Who gets to swim: Glasgow’s swimming culture before public baths
In part one of a three-part article, we dive into the history of swimming in Glasgow. From outdoor dips and gendered swimming culture that shaped who got to access the water,
Stockwell Bridge, Glasgow
By Lucy Janes | Photo by Henricus van der Houten, artist. CC BY-NC 4.0
The swimmers of Glasgow have been asserting their rights to clean, safe water for almost 200 years. In 1834, the people who swam in the River Clyde petitioned Glasgow Town Council to repair the two diving boards at a bathing spot at Glasgow Green. It’s not clear exactly when the springboards were installed or by whom, but the council agreed to spend £85 to replace two missing boards, repair the wooden steps and stone paving, put in three stone benches, and sow grass seed on the riverbank.
Swimming in the Clyde
In the early 19th century, for many Glaswegians, the open waters in the city – the rivers and canals – were the only affordable option for bathing for cleanliness and refreshment, as well as being the only places to enjoy swimming for exercise, health and fun. At this time the River Clyde was very different: a shallow river with gentle grassy banks – so shallow at some points that people could wade across to save paying for a ferry or a toll bridge.
Glasgow Green was a popular space for leisure time, such as walking and playing games, and in the summer months the water there was busy with rowing boats and swimmers. The swimming spot with the diving boards was called Dominie's Hole, apparently in remembrance of a teacher who had drowned there.
In June 1853 the Glasgow Courier newspaper reported that: ‘For several weeks past, especially on Sunday, many hundreds of the operative population in the eastern districts of the city have been in the practice of indulging themselves with a plunge in the Clyde.’ But it wasn't exclusively working class people who used the Clyde for swimming; in a letter to the Glasgow Chronicle in July 1844, James Ewing, Lord Provost and an MP – from a wealthy family of West Indies merchants and slave-owners – recalled: ‘I cannot forget the time when I used to enjoy a swim at the Dominie’s Hole.’
The river was also used for swimming races which attracted huge crowds of spectators. In August 1840, newspapers reported that an estimated 25,000 people watched engineer Andrew Scott win a half mile race against nine competitors. In May 1868, large crowds gathered to see six men race to become captain of the West of Scotland Swimming Club.
The limits of public swimming
However, even though it attracted different classes, this pastime was restricted to men and boys. The casual bathers went for a dip in the nude, a practice that – as the city’s population expanded and concerns about morality grew – led to tighter restrictions on when and where they could access the water. By 1871, the city bylaws required anyone over 14 years old to wear ‘Drawers or some other Bathing costume’ between 10am and 7pm.
The river was also becoming more polluted. In May 1852, the people using the spot at the springboards submitted a petition to the council, this time ‘complaining of a quantity of refuse being allowed to enter at that point of the River so as to render it unfit for Bathing purposes’ but to little effect.
And the commercial practice of extracting sand and gravel from the riverbed left deep, hidden holes dubbed mantraps by the press because unsuspecting bathers sometimes slipped into them and drowned. The officer of the Glasgow Humane Society would position his boat at the Green on Sunday afternoons to be on hand to help people who got into difficulties.
From rivers to baths
From the 1850s onwards, a few purpose-built swimming pools were opened – some as businesses and at least one, in London Road in the East End which was funded and managed by a group of local people – to provide safer places to swim and bathe.
In 1871 the Arlington Baths Club opened the first member-only swimming baths in the UK, soon followed by four more. These clubs were restricted to middle class residents but they did offer segregated times for women, and so finally women got the opportunity to dive in. As local authorities started to build facilities from the late 1870s onwards, including the Calder Street Baths, this further expanded the options for women to learn to swim.
The Glasgow Green springboards were taken down in 1877 and in June 1880, a city bylaw banned all swimming in the river at the Green due to dangerous and unsanitary conditions created when the weir was removed. This was something which helped to control the flow of water at Glasgow Green and allow some refuse to be washed downstream.
Just before that ban, two young women did swim in the Clyde. In August 1879, to demonstrate to the public that, having learnt to swim in an indoor pool, they could now swim for half a mile. Elizabeth Gow, 15, and Minnie Geddes, 14, started at the springboards and easily completed the distance cheered on by up to 6000 spectators.
The crowds continued to come out for the very last Clyde swimming events: a New Year’s Day race that first took place in 1878. But 1890 was the final recorded race at the Green. The focus for swimmers in Glasgow was now the indoor pools.
Lucy Janes is researching the history of swimming in Glasgow for a PhD at the University of Stirling. She is a board member at the Arlington Baths Club, and an occasional outdoor dipper.
