something to do with the form teacher and whether they were prepared to take the class swimming. I certainly do remember going to Hornsey Road baths when I was at Barnsbury. I was not a strong swimmer back in those days, and about all I could manage was a pathetic breaststroke that I had taught myself in a large pool of water on the beach at Sandown on the Isle of Wight during a family holiday. One of the main problems I encountered at Hornsey was that my eyes were extremely sensitive to the chlorine used to sterilise the water. I think they probably used enough to sterilise the whole western front.
Due to my lack of any sort of spectacular performance in the pool. At one of the swimming galas, probably in the second year, I was selected to represent my house (Wardman) in the staying under water competition. My eyes were already sore and red, but I had learned from a television programme that if you hyperventilated you could extend the period for which you could hold your breath. So I busily set about breathing in copious amounts of air and chlorine and, on the command, ducked under holding onto the bar. My eyes were very irritated, and if I felt like having to breath, I let out a few bubbles of air, which had the effect of diminishing the urge for a couple of seconds. When I could hold my breath no longer I surfaced gasping, only to find that everyone else had long since emerged and gone to the changing rooms. I clambered out of the pool to desultory jeers and jibes from the other kids, indicating that everyone thought I was showing off. So that was the only time I won anything at swimming.
On holidays in Greece in my twenties I swam a lot, often for long distances along the coast, using flippers and face mask. These days, Pam and I spend at least a month each year swimming on the Ningaloo Reef at Exmouth, Western Australia, … fantastic. We used to have an aquarium business when we lived in Bournemouth, and so we like to see all the reef fish, that we used to sell, swimming in the wild. We have a pool from which I have just cleaned about 10 kilos of winter leaves, a job that always makes me think it's about time we had it filled in. But somehow we haven’t done so and, on a hot summer night, it's nice to float in it and look up at the stars. I don’t think I gained anything from my experiences at Hornsey Road, which I didn’t enjoy, but nevertheless I’m glad I learned to swim.
James Sanderson
Highbury – always. Finchley – great but a long way away. Tib – usually when Highbury was closed or it was too cold for outdoor swimming.
The lady in the window in Greenman Street. I have a memory of her breaking the tray of treacle toffee with a small hammer and pricing the various pieces according to size. Correct me if I am wrong.
Taking a bath at the baths. Alan Brown and Peter O'Shea cajoled me into going with them, aged around fifteen or sixteen – I cannot recall where – to have said bath. One of the opening scenes in “Quadrophenia” shows it perfectly and I didn't like it all and never went again. We did have baths in Lewis Buildings which were built as part of the kitchen. They had to be filled by water from a copper (also in the kitchen) which took such a long time that we only had them once a week. And yes, we shared, with copious amounts of Dettol poured in after each use. I strip-washed for years until I got married.
Johnny Pearce
To get away from all the boring COVID-19 rubbish we are constantly getting, I watched BBC morning news and was amazed that after the last lockdown over 200 swimming pools never reopened. I have been trying to get to some swimming classes for 'water aerobics’ for OAPs and, at the moment, cannot find anywhere to go unless I pay for David Lloyd’s, which I do not wish to join. Do you all remember how many swimming pools we had as kids? I can count about 5 open air and 6 closed in pools. I also remember what great fun we had at these pools. Highbury Fields was great fun, and Sundays all day at Finchley Pool. Any recollections from you lot at the great times ahead and where I can go now????
P.S. I look terrific now in McGuinness swimming costume.
Frank Tepper
I can remember the one in the Caledonian Rd. and one in Hornsey Rd. As you say the open air one at Highbury was great, as was the Ruislip Lido.
David Chapman
The Finchley Lido was a great day out I seem to remember. As for indoor swimming, me and my brothers got into the Tib in Greenman Street for two old pence each; more if you wanted mixed bathing. And you could stay there for hours if the weather outdoors didn't encourage more bathers!
