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An Account of The Campaign Against Closure
by Jo Hopkin

When I start writing about the Campaign to save Victoria Baths, I feel kinda foolish. In 1993, when Victoria Baths were declared redundant by the City Council and locked against people turning up for a last swim on March 13th, the year 2001 seemed a long way ahead. So, when Malcolm Faulkener of Norweb advised us to apply for Millennium money, I, for one rejected the suggestion - that seemed too long a wait.

Now here we are. The Manchester Victoria Baths Trust. Registered as a charity in August 1993, finally in March 2001, got the license to use the Baths. The process, since the council agreed to give us the license, took two years. No, it is not a license to operate a swimming pool, it is a license to care for the fabric of the building, to admit people attending Open Days in March and September each year and to arrange 'lettings' of space there.
 

After 8 years, the Friends of Victoria Baths and the Trust are still a long way from being able to reopen the swimming pool and the Turkish Baths. Why is this so?

In 1993 we expected to be able to work with the council to attract money for repairs and for replacing the clapped-out and uninsurable plant, i.e. the boilers. However their support and cooperation proved to be unforthcoming. We were aware that the old Recreation Department was overspent in a valiant effort by the managers of various 'indoor leisure facilities' to boost attendance and income at their places. In 1990, a desperate council had authorised the managers to initiate their own programs.

For most managers this was an impossible task, especially in older buildings, and certainly without any extra funds. The swimming pools of Manchester, and elsewhere had long needed a dual management: one to maintain the fabric of the building and the plant, the other to organize efficiently the running of the place for punters who wanted to swim, to get healthy. (Just as schools need both a head and a bursar, one for education and one for money and maintenance of the building.)

The manager at Victoria Baths and many people who worked there loved the place. However, it had been neglected over many years. In 1982 it was not even listed. The city council in the late 1970's had welcomed the building of the Norweb fortress next door to the Baths, and allowed the demolition of the Victorian houses (including a clinic) on the site.

The labour council had mortgaged the Victoria Baths for £1.5 million. This sum would have covered the cost of repairs in that year. However, that money was raised in order to attract matching funding from the central Tory Government. (Two other properties - Heaton Hall and Hattersley District Centre - were also mortgaged then and redeemed after the 1996 bomb.) The city council was starting to "Dream the Dream" of staging the Olympic Games in Manchester. So, who knows what the money was used for? It certainly endeared Howard Bernstein to the city council members.

By 1992, in August, the Recreation Department had been divided into two parts. One was called the Leisure Department and placed under Education and the new chief education officer, Roy Jobson. The other part went to the Engineers department. Jobson then drew up a list of leisure centres together with their running costs and income for the January 1993 council meeting. Decisions on closures would be taken at the February 24th council meeting.

Notices appeared in the Victoria Baths asking us to write to our councillors to 'Save Our Baths'. The first protest meeting was called by Dick Warring (a famous Trades Unionist whose early death in 1998 prevented his reaching the peak of his profession - General Secretary).

This meeting was held in the central pool space - the dry sports hall. The hall was very full. There were Chandy Coverley and Anne Graham keen to preserve the Swimming Club for children at the Baths. There were aging local residents like myself keen to go on exercising by swimming. There were students fond of the swimming pool and Turkish Baths. There were people with sports injuries, keen to continue to benefit from the Aerotone and the Turkish Baths. There were local residents who loved the building itself. There were people who had moved away but had trained there for later swimming achievements. There were many schoolchildren who had learned to swim there and had their own dreams of swimming in the Olympics. It was a multicultural coming together of people for whom the Victoria Baths was also a social centre. As one local woman says, "When I moved here, we had Belle Vue and we had Victoria Baths for our recreation time with our children. Now we have nothing."

There began a constant vigil outside the Baths. Large banners urged motorists to toot in support of the movement to SAVE THE BATHS. It appeared to most people outside the city council to be absurd to aspire to host the Olympic Games of 1996 or 2000 whilst at the same time closing swimming pools in the city.

The council refused to discuss the closure with people who asked to discuss it with them. They felt they were doing well to reveal the plan for closing facilities in stages: - First the pool by Monday 15th March, second the Turkish Baths by Monday 23rd March, third the Aerotone by 30th March.

Councillor Ken Strath, aforementioned Mayor, had advised us to go for a judicial review. As he explained, the council had previously declared that they would wait for the publication of the new Unitary Development Plan before closing Victoria Baths or Harpurhey Baths. (It was published in 1994, offering improved sidewalks for Longsight but making no mention of swimming pools.) However, we were a group of people without ready funds and we would have needed to pay legal fees, so we did not follow that advise either.

I believe we could still not accept that the council would refuse to listen to our arguments and reject our offer to work with them. Our protest, backed by 16,000 signatures on a petition, was seen as a criticism of their policies so we were enemies. Also, Labour losing the 1992 general election had cast Labour councils into deep despair. The time had come for ditching principles and embracing developers. New Labour was on its way. Opposition to the government's Central Manchester Development Corporation vanished. Soon, Graham Stringer declared that "the CMDC is a quango that gives quangos a good name". The council began its series of 'Special Projects'. Howard Bernstein ruled and laboured mightily and indefatigably: consultation with local people was NOT on the agenda.
 
It must have been a council decision to order the Victoria Baths 1st Class Pool to be locked on Saturday March 13th before 9am. The staff there knew that the protesters against its closure were also fighting for their jobs. There was no manager present on the 13th, nor any council representative. The thwarted and angry would-be swimmers decided to move in and occupy the Baths. This was not lightly or roughly undertaken. We would have preferred to TALK. So, we were NOT a fierce flag-waving mob who went inside and mounted the stairs to the balcony above the dry sports hall. We were a mixed bunch of young and old local people in distress and needing to communicate that distress, and the anger induced at being locked out and ignored. We were the usual representatives of a group of local people - some with computer skills even in 1993 and with contacts with journalists. We organized a rota for continuing the occupation of the Baths for the weekend.

We also had time, on that rare warm and sunny weekend in March 1993 to share our dreams for the restored, refurbished and reopened building.

We would make the best of the Water Palace given to the people of Longsight, Rusholme and St Lukes wards in 1906. The intention of its creators was that it should last forever and that all children should learn to swim.

Our occupation made national news.