Learning to swim at Beverley Road Baths. The nostalgia is real.

[TigerLily_HC]

Drove past Beverley Road Baths the other day and it hit me with a massive wave of nostalgia. I learned to swim there when I was about five. The smell of chlorine, the freezing cold changing rooms, the instructor shouting at you from the side while you desperately tried not to drown.
Those old Victorian baths have so much character compared to modern leisure centres. The tiles, the balcony, the whole atmosphere of the place. Going for a swim there felt like an event not just exercise.
I'm not sure if it's still open for public swimming or whether it's been converted into something else. Does anyone know? And does anyone else have memories of learning to swim there or at Woodford Leisure Centre or the old Albert Avenue baths?
It's funny how these little childhood experiences stick with you. I can barely remember what I had for lunch yesterday but I can remember exactly what Beverley Road Baths smelled like in 1997.

 

[BoothferryBoy]

Albert Avenue baths for me. Same deal though. Freezing cold water, the echo of every sound bouncing off the Victorian tiles, and an instructor who looked like he'd been there since the place was built. Learned to swim in about 1979 and I remember the terrifying moment they took the armbands off and you had to actually do it on your own. The old baths had character that modern leisure centres with their slides and wave machines just don't have. Progress isn't always better.

 

[DockWorker67]

Beverley Road Baths was where half of Hull learned to swim. The changing cubicles with those little curtains that never quite closed properly. The water that was either freezing or scalding depending on who'd been messing with the boiler. The verruca socks that your mum made you wear. Going for a swim there on a Saturday morning was a ritual. Last I heard the building was still being used for something but I'm not sure what. Wouldn't surprise me if it got turned into flats like everything else.