BUILDING THE LEISURE CENTRE - 70'S

Back down town we go for the final construction image, with this one here of the Leisure Centre in progress in the early 70's.

The stone building to the right of shot is the old baths which they kept open until the new one had been completed.

It looks like a few volunteers from Douglas went down looking for work in 1972 to help out but obviously there wasn't anyone around at the time, so they just left a message.

A smashing bunch of lads!

Photo from Gordon C.

THE CENTRAL BATHS - 60S/70S

The original Dundee Corporation Public Baths had 3 main salt water pools and a load of other bathing areas such as Turkish baths, plunge baths, foam baths, aeratone baths, as well as the other essential, a cafe.

The top photo was taken in March 1962 and features pupils from Harris Academy have a good splash about at their Gala day. It also shows the spectators balcony.

The picture under it is a couple of lads sharing a cubicle just before the baths closed its doors for good around 1974/75 because of the opening of the new Leisure Centre.

The baths were also known locally as the "Shorers" and I have a couple of hazy memories of being there in the 60's.

I'm sure this was the place where on one visit, our allotted time in the pool was up and the attendant blew his whistle to let everyone know it was time to get out. However, there were a small group who tried to stay in just that little bit longer, so the attendant went over to one of the cubicles, grabbed a handful of clothes, held them above the water and shouted "If you're not out of there in under a minute, the clothes get chucked in!". The mad dash to get out cleared the pool in no time!

LOCHEE BATHS - ST. MARYS LANE

Lochee Baths is where I learned to swim. This was back in the late 60's when my primary class used to visit there once a week for lessons.
The entrance was up a wee side street called St Marys Lane, just off Lochee High Street.
The interior layout was very compact, in fact there was actually hardly any room to move around the edge of the pool.
When we went there it was only the girls who got to use the perimeter cubicles, us boys got chucked in the communal changing room around the back.
I remember we all started off using arch shaped polystyrene floats before any attempts at proper swimming commenced, but it didn't take long before the whole class could swim.
The upside to the trip was, because we attended Balerno school in Douglas, it meant a lengthy bus journey, so we kind of viewed the 3 hour day out as a bit of a skive from class, what with the all-round excursion using up a full morning.
The downside to it was, our class was booked during the winter months so I can also recall the miserable return journey when we were all damp haired, freezing and shivering waiting on the bus back.
Still to this day, anytime I happen to catch a whiff of bleach, I always get a flashback to the Lochee Baths!
Photo by DC Thomson.Tints by GG.