Local History
Morgan Mansions – Stories
Tony Bernie
Has anyone any memories of Morgan Mansions?
Barry Page
The one incident I recall involving Morgan Mansions was certainly before I was 11 years old. I was in a group of kids playing in Highbury Fields under the supervision of an older woman. There appeared to be a problem with one of the boys, who started to kick over the traces, and decided to run home not wanting to be chastised by the supervisor. I decided to run after him, ostensibly, I suppose, to bring him back to the group. He had quite a head start down Fieldway Crescent, but I eventually caught up with him as he entered one of the entrances to the flats at Morgan Mansions. By this time the boy's mother had appeared, and I blurted out the reason for me trying to apprehend the lad. The mother went ballistic, screaming that her son was totally innocent, and sent me away with a flea in my ear. So much for trying to be Mr. good guy.
Paul Kenealey
My Nan lived in Morgan Mansions, Block E as I recall. They were great Pre War flats. My Nan and Aunt and Uncle lived there, big rooms with high ceilings. We all (9 cousins and 4 aunts and uncles) used to go there on Christmas Day for a big knees up. My Dad played the piano and we all had to do our party pieces standing on a chair. After tea we would walk home to Highbury Quadrant through Highbury Fields.
Johnny Pearce
Yeah, I had an Auntie Renee who lived in Morgan Mansions as well.
Tony Bernie
Has anyone any memories of Morgan Mansions?
Barry Page
The one incident I recall involving Morgan Mansions was certainly before I was 11 years old. I was in a group of kids playing in Highbury Fields under the supervision of an older woman. There appeared to be a problem with one of the boys, who started to kick over the traces, and decided to run home not wanting to be chastised by the supervisor. I decided to run after him, ostensibly, I suppose, to bring him back to the group. He had quite a head start down Fieldway Crescent, but I eventually caught up with him as he entered one of the entrances to the flats at Morgan Mansions. By this time the boy's mother had appeared, and I blurted out the reason for me trying to apprehend the lad. The mother went ballistic, screaming that her son was totally innocent, and sent me away with a flea in my ear. So much for trying to be Mr. good guy.
Paul Kenealey
My Nan lived in Morgan Mansions, Block E as I recall. They were great Pre War flats. My Nan and Aunt and Uncle lived there, big rooms with high ceilings. We all (9 cousins and 4 aunts and uncles) used to go there on Christmas Day for a big knees up. My Dad played the piano and we all had to do our party pieces standing on a chair. After tea we would walk home to Highbury Quadrant through Highbury Fields.
Johnny Pearce
Yeah, I had an Auntie Renee who lived in Morgan Mansions as well.
A curious coincidence?
Ken Pratley
During the course of my recent correspondence with Barry Page, he happened to send me a photo from his extensive archive of photographs – mostly of Islington – that he thought I would find interesting. It was a view looking up Furlong Road taken at the corner of Crane Grove; approximately opposite No. 1 Crane Grove where I used to live. I’m not sure of the date, but I would guess sometime towards the end of, or just after, the First World War. My grandfather had acquired the lease to No. 1 sometime before WWI, and three generations of my family lived there. I was looking at the photo and it occurred to me that I had seen the coat with the rather unusual collar before. Upon checking the family photographs stored on my computer, I found what I was looking for. A studio portrait of my mother, her sister and, in the middle, my uncle Frank aged about ten. He was wearing what looked like that very same jacket with the distinctive collar. So, who else could it be in the photo? He was virtually outside his own house.
My uncle Frank was my favourite uncle. In his teens he was a keen amateur boxer, and served in the RAF during the Second World War. He had a great influence on my life as he was deeply interested in science and technology. I can remember how exited he was when Watson and Crick discovered the structure of DNA in 1953, and his attempts to explain it to me. As a consequence of many childhood discussions of ideas like this with him (he was never condescending), I have retained a lifelong interest in science and technology. He lived with his wife, Winnie, and two sons, Ronald and James, in Edgware. After being employed by the civil service as a Scientific Officer for several years, he spent most of his working life driving a London bus. His youngest son, James, my cousin, went on to become a lecturer in ecology at Aston University, and a founder member of the UK Greens Party.