The Ironmonger baths were a bit further to walk but a great facility. Are they still there?
One of my sons swears by "cold swimming" for its positive health properties, and it seems to be growing in popularity. But choose your river/pond etc carefully!
Mickey Isaacs
I sometimes used to go to Finchley Lido up on the 609 trolleybus. I remember it it had two pools (one was for the younger I think) and was on two levels, a great place.
Along the coast from me is the fabulous Saltdean Lido which by heroic local efforts against property developers has re-opened. Fantastic art-deco architecture. And, of course, the best of the lot, the sea, which I spend a lot of time swimming in, as well as lounging on the beach. In the summertime, anyway.
I believe the old L.C.C. wanted all children to be able to swim by the age 12, and I remember trudging up Hornsey Road from Eden Grove to the baths with our towels under our arms. At the time it was Mr. Petherick who took our group and actually taught me to swim, and actually used to get in the pool and show us the strokes. Could you imagine a teacher doing that these days!!
Anyway his teaching paid off because I became a really good swimmer, and even now, as an old codger, I'm not too bad.
Alan Weyman
The last time I was around that area, Ironmonger Row baths were still there. As I lived just down road from them they were my local baths. Quite an amazing building, had main pool, apparently olympic size. If I remember it had 5 diving boards, one very high, but pool was 12 ft. deep at that end. Just off the main pool was the child's learning pool. Above that was the gallery and cafe. Used to love my beans on toast after a swim.
Building had an area where you could book a bath and Turkish bath area. One thing you could do was hire towel and swimming trunks If you forgot your gear. Nice pool and friendly staff in those days.
Remember Merlin Street, Hornsey Road, and Sobell baths. All good in there own ways.
John Tythe
Swimming was a big part of my schooldays, with classes at the Tib when I was at Hanover JM, where the class was held in the Women’s pool. That was tiny, about 30 x 10 feet, whereas the Men’s pool was 33 yards long and the Mixed was 30 yards.
I learned to swim in the Men’s pool which cost 2d a swim, then when I joined the Islington Swimming Club, which was held in the Mixed pool, I would swim in there, which was double the cost @ 4d. I swam my first Mile in the Mixed pool. I say a mile, but a nice round 60 lengths was 40 yards over the mile, although that was a trifle to the training at the club, which was 30 lengths each of front crawl, backstroke and breast stroke and an easy 10 lengths of butterfly, which was followed by half an hour of Water Polo! The Club would have Galas with other local clubs, so went to the other club’s pools – Ironmonger Row and Kentish Town pools.
When at Eden Grove, we were taken swimming at the Cally by our form teacher Mr. Campbell - Oh how he enjoyed some rough & tumble in the pool with 38 boys!
From Camden Road we went to Hornsey Pool, where in 1965 I was Court House Swimming Captain, and got banned from swimming because I wouldn’t dive, or throw myself off the top diving board. I could swim, but heights was not my thing! I did a week of Rugby (got banned) and two weeks Cross Country Running before I was allowed back, after arguing my case with the Bonk. How could I be House swimming captain and not be allowed to swim!
In the good weather I went to the open air pools at Finchley. Got to, like most people, on the 609 trolleybus, and on our bikes to Highbury Fields and Parliament Hill Fields pools.
I never ventured into the Hampstead Heath Pond!
The Tib was my favourite pool and after a swim there, on the way home, I would have an egg & tomato roll from the Greenman Cafe. I miss those!
Addendum
As my memory slowly mulls over the ’Tib’, this came back to me:
In the late 1950s, on Sunday mornings we, (me & my dad), could be found sitting on the wooden benches in the Men’s Hot Baths waiting room until it was our turn. It all took an age, but was infinitely better than the Sunday night ‘tin bath’ in front of the fire, which was filled with saucepans and kettles of boiling water until there was enough hot water, cooled off as necessary with cold. First the kids went in, bathed dried and sent to bed, then mother, followed by dad. The bath was baled out using saucepans emptied down the kitchen sink.
