Desktop versionMobile Version

Towns and Town Life in Scotland

 | 
Rosie Findlay
, 
Tri Tran
, 
William Findlay

II. Life in the Scottish victorian city: historical explorations

The development of swimming facilities in Victorian and Edwardian Scotland: Glasgow and Edinburgh

Win Hayes

Volltext

1Glasgow and Edinburgh, two great cities in the central lowlands of Scotland on two great rivers are cities of many similarities and yet of many differences. They are two cities that, like many others during the nineteenth century, underwent great transformation due to industrialisation. Much has been written about the reports of the Poor Law commissioners in the middle of the century which identified both the extensive filth and squalor and also the resulting poor health and suffering of the working classes. How did these two cities manage their respective development over time as they firstly took steps to solve the sanitary and health related problems and then later addressed the recreational needs of the everincreasing population? This paper will look at the relationship between industrialisation, the associated living conditions and the development of some related aspects of leisure provision. In particular the similarities and differences in the evolution of swimming baths and their associated leisure activities in the two major Scottish cities will be examined.

2In the early eighteenth century Daniel Defoe wrote of Glasgow, in the third volume of his Tour Thro’ the Whole Island of Great Britain, with fulsome praise for the city’s architecture and cleanliness.

  • 1 David Daiches, Glasgow. London, Grafton, 1982, p. 51.

“Glasgow is, indeed a very fine city; the four principal streets are the fairest for breadth, and the finest built that I have ever seen in one city together in a word, ‘tis the cleanest and beautifullest, and best built city in Britain, London excepted….”1

  • 2 John M’[ac] Ure, The History of Glasgow 1830, Glasgow, Hutchison and Brookman., p. 376. A Reprint (...)

3John M’[ac]Ure referred to Glasgow as a pleasant place with abundant fruit and flowers. In his History of Glasgow in 17362 he describes it as

“The city is situate[d] in a pleasant valley close upon the banks of the River Clyde. It is surrounded with cornfields, kitchen and flower gardens, a end beautiful orchards, abounding with fruit of all sorts, which by reason of the open and large streets send forth an odoriferous smell.”

  • 3 Jane Boyd Brent, About Scotland: Architects of the Enlightenment. 2004, p. 1.
  • 4 Hugh A. McLean, Glasgow Medical Journal, reprinted by MacDougall, Glasgow as A Short Review of Pub (...)
  • 5 The ‘Athens of the North’ was a term given to Edinburgh in the 1820s by poet Hugh William Williams (...)

4Edinburgh in the later 1700s is described by Jane Boyd Brent3 as being at the forefront of medical discovery in Europe. She notes the esteem in which the scientific, intellectual and aesthetic achievements of the city’s inhabitants were held. The academic focus and the well built, yet semi-rural nature of both towns continued until towards the end of the eighteenth century with Glasgow seen as a “small, cathedral and university town with few and unimportant manufacturers”4 and Edinburgh seen as being at the forefront of medical discovery and, due to the beauty of the city and the classical splendour of the architecture, known as the ‘Athens of the North’5.

  • 6 Rosalind Mitchison, A History of Scotland, London, Routledge, 1970, p. 381.

5However within a century such glowing tributes were hard to find as both cities were becoming known for their slum conditions. By the mid nineteenth century the magnificence of the Georgian buildings of Edinburgh’s New Town, which were constructed mainly for the wealthy merchants and artisans, were in complete contrast to the nearby crowded slum conditions of the closes of the Old Town. These closes, far from being known for stylish and elegant architecture, were known as being over-crowded ‘perpendicular’ streets containing as many families as rooms and being without any amenities6, They were best known for their filth, their squalor, their crime and their disease. Dr Alexander Wood, in his Report on the Condition of the Poorer Classes in Edinburgh, produced in 1868, notes the beauty of the city which was a great attraction for visitors, but also highlights the squalor that was found and the effect that such conditions had on the working classes living there.

  • 7 Alexander Wood, Report on the Condition of the Poorer Classes of Edinburgh and of their Dwellings, (...)