I wondered if the girl standing behind him could be my mother, but Frank looks about the same age in the Furlong Road photo as he does in the studio photo, and my mother is obviously too young to be the girl in the picture. The horse chestnut tree in bloom behind them is the one Barry and I often climbed when we used to invade the various gardens in the neighbourhood. The protective cast iron railings had been removed in WWII to be melted down for munitions, so getting into any garden was merely a quick hop over the low wall. I was surprised to see that the roads in the photo look like unmade gravel or dirt (the kind of thing in Western Australia I spend an awful lot of time travelling on myself these days).
Ken Pratley
During the course of my recent correspondence with Barry Page, he happened to send me a photo from his extensive archive of photographs – mostly of Islington – that he thought I would find interesting. It was a view looking up Furlong Road taken at the corner of Crane Grove; approximately opposite No. 1 Crane Grove where I used to live. I’m not sure of the date, but I would guess sometime towards the end of, or just after, the First World War. My grandfather had acquired the lease to No. 1 sometime before WWI, and three generations of my family lived there. I was looking at the photo and it occurred to me that I had seen the coat with the rather unusual collar before. Upon checking the family photographs stored on my computer, I found what I was looking for. A studio portrait of my mother, her sister and, in the middle, my uncle Frank aged about ten. He was wearing what looked like that very same jacket with the distinctive collar. So, who else could it be in the photo? He was virtually outside his own house.
My uncle Frank was my favourite uncle. In his teens he was a keen amateur boxer, and served in the RAF during the Second World War. He had a great influence on my life as he was deeply interested in science and technology. I can remember how exited he was when Watson and Crick discovered the structure of DNA in 1953, and his attempts to explain it to me. As a consequence of many childhood discussions of ideas like this with him (he was never condescending), I have retained a lifelong interest in science and technology. He lived with his wife, Winnie, and two sons, Ronald and James, in Edgware. After being employed by the civil service as a Scientific Officer for several years, he spent most of his working life driving a London bus. His youngest son, James, my cousin, went on to become a lecturer in ecology at Aston University, and a founder member of the UK Greens Party.
I wondered if the girl standing behind him could be my mother, but Frank looks about the same age in the Furlong Road photo as he does in the studio photo, and my mother is obviously too young to be the girl in the picture. The horse chestnut tree in bloom behind them is the one Barry and I often climbed when we used to invade the various gardens in the neighbourhood. The protective cast iron railings had been removed in WWII to be melted down for munitions, so getting into any garden was merely a quick hop over the low wall. I was surprised to see that the roads in the photo look like unmade gravel or dirt (the kind of thing in Western Australia I spend an awful lot of time travelling on myself these days).
The Highbury Corner V1 Explosion
by Barry Page
Why is Highbury Corner no longer a corner but a traffic roundabout? It is the result of the deadly explosion caused when a V1 flying bomb fell at 12.46 p.m., on 27th June, 1944.
V1 flying bombs were mostly launched in salvoes, with ramps at several sites launching at once. The idea behind this is that with more targets to shoot at, the probability was increased that more bombs would make it through the south of England gun belt undamaged and go on to reach London.
There is also the matter of speed. V1s actually had a significant variation in speed depending on the efficiency of each individual engine. For this reason, the time from launch to impact in the target area could be anywhere between 20 - 40 minutes (although this is partly dependant upon exactly where in the target area it came down). For example, on 16th August, 1944 a salvo was launched from several French sites at 09:23hrs and one bomb from this salvo impacted in north-east London at 09:56hrs.
Therefore, the V1 flying bomb that landed on Highbury Corner during the lunch hour on 27th June 1944 may have been launched at approximately 12:15hrs on that day. 26 people lost their lives, another 84 were seriously injured and 71 slightly injured.
Following is a summary from the Civil Defence Organisation, Metropolitan Borough of Islington, Air Raid Damage Report. Dated 27th June 1944 (Tuesday) Fly Bomb Highbury Corner. Functioned at Junction of apex of Green with Compton Terrace, Upper Street and St. Paul's Road.
Compton Terrace: Demolished No. 34 & 35. Partly demolished no 33. Badly damaged 32 & 37. Surface shelter FK1 situated in Green opposite No 35, roof collapsed. St. Paul's Road: Partly demolished; even no's 324, 326 & 328 Seriously damaged, even No's 310-322 inc. Holloway Road: Partly demolished No's 1 & 3. Seriously damaged Highbury Station LMS Railway No's 5 & 7 Upper Street: Demolished No's 253, 255 & 257. Partly demolished No's 251 & 259. Seriously damaged 243, 245, 247 & 249. Damage by blast to windows, doors etc., in surrounding thoroughfares.
