Coventry swimming pools & swimmers

CliffB, hi! Looking through your photos, I would suggest two are of the carnival. Not sure if the carnival passed that way but more than likely through what was to become Pool Meadow from the Burges. Needs more checking. But yes, first class & second class etc, know your place, they did drum it in, in those days.

Gosford Pool on a beautiful sunny afternoon, 1958. A boy dives in the shallow end like a spear entering the water, he takes three dolphin kicks under water, rolls, pushes off the far end, and like a beautiful dolphin, surfaces, his arms out in front. Parts his hands, pulls the water and surges forward - he was the nearest thing to a fish I had ever seen, it was sheer joy to stand and watch. Coventry's own Graham Symonds.

Hi Kaga, could be the carnival, the outfit the lady is wearing in Queens Road is quite distinctive so I think I will find it when I get around to it. The class thing was a big deal back then, could be my imagination but I have an image of my mom tugging her forelock in the corner shop.

Livingstone Rd Baths

I learnt to swim there. It was the chosen school swimming baths until the Fairfax Street baths were opened. Thanks for the memory!

I was a member of the Godiva Ladies there in the early 60's and I still have a certificate to show that I could swim one width in good style.

Loved those baths. I went swimming there both with Radford Junior School and then with Coundon Court. I often used to walk there on a Saturday to be there when it opened at 9.00am. Then you got a nice calm empty pool and an end lane because I didn’t like to go out of my depth. Loved swimming but not very confident. I have my certificate for swimming a length when I went with Coundon Court, dated June 1960.

A good one Prof. Like Anne I lost all my confidence when on the end of a rope with a rubber ring. I was booked in for a few lessons but the lady instructor was chatting to the lady next to her and I experienced a few 'duckings' trying to swim back. Needless to say I didn't go back again, only with my dad.

We've added some lovely photographs by Jenny Parkin of Livingstone Road Baths to Coventry Digital