“In these abodes, in which it is impossible to maintain habits of decency and cleanliness or health, are crowded together not merely the abject and dissolute, but the great majority of the labouring men of the city.... they soon become utterly lost to a sense of degradation, and live in a state of filth, misery and abandonment.”7

6Glasgow had a similar building pattern at the beginning of the nineteenth century to that of Edinburgh. The development of better class residential accommodation was in the west and the south of the city while the crowded and unplanned city centre housing was allowed to increase in density to accommodate the ever increasing working class masses. The attraction of Glasgow to workers hoping to earn more in the industrial centre than through agricultural labouring and the resulting effects of their migration are highlighted by McLean in a review of public health in Glasgow.

  • 8 Ibid., p. 15.

“In ever increasing volume this stream of human atoms drawn by the magnet of the city, was pressing into Glasgow from north and south and east and west. They came to all districts.... And the older part of the city was ill adapted to bear this sudden unforeseen tax on its accommodation. But still the human tide rolled on... it burst its banks and overflowed into the neighbouring locality.”8

  • 9 Hugh. A. McLean, Glasgow Medical Journal, reprinted as A Short Review of Public Health Administrat (...)

7The mid nineteenth Glasgow ‘Old Town’ certainly equalled or surpassed the squalor and the misery of the Edinburgh Old Town as its industrial progress advanced. This was firstly through cotton processing, then glass works, brewing and iron works followed. In the Glasgow and Lanarkshire area the arrival of steam power,9 which was fuelled by local coal, capitalised on the local iron fields and used the river for onward transport, was a fortuitous coming together of the locally available vital ingredients for the industrial and manufacturing processes. The proximity of such physical resources formed the basis of a great part of Glasgow’s industrial development, which was amazing in both its scale and speed

  • 10 R. H. Campbell, "The Victorian Transformation" in Rosalind Mitchison Why Scottish History Matters.(...)

8The effect of such an overwhelming influx of labour to service this burgeoning industry was the creation of extensive areas of the worst housing and poorest sanitary conditions that had ever been experienced. The slums of Glasgow and the condition of its working class masses were the outcome of the changing character of the city, as it became what Campbell describes as “the workshop of the Empire and without too much exaggeration as the workshop of the world”.10

  • 11 J. C. Symons, Assistant Commissioner on the Condition of the Handloom Weavers, 1839.
  • 12 Edwin Chadwick had been involved in the reforming of the Poor Law and in factory working legislati (...)

9As the nineteenth century advanced the effects of this in terms of overcrowding and human misery, disease and early death were recorded by many including Symons11, Chadwick12 and Baird. The findings of Symons with regard to the human degradation, filth, misery and disease, in Glasgow specifically, and the level of awareness about the problem by 1840 are referred to by Charles Baird in his Report on the General and Sanitary Condition of the Working Classes and Poor in the City of Glasgow. This Report was made to the City Missionaries, Elders and others (1841)

  • 13 Report on the General and Sanitary Condition of the Working Classes and Poor in the City of Glasgo (...)

“The observations in Mr Symon’s report on the handloom weavers have been so frequently quoted and are now so well known, that I will not do more than refer to them, and add that I fear he has too correctly stated that penury and misery (as well as disease) culminate in Glasgow to a pitch unparalleled in Great Britain.”13

  • 14 Eric John Hobsbawn, Industry and Empire, Harmondsworth, Pelican, 1969, p. 86.

10Edinburgh’s industrial progress was somewhat different. In the middle of the eighteenth century Edinburgh was the larger of the two main cities in Scotland and one of only two in the United Kingdom with in excess of fifty thousand of a population14. By the nineteenth century it had lost its place in the hierarchy of cities, based on size, to Glasgow. This change in position, the different pace and nature of industrial growth and indeed the fundamental nature of Edinburgh’s professional, industrial and business activity are explained by George Gordon.

  • 15 George Gordon, Perspectives of the Scottish City, Aberdeen, Aberdeen University Press, 1985, p. 3.

