Long Way To Fall (updating)

Coventry Central Baths (or just plain Cov Baths to the locals) was built during the cities post-war redevelopments during the 1950’s and 60’s. Great Auntie Elsie and Nan described to me the night of the 14th November 1940 when the German Luftwaffe flattened the picturesque medieval city of Coventry. They were cycling up the road from the Warwickshire village of Brandon, and were met by the horrific sight of the entire skyline glowing and burning. Such was the damage from the bombing that the entire city centre was completely annihilated and four out of five of the original baths in Coventry were destroyed. Coventry Baths was opened in 1966 to replace these, and like most of the city rebuilding program, it was done in the modernist / brutalist architectural style that was popular at that time. In the new design, a splendid wall of windows flooded sunlight onto an Olympic size pool and a deep diving pool containing a mixture of low and high diving boards. At the time, it was described as the ‘finest Baths in Europe’ and later in 1997, Coventry Central Baths was designated a Grade II listed building by Historic England.

The baths were part of a new modern city planning design experiment where citizens could get anywhere in the city they needed to on either foot or bike. On arrival at the pool, swimmers paid for a ticket in the foyer, and headed downstairs to large underground changing rooms where they were handed a wire basket on a frame with a hook on the top. The baskets were filled with belongings and handed to an attendant, and then after a walk back up another set stairs, through some foot baths (containing some sort of vile verruca busting liquid) you finally stepped out into the splendid pool area.

Like many children of Coventry and Warwickshire, I learnt to swim at Cov Baths, but it was also a popular social hub and meeting place for families, friends, and couples who would visit the baths from across the region for a day out. Many people will have fond memories of the baths. On Saturday’s, Dad and Uncle Steve would hurl themselves from the top boards to the squealing delight of all the children below. I remember the first time I managed to swim to the bottom of the diving area, touch the tiles, and burst back up into the sunlight above gasping for air with burning chlorine soaked eyes. A trip to the baths was also one of the first school holiday or weekend outings teenagers would do together, unchaperoned by adults. A bus journey from the villages, fun in the pool, a bag of chips from Fishy Moores, and then home.

When I discovered that the baths were set to close, I fixed upon the idea of getting inside to create a portfolio of some sort. At first I wasn’t exactly sure what I would do, but I knew I wanted to create something beautiful to remember it by, and that celebrated the amazing architectural space and how it served a city. After much public sector lobbying and pestering, I was lucky enough to have the entire pool complex to myself for one day without any public visitors, to shoot Long Way To Fall (which was christened when I was precariously hanging over the edge of the very top 27m diving board with my camera, framing shots of the figures below).

Sadly, on 15th February 2020, the last public swim took place in Cov Baths and the centre was finally closed. RIP Cov Baths. Thanks for all the good times.