So, equipped with a hired towel (that hardly absorbed any water) and a small round of soap about 2” diameter and about ½” thick. Upon hearing “Next” I would go in first into a wooden cubicle in which there was a bath and a fixed wooden bench. The bath water was controlled by a large brass lever on the outside of the cubicle, operated by the attendant, who was the custodian of the lever, just the one lever for all the baths! He would have set the water running when you entered the cubicle and would turn it off when you shouted “Stop” followed by your cubicle number, e.g. number 6. If you wanted more hot water, you would shout out “More hot, number 6” followed by shouting “Stop, number 6”, when there was enough. Usually, there would be a delay in the hot water being turned off, so the bath would then be too hot! You could really pee him off by then asking for cold, and the inbuilt delay would then have the bath too cold!
Once you had had your bath, got dressed and vacated the cubicle, the attendant would go in and clean the bath with a large long wooden handled brush that he had first rubbed in a bucket of used soap rounds, give the bath a scrub and a rinse, then start to fill it with a shout of “Next!”
I would then make my way home with wet hair, even in the depths of winter, when it would freeze on my head! I didn’t have a hat, except for my Cubs cap, but wasn’t allowed to wear it because that was for Cubs, like the Sunday Best shoes that I wasn’t allowed to wear until they were too small. No wonder my feet are deformed! I and about a dozen others at Hanover JM, had to have foot correction classes every day instead of Morning Assembly to teach us to walk properly! “Heel, Ball, Toe - Heel, Ball, Toe“ still runs through my head when I’m out walking! I was a poor little sod! And people now, are moaning about having to wear a mask!
David Chapman
You remind me, John, of the little window opposite the Tib baths where a woman would offer a slice of crust of bread and dripping for 1d or a slab of treacle toffee or honeycomb for not much more. Anyone remember palm toffee slabs? All are whetting my appetite as I write!
Roger Osborn
Hi David. As kids we used to use the Tibby and Highbury fields open air pool, which had lockers all around and a cafe at the shallow end. In the summer when really busy if full you would queue up outside until people left. iI had a spring board and I think two diving boards one which was quite high (to a kid).
I think Tibby had girls and boys only pools and a bigger mixed one with lockers round side and gallery upstairs. I also think it had a space behind lockers on both sides where if all lockers were full you could get changed.
I well remember slabs of honeycomb and toffee but from a similar shop (open window) on our way home up New North Road opposite entrance to New River Walk in Canonbury. We could not wait to spend our pennies. Dripping I don’t remember buying from a shop. That was always our Sunday tea unless, as a special treat, cockles and winkles off a barrow passing our flats in Liverpool Road.
Mickey Simmonds
I remember the sweet shop with the lady in the open window. I got a prize at Shepparton Junior School and, as a treat, Dad took me there for my favourite sweet – a slab of honeycomb.
Bertie Worster
I remember the window lady. I always asked for the red jelly on the dripping slice. Cholestorol galore. I can taste it now.
Paul Kenealy
I remember the Tib baths well. We lived at Newington Green. My dad taught me to swim in Clissold Road pool when I was 5, but went to Newington Green school, along with Micky MacDonald and Chris Bunting. Once a week in the summer term we would WALK from Newington Green to the Tib. We boys went in the Men’s pool, and I guess the girls went in the smaller pool. I remember that the lockers were alongside the length of the pool and had no doors.
We would come out of the lockers and line up along the length of the pool, dive in and swim two widths then get changed again before walking back with our wet trunks and towels back to Newington Green. I also used to go to Highbury open air with my sister, if you got in before 9.00 it was free, and you could stay all day. These days I hardly swim at all. Shame.
David Chapman
Yes, very good memories, one and all! There used to be a bloke who occasionally swam in the Tib boys only pool who was always a topic of conversation because he didn't use swimming trunks but what, looking back, must have been something resembling a jock strap!