“Over a wide spectrum of industry the Georgian and early Victorian periods were characterised by industrial growth in Edinburgh, with the founding of new elements such as silk mills beside the Union Canal and the expansion of the traditional industries of brewing, milling, glass making, paper making, printing and publishing. However, Edinburgh experienced a slower rate of industrial growth than Glasgow, the most difference being in the sector of textile manufacturing. By contrast, the tertiary sector assumed greater importance in the development of the capital with expansion in banking, insurance, law, medicine, education and commerce.”15

  • 16 Figures come from the Census of Scotland 1861, Population Tables and Report Vol. II. Edinburgh, Mu (...)
  • 17 Ibid, p. 30 using figures from Booth, C. "Occupations of the People of the United Kingdom 1801-188 (...)
  • 18 Professional occupations were given as law, medicine, arts and entertainment, civil service, teach (...)
  • 19 Census of the United Kingdom: Employment, 1881.

11Glasgow throughout the nineteenth century was the epitome of a growing industrial city with a population of 395 thousand by 1861. It had much in common, if happening somewhat later, with many English cities such as Liverpool. Edinburgh, in comparison, by 1861 only had a population of 170 thousand,16 less than half that of Glasgow. Although it had some industrial growth, it was better known for the professions that based much of their activity there. Edinburgh’s percentage of professional workers, at 12-15 per cent in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century, was 215 per cent that of the average for the United Kingdom.17 This is confirmed by the figures from the 1881 census, which show that the percentage of people in professional occupations18 in Glasgow was 4.37 per cent and in Edinburgh 12.47 percent compared with the United Kingdom average of 5.79 per cent.19 While Glasgow shared many of the features of its industrialisation with English towns such as Liverpool, Edinburgh, with greater focus on the professions and culture, had more in common with areas in the south east of England. Lee notes that:

  • 20 Clive H. Lee, “Modern Economic Growth and Statistical Change in Scotland: The Service Sector Recon (...)

“There can be no doubt that it was the metropolitan role of Edinburgh which gave the Lothian economy its structural similarity to the South East of England and that mixture of professions, commerce, personal services and consumer goods industries such as printing and publishing”.20

12The different nature and aspirations of Edinburgh are also confirmed by Henry Littlejohn the Medical Officer for the city in 1865.

  • 21 Henry Littlejohn, Report on the Sanitary Conditions of the City of Edinburgh. Edinburgh, 1865, p. (...)

“Edinburgh has no pretensions to be a manufacturing city... the establishment of a university and the highest courts of judiciary appears to have diverted the attention of the inhabitants from mercantile pursuits.”21

13Littlejohn further elaborates on Edinburgh’s attraction for the gentry and the link between this and the profile of cultural activities.

  • 22 Ibid., p. 45.

“Leisure and amusements, soirees and concert parties, artistic and other cultural pursuits derived substantial patronage from such a heavily represented class.”22

14Nevertheless, in spite of the more limited industrialisation in Edinburgh, the size of the capital city and the lack of planning, building control and sanitation still resulted in appalling living conditions for many of its inhabitants. The state of the Old Town, where many of the working class lived in overcrowded conditions, is highlighted by William Chambers in his testimony on the Sanitary Conditions of the Old Town of Edinburgh for Edwin Chadwick, Secretary to the Poor law Commissioners. He highlights the general condition

  • 23 William Chambers, Report on the sanitary conditions of the Old Town of Edinburgh for the Poor Law (...)

“I am of the opinion that this city is at present one of the most unclean and badly ventilated in this or any adjacent country. Nature has furnished it with a singularly salubrious situation, but circumstances and bad taste have gone far to neutralise the benefits that might be expected from its excellent position.”23

15Such conditions prompted a series of acts of parliament that continued throughout the nineteenth and early twentieth century. While many of these were long overdue actions that targeted the sanitary and housing arrangements in the cities others began to address wider issues and could be said to be the early stages of social policy.

