Memorandum submitted by English Heritage
1. ENGLISH HERITAGE
English Heritage welcomes the opportunity to
submit a memorandum to the Committee's inquiry into the sport
of swimming. Because of our statutory remit, our comments are
necessarily restricted to England.
English Heritage is the Government's lead body
for the historic environment in England. Our work includes:
— advancing understanding of the historic
environment through survey and research;
— giving £34 million a year in
grants to historic buildings, sites, parks and gardens and archaeological
projects;
— advising on approximately 18,000
planning and consent cases affecting the historic environment
each year;
— managing 409 historic properties
on behalf of the nation, and presenting them to over 11 million
visitors every year; and
— enabling and encouraging people from
all walks of life to discover and enjoy their heritage.
2. THE VALUE
OF SWIMMING
POOLS
The recent report, Realising the Potential of
Cultural Services[1],
commissioned by 12 national bodies concluded that sports make
an enormous contribution to our quality of life, improving health,
reducing crime rates, developing young people and providing a
social focus for communities. Swimming is one of the UK's major
sports. Surveys consistently show it to be in the nation's most
popular indoor sport. A lifelong activity, swimming is suitable
for all ages and abilities. It is regularly enjoyed by 40 per
cent of adults and 50 per cent of young people and is most popular
amongst women and girls, a group that is traditionally under-represented
in sport.
England's public swimming pools are therefore
a vital recreational and community resource. Those pools that
occupy historic buildings represent an additional asset—a
nationally important aspect of our civic heritage.
The Historic Environment Review led by English
Heritage in 2000 demonstrated the basic popular support that exists
for historic buildings. A MORI poll into public attitudes towards
the historic environment showed that:
— 87 per cent of people think that
the historic environment plays an important part in the cultural
life of the country;
— 85 per cent think that it is important
in promoting regeneration in towns and cities; and
— 77 per cent disagree that we preserve
too much[2].
Bringing character and community identity, as
well as much needed facilities, to often deprived urban areas,
historic swimming pools are a prime example of the ordinary, working
heritage that people most understand and value. Alongside urban
parks. libraries, galleries, and other public buildings and spaces,
historic swimming baths have an important part to play in the
creation of distinctive, civilised and "liveable" cities.
3. NUMBERS OF
SWIMMING POOLS
OF SPECIAL
ARCHITECTURAL OR
HISTORIC INTEREST
Across the country there are some 79 swimming
pools and pool buildings no longer in their original use which
have been statutorily listed by the Secretary of State for Culture,
Media and Sport as buildings of special architectural or historic
interest. The breakdown across England's nine regions is as follows:
| London | 27
|
| North-West | 14
|
| Yorkshire | 10
|
| West Midlands | 7
|
| South-West | 7
|
| North-East | 5
|
| South-East | 5
|
| East of England | 3
|
| East Midlands | 1
|
| Total | 79
|
A schedule of these listed swimming pools and pool buildings
is attached at Annex 1. Of these, seven are listed at grade II*
and the remaining 72 are listed at grade II.
English Heritage does not keep records of the use and condition
of these listed buildings, except in those cases where we have
been involved in applications for grant assistance, where we have
been consulted on applications for listed building consent or
planning permission, or where we have included the building on
our Register of Buildings at Risk. Details of those pool buildings
included on our Register of Buildings at Risk are set out in Annex
2.
In considering the details provided in Annex 2, it must be
borne in mind that outside of Greater London, only those very
few pools listed at II* in poor condition are included. The majority
of those pools listed at grade II in poor condition will not be
included.
4. THE ISSUES
FACED BY
HISTORIC SWIMMING
POOLS
Whilst the value and potential of historic swimming pools
is clear, the issues surrounding their maintenance and operation
can be complex and challenging. Local authorities most often close
historic pools as a result of cost-cutting, alleging that the
costs of repair, maintenance and operation are unsustainable.
