Tag: closure

Baths closed for maintenance

Moseley Road Baths is closed until further notice due to essential maintenance work on the end of Pool 2 (the pool currently in operation). Funding has been found by Birmingham City Council to do structural work on the far wall around the Fire Exit. It is our understanding that other bits of maintenance and cleaning will be done during the closure and that the closure will last at least five weeks.

Friends of Moseley Road Baths welcome the maintenance work, but are cautious about what this means for the future of the building. We will be pressing the Council for more details on the work and trying to ascertain when the building will reopen to the public for swimming.

If you have further details then please share them with us via e-mail or using the comments box below.

Bulldozers head to Coseley Baths

We’re really saddened to report that the bulldozers have begun work on demolishing the community pool in Coseley, despite the demolition work actually costing more than the money spent on the building over the past ten years!

Campaigners have fought a long, hard battle against the closure, arguing that the baths are still well used by the community, and the distance to other pools is simply too far away.  They have collected over 9,000 signatures, recorded a campaign song and have regularly held demonstrations and stalls to raise awareness of the need for community swimming.

Community Pools across the country are paying the price of years of poor maintenance and upkeep, with Councils taking the easy option of closing them and selling off the land.  In November at our Memories and Memorabilia Day, historian Simon Inglis spoke eloquently about the growth of swimming and bathing facilities across Victorian Britain in response to the need for safe, clean and inclusive swimming provision.  We really have a fight on our hands to ensure that a generation of children don’t grow up without learning this important life skill.  Let’s hope that both central and local government rise to the challenge.