  • 24 Agnes Campbell, Report on the Public Baths and Wash-houses in the United Kingdom, Edinburgh, Edinb (...)

16The 1846 Baths and Wash-houses Act, which was the first legislation that really dealt with the cleanliness of the poor, only applied in England and comparable legislation did not exist in Scotland until the Burgh Police (Scotland) Act of 1892. This eventually gave local authorities in Scotland similar rights to those that had existed in England for 46 years. Until that time Scottish local authorities did not have the right to use public money for the building of baths and wash-houses and had to seek special permission to do so. This might explain why, not only was Scotland behind England in providing baths but also why, all baths built in smaller towns in Scotland prior to 1914 were, at least in part, funded by gifts of money from local benefactors24.

17Through the second half of the nineteenth century as acts dealing with housing and sewage, together with the appointment of sanitary officers, started to address sanitary and health problems, civic pride also encouraged towns to do at least as well as their neighbours and rivals. At the same time as the working conditions and living conditions of the working classes began to benefit from state intervention the attention of the middle classes moved to concern about the moral standards and the use of the leisure time of the working class masses. Fear of the outcomes of the uncontrolled leisure time activity of large numbers of people in a crowded city caused concern for the dominant class.

18Pre-industrialisation, non-working time activity was based in the social systems of the rural and local community. The activities focussed on the seasons e. g. celebrations of the harvest, and utilised naturally occurring time when the workers could be free to come together. Alternatively it focussed on life events such as weddings and funerals or events that were controlled by the local patron or landowner. In general free time activity was closely related to the social community in which the workers lived. Coalter et al, when outlining the historical evolution of free time activity from what was effectively ‘popular custom’ to ‘leisure’, state that:

  • 25 Fred Coalter, Jonathan Long, Brian Duffield, Rationale for Public Sector Investment in Leisure, Sp (...)

“This organic relationship between work, leisure and community could not survive the process of rapid industrialisation and urbanization”.25

  • 26 E. g. the Highways Act of 1835 made street football illegal where its activity on the highway anno (...)
  • 27 Factory Acts of 1844 (maximum 12 hour day) and 1847 (Ten hour Act)
  • 28 Bank Holidays Act 1871 provided for four Bank Holidays in England and five in Scotland. Although t (...)

19While the new industrial structure of work required regular time commitment and work discipline in order to be economically viable the workforce found these constraints difficult to accommodate. The authorities therefore progressively introduced legislation that was, in general, repressive in nature. This was used either to limit activities such as street football, which disrupted industrial working practice26 or to limit activities that the middle classes thought were undesirable for the working classes such as gambling. Around the middle of the century various acts effectively legitimised leisure by limiting working hours27 and specifying holiday periods28 thereby identifying non-working or leisure time. Coalter summarises the two early moves in relation to policy as follows

  • 29 Fred Coalter et al. 1986, op. cit., p. 9.

“In addition to attempting to criminalise and suppress ‘popular recreations’, the state, from the middle of the nineteenth century, was involved in regulating and rationally organising the temporal parameters of leisure. Various Factory Acts and Bank Holiday Acts served not only to define time periods, but also to reorganise and legitimate the idea of free and private time separate from work.”29

20There was initially, in the early part of the century, a progression in policymaking relating to leisure. Around the middle of the century this moved from the restrictive or repressive intervention of the early years, which tried to limit some of the pursuits of the working classes, to permissive legislation, which allowed local authorities to make some provision of alternative and, in the views of the middle classes, more desirable pursuits. Overcrowded slum conditions, concern about cleanliness, poor levels of health and fitness, worries about moral welfare and the desire for a more desirable form of social life for the working class thus combined to prompt the passing of much of the permissive legislation of the mid and later nineteenth century. Much of this was designed to meet the need for relief from the overcrowded urban environment. This resulted in open spaces, such as parks and public buildings, such as libraries, which were thought would encourage the constructive recreation of the masses. The local authorities were thus able to use public money to provide facilities such as parks, baths, libraries and museums for the leisure use of people. It was however only permissive and as it did not require them to do so, in many local authorities, it was a considerable time before any action took place.