Following are some eye witness accounts:
1) "As I recall, I was on Islington Green when a warning was sounded. I headed for home with the sound of a Doodlebug flying over. The engine cut out and I heard the swishing sound as it went into its glide. I felt the sound, shock and blast when it went off. In fact the blast pushed the front door back just as I was closing it. News soon came through that it had landed on a bank at the Highbury Corner end of Compton Terrace killing a number of people.”
2) "We met every day to go to lunch at Highbury Corner, usually to the Express Dairy Co. One particular lunchtime I said to her, come home for lunch today for a change and I will cook us Spam fritters.... that strange quirk of fate probably saved our lives."
3) "By late 1944 I was a student attending the Northern Polytechnic in Holloway Road. One day, during a break, I nipped out to buy myself a snack from one of the shops near Highbury Corner. As I approached the Tube Station, I heard the dull drone of a German Doodlebug rocket passing overhead, I looked up but couldn’t see anything. At that same moment the engine cut out and I made a dive for the ground — too late, I didn’t make it and was bumped around by the blast like a rubber ball.
“I picked my self up in the swirling dust and climbed over what seemed like a mountain of rubble and twisted trolley-bus lines in a complete state of shock. The entire front of the local bank had been destroyed and pound notes were blowing about in the wind like confetti. On one side there was a tram cut completely in half by the explosion.
“I felt like a zombie and just started to walk back through the wreckage towards the college. I passed a woman whose back had been pierced by a large piece of the rocket’s fuselage. It had impaled her body to a wall - she was still alive and called out ‘help me!’ But I just passed by and kept on walking — to this day I carry the guilt that I didn’t stop and hold her hand as she died — my only excuse was my state of total shock.” Victor Brown, BBC, WW2 People’s War. An archive of World War Two memories written by the public.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/ww2peopleswar/stories/76/a4477476.shtml
4) “Well the lasting image I have of that is of myself and Billy Oxenham (a school friend) having been caught between home and school when the air raid sirens went. Within minutes a doodlebug came buzzing overhead. I heard the engine stop and for some reason turned to look up (that's while I was running like the clappers) and I actually saw the bomb as though it was balanced on the roof of, I think it was the bank, like a huge cross. Then there was a bloody great flash and the next I knew Billy and I were sitting inside a shop, wrapped in blankets. For a moment I decided I had been blinded, but then someone started opening my eyelids and squirting water in to flush out all the dust, and that was the full extent of my injuries. Billy was moaning, but it was only because he'd lost his school cap. He actually told the air raid warden that if he didn't find it--- his mother would kill him!”
5) ”I was always fascinated by my mum telling me what happened to her one day as she was wheeling my two sisters towards Highbury Corner, Hackney, (sic) London. She had one of those huge prams that everyone had in those days and sat at either end were my sisters Valerie and Joan.
“She said that as she walked along towards Highbury Corner to meet a friend in a cafe at the end of the road, a cafe where mother's used to sit and feed their babies and chat with friends, she heard the dreaded noise of a Doodlebug. Standing quite still she looked up and to her horror realised the sound was coming in her direction. Looking around she couldn't see anywhere she could run to for shelter. So instead took my sisters out of the pram. Sat the two of them on the pavement and turned the pram over the top of them to act as a shelter. Then sitting down next to it she waited.
“As she did she saw the Doodlebug fly over and could see the flames coming out of the back of it. Then it's engines cut out and she shut her eyes and waited. She said there came an enormous explosion from the bottom of the road and debris flew along the street in her direction. But she and my sisters were safe.
“The Doodlebug hit Highbury Corner and killed loads of people. Mum never would go into too much detail of how many and who, except that the Doodlebug flattened the cafe with the mother's and children in it. The strange thing was that as they heard the Doodlebug in the cafe my mother's friend stood up and she was still standing unhurt when she looked around at the devastation around her.
“Even weirder was that years later my father-in-law told me that he too had been walking towards Highbury Corner that day and had taken shelter in a doorway when the Doodlebug dropped. Of course I didn't meet my husband until 1965 so this makes this story personal to him as well.”
6) ”I was a seven year old when that V1 landed on the bank at Highbury Corner. I was in Miss Keats news shop on St Pauls Rd opposite Compton Rd with my Mother. We heard the buzz bomb cut out and Miss Keats took us through a door that led to some stairs which led to the basement. We cowered on the stairs waiting for the inevitable.
