This Wednesday and Thursday, 11am-7pm head to Moseley School of Art to find out more about the bid for Heritage Lottery Funding for the Grade II* listed ‘Heritage at Risk’ Arts and Crafts style building. The current owners are working with consultants to put together a bid, so they want as many people to come as possible!
You can also head to their Facebook page to contribute your thoughts and ideas: https://www.facebook.com/MoseleySchoolofArt
Last summer we were contacted by the production team for this BBC programme as they wanted to feature our beautiful Baths in the current series. Jenny Austin from the group spent a couple of hours showing Rory McGrath and David Harper around the washing baths and Gala Pool areas, answering questions about the history and explaining why the building is so special. After the usual editing this came out as about 3 minutes in the programme, but we tried to get the message across that this is a heritage building, much neglected and currently under threat of closure. If national prime time TV is interested in our building why can’t the Council see it’s value?
Catch the programme on BBC iPlayer, it’s available until Saturday at 8pm
Celebrity Antiques Road Trip Series 4, went out at 7pm on 25th September. The Baths tour features about 34 minutes in.
All welcome to Parting Waters: A program of art events at Moseley Road Baths, 5 – 12 October 2014
The Friends of Moseley Road Baths are proud to announce their involvement in the forthcoming Fierce Festival (www.wearefierce.org). The festival runs from the 2nd to the 12th of October at various venues across Birmingham.
Australian artists Laura Delaney and Lisa Stewart have been working with Moseley Road Baths, Friends of Moseley Road Baths and members of the local community to present a program of art events at Moseley Road Baths from 5 -12 October, as part of Fierce Festival. Parting Waters will take place in the Moseley Road Baths swimming pool and throughout the building, running alongside the regular swimming program. All events are FREE or the cost of pool entry, no booking required. ALL WELCOME!
Delaney and Stewart first swam at Moseley Road Baths in October 2013 and saw firsthand its significance as a community building and resource. They felt an urgency to respond to the Baths’ tenuous future, which led them to create Parting Waters as a dedication to Moseley Road Baths and its swimmers.
The Programme
The artists and Friends of Moseley Road Baths invite you to attend the Floating Forum on Thursday 9 October, 4:30 – 6.30pm (meet 5pm in the shallow end of the pool). The Floating Forum is a public discussion in the swimming pool. Everyone is welcome to attend and float ideas to the surface as you swim and socialise. The discussion will draw from the site, its swimmers and the collective experience of being in water.
Other works include:
Night Swimmers: A video installation on the façade of the building from dusk til late.
Sunday 5 – Sunday 12 Oct.
Sound Bath: An experiential live sound performance in the swimming pool with local sound therapist/musician Soesen Edan (The Musery). A selection of singing bowls and instruments will be played in the pool creating a sound bath of harmonic vibrations for visitors to float through.
Saturday 11 Oct, 1.00 – 2.00 pm
Deep End Dedications: Music played underwater in the swimming pool, including song requests from the Moseley Road Baths community. Playing underwater during the following public swimming sessions:
Thursday 9th October
1.30 – 4.30pm | public swimming & 6.30 – 8.00pm | lane swimming
Saturday 11th October
1.00 – 3.00pm | public swimming & 3.00 – 4.30pm | lane swimming
Sunday 12th October
8.00 – 11.30am | public swimming & 11.30 – 12.30pm | lane swimming
For further details about Parting Waters visit www.partingwaters2014.tumblr.com
Museum of Water
Another artist visiting the Baths will be Amy Sharrocks with her installation “Museum Of Water” (www.museumofwater.co.uk). Amy encourages members of the public to provide a donation of water that holds particular significance. The Friends group will be donating a bottle of water from Pool Two for the collection. She will be at the pool:
Friday 10 October 10am–9pm
Saturday 11 October 10am–5pm
Sunday 12 October 10am–12pm
100 swimmers are needed to fill the disused Gala Pool on Sunday 20th July from 10am to form a ‘Terracotta Army’ in protest against the proposed closure of the building in September 2015.