  • 30 Peter Bilsborough, One Hundred Years of Scottish Swimming. Edinburgh, Napier Polytechnic, 1888, p. (...)
  • 31 Glasgow Humane Society Minute Book, 14 February 1848 shows that of 34 cases in 1847/8 18 were acci (...)

21In the first half of the nineteenth century local boys and young men swam at safe sites on the rivers Forth and Clyde. This included spots such as Granton harbour on the Forth and Fleshers’ Haugh at Glasgow Green on the Clyde.30 Fleshers’ Haugh was particularly popular due to having an area of shallow water suited to learners whilst there was also deep enough water for the proficient swimmers. Such swimming activity was purely recreational and popular as it had so few requirements of equipment, company or finance. In Glasgow the Glasgow Humane Society, established in 1790, attempted to make it as safe as possible by having a lifesaving officer in place by 1876 and also by encouraging lifesaving by members of the public. Such efforts by the public were rewarded by small financial payments. The early minute books of the Glasgow Humane Society show that much of their business was taken up with evaluating rescues and making small financial awards to the members of the public who were rescuers.31

  • 32 The Forth Club in 1850 and the West of Scotland Club in 1866.

22From the middle of the century more formalised clubs, such as the Forth Club at Edinburgh and the West of Scotland Club at Glasgow were established.32 These outdoor clubs began to organise events to encourage competition with others and in due course, in 1875, they formed the Associated Swimming Clubs of Glasgow to organise and control official events. The first event organised by the Association was the Half Mile Championship of Scotland, which took place at Chain Pier on the Forth in July 1875. For a short period in the middle of the century the outdoor clubs around the country promoted swimming, mainly in the summer months, with their teaching, racing and other entertainments. Such entertainments attracted crowds to the riverbank to watch not only races but also other sketches, mock drownings, diving and scientific swimming displays.

  • 33 The Loch Katrine water scheme started in 1855. This did a lot to change the civic image of Glasgow (...)
  • 34 John. F. Riddell, The Clyde: The Making of a River, Edinburgh, John Donald, 1979, p. 129.

23By the third quarter of the nineteenth century both the human overcrowding, with its inadequate sewage arrangements, and the establishment of industry on the river banks for ease of disposal of waste and also for transport, led to the increasing pollution of the rivers. This progressively had a significant effect on the leisure activity around the river for the local population in the crowded city centre. Although Glasgow had made an early start to water provision for the city33 and in general had an effective sewage and drainage system the problem lay in the final disposal of the untreated sewage into the river as it passed through the city. This sewage combined with the discharge of waste from chemical and other works situated on the riverbank produced the position where “an evil smelling liquid could persist in the channel for weeks”.34 This resulted in great concern from those living and working in the city centre, complaints from those working on barges and dredgers on the river and the Glaswegian trippers going ‘doon the watter’ changing their travel arrangements as is explained by Riddell.

  • 35 Ibid. p. 129-130.

“.. the numbers using the direct sailings [from central Glasgow] steadily declined as the citizens increasingly avoided the assault on their eyes and nostrils by taking the train to down river piers”.35

24Other measures including the dredging of the river and the moving of a weir to improve the river for shipping altered the depths of what had been ‘safe bathing areas’. This made it both deeper and faster flowing which, while desirable for shipping, was dangerous for swimming. Where such conditions prevented people sailing on the river, due to the look and smell of the water, it is clear that in addition to the added danger it would be both unpleasant and very unhealthy to swim in it. Such was the danger on the river and the outrage regarding public decency, over the practice of men swimming naked, that Glasgow council issued laws banning swimming in places considered dangerous in 1872 and 1880, erected screens to protect the public from seeing the nudity in 1874 and removed the diving boards in 1877. Thus due to both increased river traffic, river pollution and public outrage the practice, popular with Glasgow youth earlier in the century, of swimming at appropriate city centre river bank sites more or less ceased. The river Forth at Edinburgh neither goes through the middle of the crowded city centre nor is it as narrow as the Clyde passing through central Glasgow. The Forth is much wider and passes to the north of the city. It was not subject to as much industrial development as the comparable area of the Clyde and therefore, although polluted with sewage, it was never polluted to the same extent as the Clyde at Glasgow. The operation of the clubs that swam in the Firth of Forth, such as Portobello and the Forth Club, and the summer ‘dipping’ of the locals and holidaymakers was therefore not as restricted as in the Glasgow area.

