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Architectural historian embarks on 1000 year swim
24 July 2008
Dr Ian Dungavell, Director of national heritage charity the Victorian Society, today begins an epic challenge: visiting every listed Victorian and Edwardian public pool in England, he'll swim a lap for each year the buildings have been standing, a feat that will require him to swim a distance of 22 miles.
Dr Dungavell begins his challenge, which he hopes will highlight the importance of historic swimming pools, at Grade II-listed Bramley Baths in Leeds at 7pm tonight (Thursday 24 July). Over the summer, he will visit twelve other listed Victorian and Edwardian public pools, including the vast 33m Swindon Health Hydro, at which he must swim a crippling 117 lengths, before rounding the task off with 116 laps at Dulwich Leisure Centre on Friday 29 August.
‘I’m delighted to have the opportunity to visit all the surviving listed pools’, said Dr Dungavell. ‘Working heritage assets like these contribute so much to communities as symbols of shared history and civic pride. With many churches facing closure and Victorian school buildings falling foul of rebuilding schemes, pools like these are sometimes the only historic building open for public use. Communities value them highly, as the many people campaigning for pools and lidos around the country show. It will be wonderful to swim in them all.’
Yet the 1000 Year Swim will be no mean feat. Swimming a total of 1,543 lengths, or just over 22 miles, Dr Dungavell will cover a distance more than equivalent to crossing the Dover Strait of the English Channel.
‘It is a big task,’ continued Dr Dungavell, ‘But the distance should be far longer than this. With well over 50 listed Victorian and Edwardian pool buildings dotted around England, it is shocking that so few remain in use and open to the public, whilst many of the others have been closed and left to rot. Pool buildings are notoriously hard to find new uses for. All too often, a decision to close them is effectively a decision to write these nationally significant buildings off. We must work hard to ensure that adequate funding and expertise is available to keep our remaining historic pools open to everybody for many years to come.’
Ian Dungavell will be at Bramley Baths from 6.30pm on Thursday 24 July. For more information about the 1000 Year Swim, please visit http://www.1000yearswim.com/ or call 020 8747 5897
