Community baths celebrate 120 years of swimming

Bramley Baths was bought by a community group in 2013

A historic swimming pool is marking 120 years since it first opened with a mayoral reception and an Edwardian circus-themed birthday party.

Bramley Baths, Leeds’s last remaining Edwardian bathhouse, was built in 1904 and in 2013 it became a community-led and social enterprise.

On Thursday at 15:00 BST, 120 years to the day that Lord Mayor of Leeds Arthur Currer Briggs opened the baths, current Lord Mayor Abigail Marshall Katung hosted a celebratory reception.

She said it was "absolutely so special" and "very emotional" to host the event.

She added: "I came to England as a little girl from Nigeria and I am now the Lord Mayor opening this 120 years on from the previous Lord Mayor."

"Bramley Baths is thriving. Health and wellbeing blooms from this place."

Bramley and District Swimming Club used the baths in 1922

The baths and seven others were built in Leeds in response to the cholera epidemic of the late 1800s.

In 2011, the Grade II-listed swimming pool was threatened with closure as part of cuts at Leeds City Council.

But, in 2013, a community organisation bought it to keep it running as a pool and in 2023 it was awarded a blue plaque from Leeds Civic Trust.

Bramley Baths chair of trustees Nick Quin said the venue was "full or stories".

"It’s just an incredible little asset in the middle of Bramley.

"It was 11 years ago that the council said they were going to close this place and the community rallied together and said: ‘No, actually. We want to keep it open, we want to make sure it isn’t just some relic, it isn’t some development, it’s a pool.’

"And years later we’re still teaching children to swim, we’re teaching adults to swim, training lifeguards and being the friendliest baths in the whole country."

The Bramley Baths community group received the keys in 2013

When the baths were built three years after Queen Victoria's death, they were opened as a place for local people to do their laundry, bathe and compete in swimming galas.

Business development manager Helen Whiteley said she learned to swim at the baths as a child and had fond memories of the pool.

"It’s got stories woven into it’s walls for 120 years and it’s still going strong and I think we should be really proud of that" she said.

"Back in the day there was lots of inter-school swimming galas, many of which were held at Bramley Baths and Bramley had a really strong reputation as a team.

"Today we have triathlon teams training and our own swimming galas, which we introduced in the last couple of years."

Mr Quin said his 11-year-old son was learning to swim there - the same pool he and his mother had learned in.

"It’s got exactly the same feel as when I learned to swim and probably when my mum learned to swim as well," he said.

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