Westcliff-on-Sea - Swimming Bath
The Postcard
A postally unused postcard bearing no publisher's name.
The Westcliff sea water swimming pool at Southend-on-Sea was opened in 1915, and for many years it was the most popular attraction along the Western Esplanade.
Although the pool is no more, it is well-known by a generation of current adults as it was regularly used for school tournaments.
Originally sea water was piped directly from the sea into the pool, but by 1936 a new filtering and heating system was in operation.
In 1936, the Westcliff Pool was promoted as follows:
"Corporation Sea Water Swimming Bath.
This magnificent swimming bath is 300ft.x75ft.
Special floodlighting and midnight bathing
parties a popular feature.
Diving platforms, chutes, spring boards,
rafts, etc. etc.
Shower and warm plunge baths and every
convenience for both sexes.
240 separate dressing boxes for ladies
and gentlemen.
Area of water 21,000 square feet.
Facing due south is the sun terrace,
350 feet long replete with mattresses,
rest chairs and every comfort.
Refreshments always available at the
Sun Kiosk on the terrace.
The combined facilities for seawater
and sun bathing are second to none
in the country.
Admission 6d, children 3d.
Bathing cap 2d, towel 1d., costume 1d.
Book of tickets (12) 5s. (6) 2s. 6d.
Season Tickets: Adults 1 guinea,
16s. 6d. children.
Family, 15s. each adult, 7s. 6d.
each child".
Pre-Decimal Currency
The UK 'went decimal' on the 15th. February 1971. (1971 is often called the 'Year of the Con' because manufacturers and retailers used the changeover to increase their prices).
Pre-decimalisation money (L S D) was divided into pounds (£/L), shillings (s.) and pennies (d.).
'L S D' also stands for the hallucinogenic drug Lysergic Acid Diethylamide, but in this context it stands for the Latin words 'Libra', 'Solidus' and 'Denarius'. The coinage was as follows:
- 20 shillings (s.) in £1 (L)
- 12 pennies (d.) in 1 shilling (s.)
- 240 pennies in £1
- 480 halfpennies in £1
- 960 farthings in £1
The £ was represented by a printed note, and there was also a 10-shilling note.
A 'Guinea' (beloved of private medical consultants and solicitors) was 21 shillings - a way of extracting an additional 5% from the patient or client.
-- The British Pound and Inflation
The British pound has lost 94% its value since 1971, such that £100 in 1971 is equivalent in purchasing power to about £1,806 today. The pound has had an average inflation rate of 5.51% per year between 1971 and today.
This means that today's prices are 18 times as high as average prices since 1971, according to the Office for National Statistics. A pound today only buys 5.54% of what it could buy back then.
Fate of the Pool
The pool was closed to the bathing public in October 1969.
It was turned into a dolphinarium in 1970, but the project did not last long, and the site was sold to Brent Walker who developed the area into the Westcliff Leisure Centre and then the Westcliff Casino.
After a further renaming, the footprint of the pool is now occupied by Maxim's Casino.
The Pool's Outer Walls
The original outer walls of the pool survive to this day - these are the curved walls built in a wave shape in order to break the power of incoming sea waves.
At their thickest these walls are approx. 26 feet thick at their base, with only half their height visible above ground - the other half is sunk in a continuing curve below the mud.
The Catenary Curve
Two ropes are hanging across the pool within reaching distance.
If anyone's interested, if nothing is hanging on a rope strung between two points, it adopts the shape of a catenary curve.
The catenary curve has a U-like shape, superficially similar in appearance to a parabola, but it isn't a parabola.
The mathematical properties of the catenary curve were first studied by Robert Hooke in the 1670's, and its equation was derived by Leibniz, Huygens and Johann Bernoulli in 1691.
The Use of Catenary Arches
Inverted catenaries are used in architecture and engineering when designing bridges and arches, so that internal forces do not create stresses within the structure.
Catenary arches are also often used in the construction of kilns.
Sir Christopher Wren incorporated the catenary arch into the design of the dome of St. Paul's Cathedral.
Antoni Gaudi employed a series of catenary arches in 1906 to support the roof of Casa Milà, a modernist residential building in Barcelona. It is popularly known as La Pedrera or 'The Stone Quarry', because of its unconventional rough-hewn appearance.
The Gateway Arch in St. Louis, Missouri, is a 'weighted catenary' - its shape corresponds to the shape of a chain having lighter links in the middle.
