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Glossop Road Baths


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GLOSSOP ROAD BATHS

Picture courtesy of Picture Sheffield

The cooling room at Sheffield's Glossop Road Baths

The baths were opened with separate cooling rooms for smokers and non-smokers in November 1877 and remained in operation until they were closed, despite many protests from users, in 1990.

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I heard that the sauna/ steam rooms were ladies on a Thursday night and men’s on a Friday night both were well attended.

So what did they do moved men to Thursday and ladies to Friday so attendance fell and they said no one wants it so it’s to be closed.

That's the way to do it.

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Does anyone remember when there were three seperate pools, the ladies, gents and the mixed one? I have been trying to remember what images the tiled three level diving podium in the ladies pool depicted??

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Guest coolmo

i can only remember there ever being 2 pools, I never knew they had a sauna there though and i used to go there every week without fail as a youngster! if anyone has any more pics please post.

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Guest coolmo

Many thanks for posting that pic tsave, its brought back so many good memories, particularly where i swam my first 25 yards .

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Guest tsavo

Many thanks for posting that pic tsave, its brought back so many good memories, particularly where i swam my first 25 yards .

You're very welcome. The second picture link should work now.

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Guest plain talker

I remember two pools, wasn't one called "Cavendish" and the other "Devonshire"? (I definitely remember the "cavendish" pool)

I remember going "uphill", up the corridor to a "smaller" (a standard, rectangular 25 yard-er really) pool which was alongside Glossop road itself (I remember the draught coming in under the door, and seeing, through the gap under the door, the buses going past as I swam)

My memory may be playing tricks on me,( it must be forty years since I was in the other pool) but I STR that the pool to which you went downhill was more of a square-shaped pool.

When I used to go to GRB, in my teens, I remember this lower-pool as being the pool that the schoolchildren were taught in.

I also STR being told by my (late) dancing fanatic grandmother, that this lower pool was the pool which was covered over, with a dance floor, and used as a dance hall.

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Does anyone remember the dimensions of the three swimming pools at Glossop Road Baths? As I remember from my time as a regular swimmer there in the late 1950s, the largest pool, the one parallel to Glossop Road, was 33.33 yards long by 10 yards wide with a 7' 6" deep end. The men's pool, the one parallel to Convent Walk, was 20 yards long by 10 yards wide with a 5' 6" deep end. The ladies/ mixed pool was 25 yards long by 10 yards wide with a 6' 6" deep end.

Are my recollections correct? I ask this because I was involved in a long discussion, on another Sheffield forum, about the these swimming pools. He was utterly convinced he was right & I was just as convinced that I was right.

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GLOSSOP ROAD BATHS

Picture courtesy of Picture Sheffield

The cooling room at Sheffield's Glossop Road Baths

The baths were opened with separate cooling rooms for smokers and non-smokers in November 1877 and remained in operation until they were closed, despite many protests from users, in 1990.

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Awfully big gap !

James Hopkins, Baths keeper, Glossop Road (Pigot's 1841)

Thomas Oakes, Baths, vapour and c., Glosspr Road (Slaters 1846)

A R Sowary, Manager, City of Sheffield Public Baths (White's 1919)

B Downing, Manager, City of Sheffield Public Baths (Kelly's 1925)

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Hello Sovrappeso and Welcome to the Site.

This from Kelly's Directory of 1957 :

"The New Swimming bath in Convent Walk is 100 feet long by 30 feet wide and will hold 90,000 gallons of water".

Does anyone remember the dimensions of the three swimming pools at Glossop Road Baths? As I remember from my time as a regular swimmer there in the late 1950s, the largest pool, the one parallel to Glossop Road, was 33.33 yards long by 10 yards wide with a 7' 6" deep end. The men's pool, the one parallel to Convent Walk, was 20 yards long by 10 yards wide with a 5' 6" deep end. The ladies/ mixed pool was 25 yards long by 10 yards wide with a 6' 6" deep end.

Are my recollections correct? I ask this because I was involved in a long discussion, on another Sheffield forum, about the these swimming pools. He was utterly convinced he was right & I was just as convinced that I was right.

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1893 :

The baths in Convent Walk, Glossop Road, erected at a cost of £26,000, including a swimming bath, 78 feet by 30 feet, containing about 70,000 gallons of filtered water, and surrounded by an ambulatory paved with marble, open which open about 40 dressing rooms. There is also a second-class bath and ladies' and gentlemen's Turkish, Russian and slipper, vapour and medical baths, and attached to the saloon are refreshment and retiring rooms and a kitchen.

During the winter season the water of the large bath is run off, and the hall is then used for concerts &c. The Sheffield Amateur Dramatic Society holds its meetings here.

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Glossop Road baths was described by my dad (a keen swimmer in his younger days) as "Better than any boozer"

The reason for this, if anyone ever bothered to ask was "Once you've paid to go in you can drink as much as you want for nowt" lol

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1893 :

The baths in Convent Walk, Glossop Road, erected at a cost of £26,000, including a swimming bath, 78 feet by 30 feet, containing about 70,000 gallons of filtered water, and surrounded by an ambulatory paved with marble, open which open about 40 dressing rooms. There is also a second-class bath and ladies' and gentlemen's Turkish, Russian and slipper, vapour and medical baths, and attached to the saloon are refreshment and retiring rooms and a kitchen.

During the winter season the water of the large bath is run off, and the hall is then used for concerts &c. The Sheffield Amateur Dramatic Society holds its meetings here.

I was told that they had dancing there after a dance floor was put over the baths.

it was hard to believe at first until one or two others told me the same thing.

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and so now the hunt is on for newspaper advertisements giving proof.

I was told that they had dancing there after a dance floor was put over the baths.

it was hard to believe at first until one or two others told me the same thing.

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and so now the hunt is on for newspaper advertisements giving proof.

LIke this one, perchance :).

From The City of Sheffield Guide 1939-1940:

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Hello Sovrappeso and Welcome to the Site.

This from Kelly's Directory of 1957 :

"The New Swimming bath in Convent Walk is 100 feet long by 30 feet wide and will hold 90,000 gallons of water".

Thanks for the info. I'm a bit puzzled by the 1957 date; the baths date from the late 19th century & early 20th century.

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Here are some articles from the Sheffield press following the progress of the baths from its proposal in 1835 to its opening in June 1836:

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