![100SwimmersFlyer[12]](https://farm4.staticflickr.com/3885/14632663296_f853c3cc1f_z.jpg)
Photographer Attilio Fiumarella would like to gather 100 Swimmers inside the Gala Pool and immortalize them as the Terracotta Army in a magnificent and powerful picture. It will be the Grande Finale of his photographic project “The Swimmers”, developed over the last year in Moseley Road Baths. You can view some of the fantastic images he has created with local swimmers on his website.
The shoot will take place this Sunday July 20th from 10 AM in the Moseley Road Baths.
You just need to wear your own swimsuit and join to the other 99 swimmers! To get involved, send a confirmation to the100swimmers@gmail.com. There are also regular updates on the event’s Facebook Page.
On Sunday 11th May, the Friends Group held a Keep Moseley Road Baths Open Day.
For three busy hours that afternoon, the Friends welcomed over 100 visitors to the Baths, giving them the opportunity to see parts of the Edwardian building usually out-of-bounds, such as the Gala Pool, Slipper Baths, Boiler Room and Laundry Room.
Visitors included present and past users of the Pool, some who had not seen the building for decades, but shared their memories with Group members. Also present were current and prospective City Councillors, ahead of the forthcoming local elections.
In the Foyer of the Baths, the Group set up table-tops for campaign sheets/ideas, selling books/t-shirts/postcards and cakes/refreshment. In the area adjacent to the entrance to the Gala Pool, other members set up a banner-making table alongside members of the Balsall Heath History Society.
As people walked around the building, group members were available in each area to explain the details and history of the room they were in.
At the close of the Day, the group had sold plenty of books as well as t-shirts, postcards and cakes raising over £150 for the Group.
Many thanks to those who attended. If you would like to help more, please contact us through our website – www.friendsofmrb.co.uk.
If you came to the Keep Moseley Road Baths Open Day on Sunday 11th and have any photos you would like to share please email the Friends who would be happy to showcase your day at the baths.
This sunday is Keep Moseley Road Baths Open Day and your chance to learn about the baths’ history, take a peek behind the scenes and add your support to keep the building open for swimming.
With local elections only 11 days away from Sunday’s Keep Moseley Road Baths Open Day, local candidates for Balsall Heath, Sparkbrook and Moseley wards have been invited along so they can see how important the baths are for people and for you to ask them questions about the baths’ future.
Pool 2 will also be open before the event with public swimming from 8am until 1.30pm so if you’d like the opportunity to swim in an Edwardian pool bring your swimming costume and take a dip in the beautiful pool.
Keep Moseley Road Baths Open Day is free and takes place from 12:30pm – 3:30pm with refreshments available for a small donation to the Friends of Moseley Road Baths.
Keep Moseley Road Baths Open Day takes place on Sunday, May 11th 2014 from 1pm-4pm. It’s an opportunity to come and look behind the scenes at the Baths, and to make your voice heard ahead of the May 22nd local council elections in the campaign to save the building for swimming. We’ve invited all of the candidates for the Balsall Heath, Sparkbrook and Moseley wards along so that they can see first hand what an important facility Moseley Road Baths is, and how its threatened closure will adversely affect the community. There’ll also be an opportunity for you to ask questions, either directly, or in writing, to those candidates unable to attend.
The day will also provide an opportunity to learn about the building’s history with access to the Gala Pool, the slipper baths, laundry room and cold-water storage tank, as well as the boiler and filtration rooms, so bring your camera. And if you’ve never before swum at Moseley Road Baths, Pool 2 will be open for public swimming from 2pm onwards. Additionally, Pool of Memories, our book on the history of baths, will be on sale, along with a range of postcards and greetings cards. We’ll be giving short verbal campaign updates at various set points throughout the afternoon and all of our campaign material will be available for you to take away and use. There’ll be a banner and flag making workshop, aimed at both children and adults, whilst our friends from Balsall Heath Local History Society will be on hand to tell you what activities they are undertaking this year. Refreshments will be available, in return for a small donation (or large if you prefer!)
We hope to see you, and perhaps some of your friends and family, on Sunday, May 11th.
A well attended Annual General Meeting took place on Thursday 10 April in the ORT Café welcoming regular as well as new supporters. Following our public consultation on your views on the future use and management of the building the aims of the group have been amended to reflect the ambition for swimming to remain at Moseley Road but to allow for discussions on how this is best achieved.
