Harringay, Haringey - So Good they Spelt it Twice!
Western Road Swimming Pool, Wood Green
Before the pool was built, an old house used to stand on its site. It dated back at least to the 17th Century. The fact that it was variously called "Moat Cottage" and "Moat House" in the nineteenth century suggests that it might have had an even older provenance. (The nearby Ducketts Manor/Farm also used to have a moat and it dated back to to Medieval times).
Moat House and its grounds were purchased by Wood Green Council. Various proposals were made for its use, but eventually a dust destructor (waste incinerator) was erected in 1908 and the pool was built and opened in 1911. (The destructor went on the provide the power to heat the pool!)
The pool eventually closed in 1997. The building survives in use as a banqueting venue.
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Comment by Tim Fennell on April 2, 2021 at 19:01
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I learnt to swim at Western Road pool in the 60s. Later on in the 70s, I joined Haringey Borough swimming club which was based at the Tottenham town hall baths, but one night a week we trained at Western Road. I don't remember it being a dirty pool, but the chlorine was fierce, and we all had streaming red eyes at the end of the session, until 'anti-chlorine' racing goggles were invented much to our relief. One memory I vividly have was of large black cockroaches which lived under the wooden benches. Sometimes they found their way into the water and gave you a close race in a 100 yards freestyle!
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In the 60s I remember the smell of urine mixed with chocolate at that pool.
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Comment by Les Humphreys on December 1, 2023 at 21:38
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My father worked at the pool from 1954 to the late fifties. Besides the pool, there were men's and women's slipper baths. Dad worked at different times, both as a swimming attendant and a bath attendant. As a teenager, I spent many afternoons with a bunch of teenage friends swimming at the pool. Although the facilities were old, I never felt they were dirty, foot bath excepted!.
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Comment by Paul on June 21, 2024 at 6:50
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Apart from the swimming baths I remember the scent, or should that be smell, which permeated the air and eminated from the sweet factory next door. There is a comprehensive and interesting history of the factory from the GREATER LONDON INDUSTRIAL ARCHAEOLOGY SOCIETY here: http://www.glias.org.uk/journals/8-b.html I also recall being told that if you got a job in the factory you could eat as many sweets as you liked, but whether true or simply a child's tale, I have no idea.
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I’ve heard the same tale about Cadbury’s chocolate factories and Lyons cake and biscuit factory at Cadby Hall in Hammersmith, though whether it’s an urban myth or not is debateable. The theory ostensibly was that, after gorging themselves for the first week or so, a new employee would be so sick of the sweets/chocolate/biscuits that they’d never touch one again — commercialised aversion therapy…
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Interestingly, that when you're a child (primary school age) you can really smell the chlorine strongly. But as you get older...
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The baths fell into disuse sometime after Irish Tinkers took over the common outside the bath. I believe sometime during the 80's.
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Firstly a little correction to Hugh's opening text, the Dust Yard (as we called it) never supplied Power to the pool, only heating. Actually some of the lighting was by gas, certainly the entrance lights were as one of our pranks was to turn them on and off. The water was more often than not very cold but I never found the pool dirty although judging by the very strong smell of chlorine that greeted you some days it probably had more than it's fair share of urine in the water, this smell is created by the reaction of chlorine mixing uric acid. Interestingly cockroaches managed to live beneath the timber stairs into the pool. We loved the place.
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Comment by Hugh on October 18, 2024 at 9:08
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Thanks, John , but what I wrote was "(The destructor went on the provide the power to heat the pool!)". This is corroborated by the article from the Islington Gazette on 28th Jan 1910, which I added in a comments above. Maybe there's been a misunderstanding and we're saying the same thing?
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Ok Hugh, Sorry I misread your comment.
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