Barry Page
This is my contribution about the Tib.
One of my favourite physical pastimes was swimming. This activity, too, was encouraged by the education authorities, and the Laycock pupils used the swimming baths located near Tibberton Square in Greenman Street just off Essex Road. Tibberton Square gave the baths its nickname: ‘Tibby Baths’ or just plainly the ‘Tib.’ The building also contained public baths and a public washhouse (laundry). On swimming days it was usual to see ‘crocodiles’ of schoolchildren—each clutching a rolled up towel containing their swimming costume, and chaperoned by several teachers—making their way from the school to the swimming baths. For us it was a relatively long walk from Laycock Street to Upper Street, Canonbury Lane, Canonbury Road, Essex Road and Greenman Street. Opposite the baths was the Peabody Trust estate of working class tenement flats. At the bottom of one of the blocks was Ada’s sweet shop where, after the swimming period, excited boys and girls eagerly queued up at the shop’s open window to buy a selection of confectionery. The favourite of all was Ada’s homemade treacle toffee. For a threepenny bit (3d), you could buy a small bagful of this super-sweet toffee—a sort of brickle—that took for ever to dissolve in one’s mouth.
David Chapman
Loved the reminiscences John. Bullying was rife but, as you say, one just had to get on with it. I learnt early how not to attract attention to myself from those who were likely to wish me harm for their own personal reasons.
Hornsey was a bit too far to travel for me and my family, but we used to use the Tib for a weekly bath, and clothes washing in the washhouse, before we moved to Bentham Court in 1949 where, contrary to popular belief, we didn't keep coal in the bath because we had a coal bunker in addition to a bath!
And thanks to the GoBB whose memory is clearly better than mine. Yes, of course, it was Ada who served up bread and dripping from her window in Greenman Street after a few hours in the water opposite! She was quite a character!
Paul Lomas
I can still remember the time that I was running around the edge of the pool at the Tib baths with some of my Barnsbury school friends playing tag when to try to get away I dived into the pool, but being so excited I forgot it was the shallow end and had quite a shock when I smashed my head on the bottom. But apart from a large bump I was OK.
Les Wallage
Hi everyone, I, too, learnt how to swim in the Tibb. Think I went every Friday morning with Hanover school. It was only a short walk from the school and, as I lived just around the corner in Burgh St., I went there often. I also went swimming in the open air pool at Highbury. I had a very bad accident there when I was 14 years old. If you remember, half way up the pool on each side lifeguards would sit on a platform keeping an eye out on the swimmers. I could not stand cold water and would normally get in slowly so as I would get "used" to the cold temperature. I decided on this day to run along the side of the pool and dive in thus getting the effects of the cold water over and done with in one go. Needless to say I hit my head on the lifeguards platform which knocked me out. When I fell into the water that brought me around again and the next thing I knew was sitting in the first aid hut, blood pouring down my face. I was taken to the Royal Northern Hospital and X-rayed where the found I had fractured my skull. I was told if it had been 1/2 an inch to the right I would have been dead. The last time I went to Highbury swimming pool I got a severe case of sunburn; could not walk for 2 days. That was 1968, I was 20 years old at the time.
Johnny Pearce
It seems everyone one went to the Tib. Funnily enough I did not ever go there. I went to the Cally baths where we often had a proper bath there in the early days before the Mansions. Where I lived had no baths. So they used to hold the boxing there. I remember Johnny MacDonald having a fight there and outside as well, probably with Georgie Burns.