“The explosion blew out the shop windows and I can remember the dust and people running. Sad to say, the fiancée of Miss Keats was just leaving the bank when the doodlebug hit. He was killed outright as we found out later.
“Miss Holden, who ran the bakers shop on the corner of St Pauls Rd and Highbury Grove, I believe, was in an air raid shelter which was outside the post office. The shelter was badly damaged, but she was against the wall that survived and so she too, survived. It really is the luck of the draw!!!”
Grace Reid in Australia wrote: “My friend Monica and I were walking up Offord Road, having just crossed Liverpool Road, to the school dinner centre. We had just left Laycock St. School and were a bit later than usual having been searching for our younger brothers. We heard the doodlebug, then it stopped and a man standing in a doorway screamed at us to "get down", we dropped to the floor, more from the shock of hearing him screaming at us than from the doodlebug. The explosion was horrendous. Afterwards, we jumped up and ran to the dinner centre to see if our brothers were there. The little monkeys had played truant and had arrived for their dinner early. I did hear that one of the teachers from Laycock School was killed. Apparently she was on the phone to one of her children when it dropped. We have often said it would have been far far worse if it had dropped just 15 minutes earlier as the casualties among the schoolchildren doesn't bear thinking about. When I met my husband some three years later we were talking about this incident and he was just around the corner at the little café, opposite Liverpool Buildings, buying lunches for the men he worked with.”
by Barry Page
Why is Highbury Corner no longer a corner but a traffic roundabout? It is the result of the deadly explosion caused when a V1 flying bomb fell at 12.46 p.m., on 27th June, 1944.
V1 flying bombs were mostly launched in salvoes, with ramps at several sites launching at once. The idea behind this is that with more targets to shoot at, the probability was increased that more bombs would make it through the south of England gun belt undamaged and go on to reach London.
There is also the matter of speed. V1s actually had a significant variation in speed depending on the efficiency of each individual engine. For this reason, the time from launch to impact in the target area could be anywhere between 20 - 40 minutes (although this is partly dependant upon exactly where in the target area it came down). For example, on 16th August, 1944 a salvo was launched from several French sites at 09:23hrs and one bomb from this salvo impacted in north-east London at 09:56hrs.
Therefore, the V1 flying bomb that landed on Highbury Corner during the lunch hour on 27th June 1944 may have been launched at approximately 12:15hrs on that day. 26 people lost their lives, another 84 were seriously injured and 71 slightly injured.
Following is a summary from the Civil Defence Organisation, Metropolitan Borough of Islington, Air Raid Damage Report. Dated 27th June 1944 (Tuesday) Fly Bomb Highbury Corner. Functioned at Junction of apex of Green with Compton Terrace, Upper Street and St. Paul's Road.
Compton Terrace: Demolished No. 34 & 35. Partly demolished no 33. Badly damaged 32 & 37. Surface shelter FK1 situated in Green opposite No 35, roof collapsed. St. Paul's Road: Partly demolished; even no's 324, 326 & 328 Seriously damaged, even No's 310-322 inc. Holloway Road: Partly demolished No's 1 & 3. Seriously damaged Highbury Station LMS Railway No's 5 & 7 Upper Street: Demolished No's 253, 255 & 257. Partly demolished No's 251 & 259. Seriously damaged 243, 245, 247 & 249. Damage by blast to windows, doors etc., in surrounding thoroughfares.
Following are some eye witness accounts:
1) "As I recall, I was on Islington Green when a warning was sounded. I headed for home with the sound of a Doodlebug flying over. The engine cut out and I heard the swishing sound as it went into its glide. I felt the sound, shock and blast when it went off. In fact the blast pushed the front door back just as I was closing it. News soon came through that it had landed on a bank at the Highbury Corner end of Compton Terrace killing a number of people.”
2) "We met every day to go to lunch at Highbury Corner, usually to the Express Dairy Co. One particular lunchtime I said to her, come home for lunch today for a change and I will cook us Spam fritters.... that strange quirk of fate probably saved our lives."
3) "By late 1944 I was a student attending the Northern Polytechnic in Holloway Road. One day, during a break, I nipped out to buy myself a snack from one of the shops near Highbury Corner. As I approached the Tube Station, I heard the dull drone of a German Doodlebug rocket passing overhead, I looked up but couldn’t see anything. At that same moment the engine cut out and I made a dive for the ground — too late, I didn’t make it and was bumped around by the blast like a rubber ball.