Alternatively, they argue that historic pools no longer meet current
public leisure needs. It is not unusual for historic baths to
contain a single rectangular swimming pool, causing inevitable
conflict between lane-swimmers, leisure swimmers and divers. They
may also lack specific facilities for children in the form of
slides and wave-machines, or "health" and ancillary
facilities such as jacuzzis, gymnasia and/or cafes (although areas
occupied by former "slipper" baths often offer scope
for conversion).
Despite these problems, hundreds of historic baths remain
in popular use and there are examples of successful refurbishment
schemes at the Jubilee Pool in Penzance, Saltdean Lido in Brighton
and The Pools in the Park in Richmond, where the local authority
was persuaded to abandon proposals for demolition of an award-winning
1960s pools complex and to pursue instead a conservation-based
scheme with a private sector partner. It is hoped that a similar
approach might lead to the re-opening of the Uxbridge Lido in
West London.
5. THE ROLE
OF ENGLISH
HERITAGE
In accordance with the relevant formal advice of central
Government set out in Planning Policy Guidance: Planning and the
historic environment (PPG15), English Heritage works with building
owners and local planning authorities to encourage coherent and
effective action to repair listed buildings in poor condition
and to bring them back into appropriate use. Our work is particularly
focused on buildings that are most vulnerable as a result of being
unused or under-used.
Outside London, our work is primarily directed towards individual
buildings listed at grade I or II*, and to those grade II listed
buildings where repair and re-use would contribute to conservation-based
regeneration. Within Greater \London, our work embraces listed
buildings of all grades, although our priorities tend to follow
those of the rest of the country.
English Heritage is committed to helping owners of historic
pools with advice, support and funding where it can, drawing on
our long-established secular grants scheme for grade I and II*
listed buildings and on our London Grants Scheme for grade II
listed buildings at risk in Greater London. At Victoria Baths
in Manchester, we recently offered a grant of £150,000 towards
emergency repairs while proposals for future use are developed
in detail and a financial package to support them is put in place.
A more typical, and much less satisfactory, situation exists at
the grade II listed Marshall Street pools complex in Soho, Westminster.
Dating from 1928-31, Marshall Street served the needs of the local
residential and working communities until its sudden and premature
closure by Westminster City Council's Leisure Services Department
in 1997 on the grounds of alleged costs of repair and maintenance.
The pool has remained closed despite substantial local concern
and the exploration of various joint development options with
the private sector, to which English Heritage has contributed
positive advice. At the last meeting with Council officers in
May, undesirable conversion options were put forward, all of which
involved a significant reduction of public sports use and the
introduction of other uses including library use, which, it is
assumed, would result from the prospective disposal of an existing
council-owned library within the area.
CONCLUSION
Collectively historic swimming pools represent a community
resource and national heritage asset of enormous value. Like other
civic buildings and spaces, swimming pools are an integral part
of civilised and "liveable" cities and yet these historic
buildings form part of a broad picture of historic community facilities
under threat. Public Park Assessment[3],
a report jointly published by English Heritage and others in May
2001 demonstrates the serious decline of England's urban parks
resulting from years of under-investment. The report found that,
like swimming pools, parks of historic interest have disproportionately
suffered from local authority spending cuts, resulting in widespread
loss of features. Coincidentally, amongst the most threatened
features were paddling pools, with 56.6 per cent of pools in historic
parks already lost.
Once closed and un-used, historic swimming pools are particularly
vulnerable. They require commitment on the part of local authorities,
determined partnership working and imaginative and often complex
solutions if their futures either as upgraded swimming facilities
or in alternative use are to be secured. English Heritage is committed
to helping where it can, but is substantially constrained by limited
funding available and by its primary focus on the repair of grades
I and II* listed secular buildings.
1
Realising the Potential of Cultural Services (November 2001),
Local Government Association, Arts Council et al. Back
2
MORI research published in Power of Place (December 2000),
the report of the Historic Environment Review. Back
3
Public Park Assessment, A survey of local authority owned
parks focusing on parks of historic interest (May 2001), Department
for Transport, Local Government and the Regions, Heritage Lottery
Fund, Countryside Agency and English Heritage. Back
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