  • 36 Handbill advertising the baths held by University of Glasgow/Scran.
  • 37 St Andrews closed in 1873, Kings Place in 1884 leaving only Eastern Baths which were taken over by (...)

25The early commercial baths in Glasgow in the late 1820s were the Willow Bank Baths, which were in the city centre, situated on Sauchiehall Street. They were owned by a local entrepreneur William Harley until his death in 1929 when they were taken over by tavern keeper James Montieth.. While there is little known about the baths an advert for them in 1829 shows the swimming bath to be 57 feet by 30 feet, open from 6am to 9pm and from the prices clearly only used by the upper or middle classes.36 Lack of later records suggests that this did not remain open long. The Eastern Public Baths Company built in London Road in 1853 followed this then St Andrews Public Baths built in Green Dyke Street in 1865 and Kings Place Baths built in South Kinning Place in 187037. Although nominally termed public baths they were in fact commercial enterprises open to the public as opposed to baths built with public money and owned by the local authority. These early Glasgow baths were outdoor facilities providing an opportunity for swimming but one that clearly has a limited season in Scotland. They attempted to keep the costs of entry down in order to appeal to a wide sector of the population. However as the water was often dirty and as many of the working class swam naked this did not appeal to the public at large and certainly not to the middle classes. Thus, although these baths created an opportunity for some people to swim for a limited part of the year, they did not go anywhere near meeting the needs of the city. In Edinburgh, as in Glasgow, there were early commercially run baths. Someone signing themselves ‘a swimmer’ when writing to the Scotsman in 1859 debated the lack of attention to learning to swim in Scotland and drew attention to the position of swimming in Edinburgh

  • 38 Scotsman, 6th July 1859, p. 3.

“In Edinburgh we are even behind Glasgow. There they have three swimming ponds, where it is learned without any danger. We have little need of fresh water ponds here, but it is surprising why there is no safety pond either at Trinity or Portobello. [....} We have got dancing, riding, fencing and boxing masters, but not a swimming master is ever heard of.”38

26This ‘swimmer’ clearly disagrees with the earlier information about the early baths in Glasgow, which shows only one baths in 1859 and also is clearly unaware of the two pools to be opened in Edinburgh some months later. The ‘safety baths’ mentioned were enclosed areas of river or coastal water where bathers could be within reasonable depth, not carried away by tide or current and sure of being reasonably safe. From this position in the middle of 1859 things progressed rapidly in Edinburgh with two baths and a safety baths opening the following year. The Pitt Street Tepid Swimming Baths was much publicised in the records of the Scotsman newspaper during the 1860s.

  • 39 Scotsman, 12th May 1860, p. 1.

“This elegant, commodious and First Class Swimming Bath will be OPEN to the public on TUESDAY the 22nd May curt From 6 o’clock Morning till 10 o’clock Evening: and daily thereafter at the same hours, except Sunday when it will be open from 6 to 9 Morning only.”39

  • 40 Ibid., p. 1.

27It was declared to be “the largest Bath of the kind (with one or two exceptions in London) at present existing in the United Kingdom”40 With measurements of 100 feet long and 28 feet wide and with a depth of 3.5 feet at the shallow end and 7 feet at the deep end it certainly had the potential to cater for both beginners and able swimmers. Unlike many of the early ‘fill and empty’ baths, where the water deteriorated with use and the designation of the pool, as first or second class, changed according to how dirty it was, this pool promised that

  • 41 Ibid, p. 1.