John Prysky
I remember walking from Eden Grove to Hornsey baths with my swimming towel in all weathers, and having a short time actually swimming. As I was born in Eastbourne and lived there till I was nine years old, I learnt to swim in the sea, so I had an advantage over some of my classmates. When we moved to London, I lived in various places from Hackney to Kings Cross, and I went to primary school in Dalston and secondary school in Islington, and over time I have been swimming at London Fields Lido and Highbury Fields Lido as well as Caledonian baths. I have a recollection of representing our school at boxing at Caledonian baths, and fighting a boy called Alfie Harp from Isledon School, who was apparently the London boxing champion. This boy was built like a brick shithouse, but Mr.Richards (who press-ganged me into the team) said I would beat him easily. However, he knocked six barrels of crap out of me, and if it wasn’t for my mate, Johnnie Bewley, shouting for me to give him hell, and getting the fight stopped for a few moments while he got a bollicking for shouting as it was an amateur fight, and shouting wasn’t allowed. In those few moments my head cleared and I spent the rest of the fight trying to avoid getting slaughtered. Suffice to say I lost on points and have never been in a boxing ring since.
Rob Drew
I never went to the 'Tibs', I always went to the Cally or Hornsey pre and post modernisation.
When I started work and was based in Soho, I went to Marshall Street baths near Carnaby Street in my lunch break. These days I need my wet suit to swim in the Solent, but I must confess now it's getting chilly the old bones object.
Ken Pratley
I don’t remember going to the Tibby Baths when I was at Laycock Street, but I have a vague memory that other classes may have done so. Probably it was something to do with the form teacher and whether they were prepared to take the class swimming. I certainly do remember going to Hornsey Road baths when I was at Barnsbury. I was not a strong swimmer back in those days, and about all I could manage was a pathetic breaststroke that I had taught myself in a large pool of water on the beach at Sandown on the Isle of Wight during a family holiday. One of the main problems I encountered at Hornsey was that my eyes were extremely sensitive to the chlorine used to sterilise the water. I think they probably used enough to sterilise the whole western front.
Due to my lack of any sort of spectacular performance in the pool. At one of the swimming galas, probably in the second year, I was selected to represent my house (Wardman) in the staying under water competition. My eyes were already sore and red, but I had learned from a television programme that if you hyperventilated you could extend the period for which you could hold your breath. So I busily set about breathing in copious amounts of air and chlorine and, on the command, ducked under holding onto the bar. My eyes were very irritated, and if I felt like having to breath, I let out a few bubbles of air, which had the effect of diminishing the urge for a couple of seconds. When I could hold my breath no longer I surfaced gasping, only to find that everyone else had long since emerged and gone to the changing rooms. I clambered out of the pool to desultory jeers and jibes from the other kids, indicating that everyone thought I was showing off. So that was the only time I won anything at swimming.
On holidays in Greece in my twenties I swam a lot, often for long distances along the coast, using flippers and face mask. These days, Pam and I spend at least a month each year swimming on the Ningaloo Reef at Exmouth, Western Australia, … fantastic. We used to have an aquarium business when we lived in Bournemouth, and so we like to see all the reef fish, that we used to sell, swimming in the wild. We have a pool from which I have just cleaned about 10 kilos of winter leaves, a job that always makes me think it's about time we had it filled in. But somehow we haven’t done so and, on a hot summer night, it's nice to float in it and look up at the stars. I don’t think I gained anything from my experiences at Hornsey Road, which I didn’t enjoy, but nevertheless I’m glad I learned to swim.
James Sanderson
Highbury – always. Finchley – great but a long way away. Tib – usually when Highbury was closed or it was too cold for outdoor swimming.
The lady in the window in Greenman Street. I have a memory of her breaking the tray of treacle toffee with a small hammer and pricing the various pieces according to size. Correct me if I am wrong.
Taking a bath at the baths. Alan Brown and Peter O'Shea cajoled me into going with them, aged around fifteen or sixteen – I cannot recall where – to have said bath. One of the opening scenes in “Quadrophenia” shows it perfectly and I didn't like it all and never went again. We did have baths in Lewis Buildings which were built as part of the kitchen. They had to be filled by water from a copper (also in the kitchen) which took such a long time that we only had them once a week. And yes, we shared, with copious amounts of Dettol poured in after each use. I strip-washed for years until I got married.