Forums Forums Wirral History : Chasing the Past Wirral Now and Then Derby Bathing Pool, Wallasey

Just a guess; was it opened by Lord Derby?

Certainly was. On 8th June 1932 to be precise, at a reported cost of £35,000. If my memory serves me correctly it was designated Harrison Drive Bathing Pool on the original plans, but was renamed Derby Pool in honour of Lord Derby when he agreed to open it. It was meant to complement the adjoining Bathing Station which had opened a few years earlier. Before the construction of the Prom extension allowed access from the New Brighton side both the Bathing Station and Pool were always referred to as being in Wallasey, never New Brighton

Quite so the Derby Pool was not in New Brighton as far as I know. My mother tells me that they (living in Wallasey Village) thought of it as 'the pool intended for the locals', whereas the New Brighton pool was more for the tourists. Don't know if she's right or not but that's what she says....

Thanks for the info, marty99fred. It's called 'Harrison Drive Baths' on the photo I used to start this thread. As that photo was dated 14th October 1931 I find it amazing that it was completed and opened less than eight months later. I wonder why the Council didn't follow the naming precedent and call New Brighton's new baths the Leverhulme Open Air Bathing Pool ?!!!

CVCVCV - your mother is quite right, the Derby was always regarded as the locals' pool.

I've still not been able to find out when and why the Derby Pool was demolished.

I'm interested to know where the bathing station was (and to see photos) - at what stage did that disappear? I don't remember it in the 60s and 70s.

The buildings of the Bathing Station can be seen just beyond the pool excavation in Nightwalker's original photo. They contained changing rooms and showers for use by swimmers, toilets and a cafe/restaurant. I'm sure I remember at least some of the buildings still being there in the late 60s or early 70s, but I'll have to check up on that.

I remember some concrete constructions with trampolines inside and sandpits - I wonder if they'd been converted. I must have been there dozens of times, walking from where the chalets were along the front to the Derby Pool - but trying to piece it all together in my mind is so difficult!

I remember the bathing station. Strange having that an a pool but I suppose some people just wanted to swim in the sea or have a paddle at least. Probably a bit cheaper as well.

The Bathing Station was set up at Harrison Drive in 1927 for those wishing to swim in the sea - some five years before the Derby Pool opened - though I think the main facilities (changing cubicles, showers and tea room) weren't built until early 1931. Incidentally, during my research I came across the info that Wallasey Council purchased the site of the Bathing Station & Derby Pool from E M & H Harrison on 27th February 1922 - hence Harrison Drive.

As far as the Pool is concerned, I haven't yet found out exactly when it closed, but the remaining buildings on the site were cleared in March 1984. I remember there being a lot of controversy when Wirral Council earmarked part of the site for development as a hotel/leisure complex in the early 90s. It was finally sold to Whitbread in 1997, I believe, and they eventually built the Derby Pool pub on the site - ironically, I don't think that the pub is actually on the site of the Pool itself, it looks to me as if it's on part of the Bathing Station site. I'll have to get my maps out and check up the location...

Incidentally, one thing that is puzzling me is that if you examine the picture at the start of this thread carefully, you can see that the workmen are not actually building the pool, they're actually excavating sand out of an existing lined pool-shaped hole! It looks as if the pool had been dug out, the sides lined and then the whole thing filled in with sand again for some reason.

Yes you have a point there - construction must have actually started quite a bit earlier than when this photograph was taken...

I think they excavated the outline, poured concrete and then dug the sand out. Doesn't make sense to fill it in again.

If I remember correctly, just below where the pub is now, was a holding tank of water for the pool & the pool proper was further down again. We used to swim in the tank in the evenings when the pool was closed.

Quite so. We never swam in that tank though, it always looked too forbidding...!

I still wonder why they have to obliterate everything so completely and leave virtually no trace of anything at all behind - it's almost like it was never there. I find it rather disconcerting really, considering how much of my young life I spent there... All I recognize now is the sandy gorsey hills that were at the deep end and wrapped around the far side of the pool.
I suppose it's no different for all the houses and streets that are now gone without a trace too... must be even worse, must give you a kind of homeless, empty feeling, if it happened to your childhood home (I'm lucky, I suppose, the house I grew up in is not only still there, in WV but my parents still live in it...!)

Still I really wish there was some more pictures of the heydays or details of the demolition or of the last days of the Derby... <sigh!> I have no clue why we don't seem to have any, I guess we never took a camera with us when we went there, back then!

Isn't the Pub today about where there was car parking and the spot where the Wallasey Corp. Derby Pool bus used to stop? I remember they had a covered bus stop there and a big concrete circle where the buses used to turn around, to go back....!
I also remember having to walk there or back whenever we missed that darn bus - did it used to leave WV from somewhere around where Blockbuster is, now?

The bus stop to get to the Derby Pool, was just up from Wallasey Grove Road railway station, outside the station masters house which was demolished (shame) to extend Windsors Garages.

The Derby Pool car park was where the new pub is now & was huge. I did some serious snogging in there several times!