Westcliff-on-Sea - Swimming Bath
The Postcard
A postally unused postcard bearing no publisher's name.
The Westcliff sea water swimming pool at Southend-on-Sea was opened in 1915, and for many years it was the most popular attraction along the Western Esplanade.
Although the pool is no more, it is well-known by a generation of current adults as it was regularly used for school tournaments.
Originally sea water was piped directly from the sea into the pool, but by 1936 a new filtering and heating system was in operation.
In 1936, the Westcliff Pool was promoted as follows:
"Corporation Sea Water Swimming Bath.
This magnificent swimming bath is 300ft.x75ft.
Special floodlighting and midnight bathing
parties a popular feature.
Diving platforms, chutes, spring boards,
rafts, etc. etc.
Shower and warm plunge baths and every
convenience for both sexes.
240 separate dressing boxes for ladies
and gentlemen.
Area of water 21,000 square feet.
Facing due south is the sun terrace,
350 feet long replete with mattresses,
rest chairs and every comfort.
Refreshments always available at the
Sun Kiosk on the terrace.
The combined facilities for seawater
and sun bathing are second to none
in the country.
Admission 6d, children 3d.
Bathing cap 2d, towel 1d., costume 1d.
Book of tickets (12) 5s. (6) 2s. 6d.
Season Tickets: Adults 1 guinea,
16s. 6d. children.
Family, 15s. each adult, 7s. 6d.
each child".
Pre-Decimal Currency
The UK 'went decimal' on the 15th. February 1971. (1971 is often called the 'Year of the Con' because manufacturers and retailers used the changeover to increase their prices).
Pre-decimalisation money (L S D) was divided into pounds (£/L), shillings (s.) and pennies (d.).
'L S D' also stands for the hallucinogenic drug Lysergic Acid Diethylamide, but in this context it stands for the Latin words 'Libra', 'Solidus' and 'Denarius'. The coinage was as follows:
- 20 shillings (s.) in £1 (L)
- 12 pennies (d.) in 1 shilling (s.)
- 240 pennies in £1
- 480 halfpennies in £1
- 960 farthings in £1
The £ was represented by a printed note, and there was also a 10-shilling note.
A 'Guinea' (beloved of private medical consultants and solicitors) was 21 shillings - a way of extracting an additional 5% from the patient or client.
-- The British Pound and Inflation
The British pound has lost 94% its value since 1971, such that £100 in 1971 is equivalent in purchasing power to about £1,806 today. The pound has had an average inflation rate of 5.51% per year between 1971 and today.
This means that today's prices are 18 times as high as average prices since 1971, according to the Office for National Statistics. A pound today only buys 5.54% of what it could buy back then.
Fate of the Pool
The pool was closed to the bathing public in October 1969.
It was turned into a dolphinarium in 1970, but the project did not last long, and the site was sold to Brent Walker who developed the area into the Westcliff Leisure Centre and then the Westcliff Casino.
After a further renaming, the footprint of the pool is now occupied by Maxim's Casino.
The Pool's Outer Walls
The original outer walls of the pool survive to this day - these are the curved walls built in a wave shape in order to break the power of incoming sea waves.
At their thickest these walls are approx. 26 feet thick at their base, with only half their height visible above ground - the other half is sunk in a continuing curve below the mud.
The Catenary Curve
Two ropes are hanging across the pool within reaching distance.
If anyone's interested, if nothing is hanging on a rope strung between two points, it adopts the shape of a catenary curve.
The catenary curve has a U-like shape, superficially similar in appearance to a parabola, but it isn't a parabola.
The mathematical properties of the catenary curve were first studied by Robert Hooke in the 1670's, and its equation was derived by Leibniz, Huygens and Johann Bernoulli in 1691.
The Use of Catenary Arches
Inverted catenaries are used in architecture and engineering when designing bridges and arches, so that internal forces do not create stresses within the structure.
Catenary arches are also often used in the construction of kilns.
Sir Christopher Wren incorporated the catenary arch into the design of the dome of St. Paul's Cathedral.
Antoni Gaudi employed a series of catenary arches in 1906 to support the roof of Casa Milà, a modernist residential building in Barcelona. It is popularly known as La Pedrera or 'The Stone Quarry', because of its unconventional rough-hewn appearance.
The Gateway Arch in St. Louis, Missouri, is a 'weighted catenary' - its shape corresponds to the shape of a chain having lighter links in the middle.