“I picked my self up in the swirling dust and climbed over what seemed like a mountain of rubble and twisted trolley-bus lines in a complete state of shock. The entire front of the local bank had been destroyed and pound notes were blowing about in the wind like confetti. On one side there was a tram cut completely in half by the explosion.
“I felt like a zombie and just started to walk back through the wreckage towards the college. I passed a woman whose back had been pierced by a large piece of the rocket’s fuselage. It had impaled her body to a wall - she was still alive and called out ‘help me!’ But I just passed by and kept on walking — to this day I carry the guilt that I didn’t stop and hold her hand as she died — my only excuse was my state of total shock.” Victor Brown, BBC, WW2 People’s War. An archive of World War Two memories written by the public.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/ww2peopleswar/stories/76/a4477476.shtml
4) “Well the lasting image I have of that is of myself and Billy Oxenham (a school friend) having been caught between home and school when the air raid sirens went. Within minutes a doodlebug came buzzing overhead. I heard the engine stop and for some reason turned to look up (that's while I was running like the clappers) and I actually saw the bomb as though it was balanced on the roof of, I think it was the bank, like a huge cross. Then there was a bloody great flash and the next I knew Billy and I were sitting inside a shop, wrapped in blankets. For a moment I decided I had been blinded, but then someone started opening my eyelids and squirting water in to flush out all the dust, and that was the full extent of my injuries. Billy was moaning, but it was only because he'd lost his school cap. He actually told the air raid warden that if he didn't find it--- his mother would kill him!”
5) ”I was always fascinated by my mum telling me what happened to her one day as she was wheeling my two sisters towards Highbury Corner, Hackney, (sic) London. She had one of those huge prams that everyone had in those days and sat at either end were my sisters Valerie and Joan.
“She said that as she walked along towards Highbury Corner to meet a friend in a cafe at the end of the road, a cafe where mother's used to sit and feed their babies and chat with friends, she heard the dreaded noise of a Doodlebug. Standing quite still she looked up and to her horror realised the sound was coming in her direction. Looking around she couldn't see anywhere she could run to for shelter. So instead took my sisters out of the pram. Sat the two of them on the pavement and turned the pram over the top of them to act as a shelter. Then sitting down next to it she waited.
“As she did she saw the Doodlebug fly over and could see the flames coming out of the back of it. Then it's engines cut out and she shut her eyes and waited. She said there came an enormous explosion from the bottom of the road and debris flew along the street in her direction. But she and my sisters were safe.
“The Doodlebug hit Highbury Corner and killed loads of people. Mum never would go into too much detail of how many and who, except that the Doodlebug flattened the cafe with the mother's and children in it. The strange thing was that as they heard the Doodlebug in the cafe my mother's friend stood up and she was still standing unhurt when she looked around at the devastation around her.
“Even weirder was that years later my father-in-law told me that he too had been walking towards Highbury Corner that day and had taken shelter in a doorway when the Doodlebug dropped. Of course I didn't meet my husband until 1965 so this makes this story personal to him as well.”
6) ”I was a seven year old when that V1 landed on the bank at Highbury Corner. I was in Miss Keats news shop on St Pauls Rd opposite Compton Rd with my Mother. We heard the buzz bomb cut out and Miss Keats took us through a door that led to some stairs which led to the basement. We cowered on the stairs waiting for the inevitable.
“The explosion blew out the shop windows and I can remember the dust and people running. Sad to say, the fiancée of Miss Keats was just leaving the bank when the doodlebug hit. He was killed outright as we found out later.
“Miss Holden, who ran the bakers shop on the corner of St Pauls Rd and Highbury Grove, I believe, was in an air raid shelter which was outside the post office. The shelter was badly damaged, but she was against the wall that survived and so she too, survived. It really is the luck of the draw!!!”