With the local council aiming to reopen Sparkhill baths in 2015 and therefore close Moseley Road the AGM heard about a recent meeting between the group and council aimed at making every effort to seek a way to keep the baths open. Hopefully there will be more progress to come following this meeting and further dialogue with the council.
Following the business side of the AGM supporters broke into several groups looking at how best to utilise their own skills and contacts to support the campaign. With lobbying and liaison, events and media there are opportunities for supporters to work together on the campaign and we would welcome any ideas or help you can bring to the work of the group to keep Moseley Road Baths open.
Get on board with the Friends of Moseley Road Baths!
We’re now at an absolutely vital stage in our campaign to keep swimming at Moseley Road Baths, with only 18 months until the pool is earmarked to close.
However, we have been here in the past, and over many years the community has rallied to save this vital community facility from closure. Our Council knows how unpopular they will be if they are seen to be the ones bolting the doors.
We have less than a year and a half to get them to reverse their decision and ensure that this beautiful and nationally important building at the heart of our community is not allowed to fall derelict, but to remain as a sign of how our neighbourhood values its heritage and health.
Here are three things that you can do – find out more below:
1. Get involved and join us at our AGM
We’re really excited to be holding this year’s AGM at the lovely ORT Café, opposite the pool. This coincides with a photo exhibition of the Baths in the café by local photographer and regular swimmer Vivienne Harrison.
The details are:
Thursday 10th April
Ort Café, Moseley Road (opposite Moseley Road Baths)
7:00pm – 9:00pm
Refreshments available from the usual ORT menu
We are taking nominations for the ‘Officer’ roles of Chair, Secretary and Treasurer, so please send your nominations in advance to contact@friendsofmrb.co.uk.
2. We want your skills!
The AGM will take the form of a very hands on working group. We are inviting all attendees to sign up to a ‘subgroup’, so that each and every person can be part of a team of people helping to drive the campaign forward and shift the widespread opposition to the Council’s plans into an increasingly vocal and effective campaign.
We know that there are a wide array of skills and contacts amongst our hundreds of supporters, so please do think about how you would like to contribute.
Our suggested ‘subgroups’ are:
These are our suggestions, but we welcome other ideas! Even if you are unable to attend the AGM then do please let us know via e-mail if you would like to contribute!
3. We want your views!
We are currently finalising the details of a meeting with local Councillors, Council Officers and interested parties to discuss options for the future of the building, and we are hoping that this will take place shortly before our AGM. We want to ensure that we represent the views of supporters at this important time. There are so many ideas for uses for the building and so many different models of ownership and management that we know our supporters have strong views on.
We have designed a short survey which should take no more than two minutes to complete. Please, please, do share your views on the two questions around future uses for the building and future ownership and management of the building.
Go to the survey here: https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/9XWDQT2
The Friends of Moseley Road Baths asked a question to Deputy Leader of Birmingham City Council, Ian Ward at a full Council meeting. Here is the question with the full written response we received.
Given that monies for the announced £36 million for swimming pools/leisure centres will be coming from prudential borrowing, how much will the council be paying back each year and over what period of time, and why can’t the council prudentially borrow £1m per year for 3 years to match fund a bid to Heritage Lottery to save Moseley Road Baths?
Councillor Ian Ward in reply.
The total investment in the leisure transformation is £36m. However £6m for a new Sparkhill pool is already in the long term financial plan, and there is a minimum of a further £6m from 106 funding and Sport England grants. Therefore the balance within the leisure strategy is £24m funded by prudential borrowing from within the leisure budget, of £1.8m per year. This is only funding for leisure sites, as the future operating model is that that the new and remaining sites, will be run by leisure contractors at no subsidy ( or with a potential return) to the council.
The Council would need to provide £3m of prudential borrowing to match the Heritage Lottery grant of £5m as the project cost is estimated at £8m. Even so, this project only covers the short term work needed to repair the fabric and keeps the smaller pool available. To fully restore all facilities for a long term future would cost a further £20m.
The Leisure transformation plan prioritised the very limited funding available for sports and leisure facilities and this did not extend to Moseley Road baths. The Council’s financial plans therefore include no resources to fund the interest and repayment costs of any prudential borrowing for the Baths.