Grace Reid in Australia wrote: “My friend Monica and I were walking up Offord Road, having just crossed Liverpool Road, to the school dinner centre. We had just left Laycock St. School and were a bit later than usual having been searching for our younger brothers. We heard the doodlebug, then it stopped and a man standing in a doorway screamed at us to "get down", we dropped to the floor, more from the shock of hearing him screaming at us than from the doodlebug. The explosion was horrendous. Afterwards, we jumped up and ran to the dinner centre to see if our brothers were there. The little monkeys had played truant and had arrived for their dinner early. I did hear that one of the teachers from Laycock School was killed. Apparently she was on the phone to one of her children when it dropped. We have often said it would have been far far worse if it had dropped just 15 minutes earlier as the casualties among the schoolchildren doesn't bear thinking about. When I met my husband some three years later we were talking about this incident and he was just around the corner at the little café, opposite Liverpool Buildings, buying lunches for the men he worked with.”
A look back at the ‘Tib’. A swimming complex now lost forever Courtesy of Swimming News - January 5, 2013
Tibberton Square Public Bath, Greenman Street, Islington, London.
“In the mid 60s, the pool was known locally as the 'Tib'. The premises comprised a mixed bathing pool with spectator gallery with individual changing cubicles down each side for males and females.
The mixed pool was about 30 yards by 10 yards, 3ft. shallow water and 6ft. deep water. It had a stepped diving stage that was removed in 1964.
There was also a dedicated men only pool, with 80 small cubicles each side, no doors, only wooden seats, slate divides and a small wooden angled slatted section above for clothes. There was a small attendant's room and separate shower room and toilets off from this.
The ladies only pool was about 20 yards by 10 and had cubicles on both sides with doors.
There was also a ladies' warm [slipper] baths located over the ladies' pool, plus a men's warm [slipper] baths located over the men's pool.
The main entrance had a Superintendent's office off to the left as you entered and an enclosed ticket office on the right.
Walk on and you were in the men's pool, stairs on the left led to the men’s warm baths. A doorway on right right led to the mixed pool through a vestibule.
There was also stairs to the public laundry on the left next to the stairs to the basement.
A remedial suite on the first floor comprising of 2 beds, a large bath with a air extracting contraption that when placed in the bath caused bubbles to rise under one.
There was a very large public laundry with individual sinks and drainers and pull-out drying horses. There was an establishment laundry which served to wash and dry the used hired towels and staff clothing. This was located in the basement.
The main gates were off Greenman Street and there was a large entrance yard about 30 yards by 30 yards. To the right was a lock- up store for visitors cycles that also led to the mixed pool public gallery. On the left of the yard were steps into the boiler room and basements areas.
The three boilers were originally coal fired Lancashire boilers and these were later converted to fuel oil.”
Contributed by Peter Stechman, former Sports Centre Manager at the Oasis, Holborn [1968-1991] and former Barnsbury School for Boys student.
Tibberton Square Public Bath, Greenman Street, Islington, London.
“In the mid 60s, the pool was known locally as the 'Tib'. The premises comprised a mixed bathing pool with spectator gallery with individual changing cubicles down each side for males and females.
The mixed pool was about 30 yards by 10 yards, 3ft. shallow water and 6ft. deep water. It had a stepped diving stage that was removed in 1964.
There was also a dedicated men only pool, with 80 small cubicles each side, no doors, only wooden seats, slate divides and a small wooden angled slatted section above for clothes. There was a small attendant's room and separate shower room and toilets off from this.
The ladies only pool was about 20 yards by 10 and had cubicles on both sides with doors.
There was also a ladies' warm [slipper] baths located over the ladies' pool, plus a men's warm [slipper] baths located over the men's pool.
The main entrance had a Superintendent's office off to the left as you entered and an enclosed ticket office on the right.
Walk on and you were in the men's pool, stairs on the left led to the men’s warm baths. A doorway on right right led to the mixed pool through a vestibule.
There was also stairs to the public laundry on the left next to the stairs to the basement.
A remedial suite on the first floor comprising of 2 beds, a large bath with a air extracting contraption that when placed in the bath caused bubbles to rise under one.
There was a very large public laundry with individual sinks and drainers and pull-out drying horses. There was an establishment laundry which served to wash and dry the used hired towels and staff clothing. This was located in the basement.
The main gates were off Greenman Street and there was a large entrance yard about 30 yards by 30 yards. To the right was a lock- up store for visitors cycles that also led to the mixed pool public gallery. On the left of the yard were steps into the boiler room and basements areas.
The three boilers were originally coal fired Lancashire boilers and these were later converted to fuel oil.”
Contributed by Peter Stechman, former Sports Centre Manager at the Oasis, Holborn [1968-1991] and former Barnsbury School for Boys student.