“An abundant supply of Water of crystal transparency has been secured for the use of this Establishment, and every attention will, as a matter of course, be paid to keeping the bath in a constant state of purity. Machinery capable of causing a continuous flow of water there into at the rate of 300 gallons per minute, has been provided”41

  • 42 Ibid., p. 1.

28It also had “an efficient Apparatus for regulating the Temperature of the Bath according to the weather.”42 Later in the year of its opening there is confirmation that the baths were to be open all year round.

  • 43 Scotsman. 12th October 1860, p. 1.

“In answer to numerous enquiries, the public is respectfully informed that this Establishment will remain open all the year round. The arrangement for Heating, Ventilation etc., during the winter are now complete on the plan so successfully adopted at the principal London, Liverpool and Manchester Establishments of a similar kind admissing the luxury of Bathing, Swimming etc. being indulged in with as much comfort and benefit in the Cold as in the Warm season.”43

29Short closures clearly occurred for maintenance and improvements as re-openings are also recorded.

  • 44 Scotsman. 21st March 1861, p. 1.

“During the short recess a variety of Additions, Alterations and Improvements, too numerous to particularise, have been effected on the Interior, etc., which will be found to have rendered this Institution in every respect the most complete of its kind in Scotland.”44

  • 45 Ibid, p. 1.

30Also fairly well documented in the press is the Holyrood Swimming Baths,45 situated at the back of the Canongate, which was 100 feet long and 23 feet wide. This is also recorded as being called Dumbiedykes Swimming Baths after the name of the area in which it was located. This was the first baths to be opened in Edinburgh, a fact noted in the record of the first annual meeting in 1860, the events of which were covered by the Scotsman.

  • 46 Scotsman, 2nd October 1860, p. 2.

“Mr Kerr proposed a cheer in appreciation of the two Edinburgh Baths. He particularly adverted to the Dumbiedykes bath as the first instituted.”46

  • 47 Scotsman, 28th July 1860, p. 1.

31In the same year an outdoor baths is also recorded with Trinity First Class Sea-Water Baths advertising its facilities to visitors to the city.47 This would presumably fill the role of the ‘safety baths’ alluded to by the ‘swimmer’ writing to the Scotsman the previous year.

32By the middle of the century, as a result of the 1846 Baths and Wash-houses Act, English towns were beginning to get baths and wash-houses that had at least small swimming pools included. In 1865 there were around 35 towns in England that had swimming pools, a good number of which were complexes with 2 or 3 pools included. At this time Scotland had no indoor public baths at all. It was still six years away from the first public pool being opened in Dundee, thirteen years away from having one in Glasgow and twenty-two years away from the first public pool in the capital city of Edinburgh.

33In spite of the adverse comments regarding cleanliness and health by Edwin Chadwick and others in the reports of the Poor Law Commission and in spite of the civic leaders being charged with making improvements, public baths were slow to actually be built and to operate in Scotland. In Glasgow discussions are recorded at the Police Board on 24th May 1869 about the establishment of public baths and washhouses as the following minute shows.

  • 48 Glasgow Baths and Wash-houses Report, 1891, p. 7.

“That it be an instruction from this Board to the Sanitary Committee that they shall forthwith provide, at four of the most suitable parts of the city, Public Baths and Wash-houses for the accommodation of the inhabitants-all in the terms of the Glasgow Police Act 1866, Clause 387.”48

34However in spite of various meetings and some work being done it was 19th August 1878, almost nine years after the initial instruction, before Greenside Baths, the first Public Baths in Glasgow actually opened. It was a further four years before the next baths opened at Woodside.

  • 49 Frank Worrall, Victorian City, Glasgow, Richard Drew Publishing. 1982, p. 85.
  • 50 Malcolm Shifrin, Victorian Turkish Baths: their origin, development and gradual decline. 2004
    http: (...)

35The middle class, having the money to make trips to the seaside resorts on the west coast and holiday there, did develop an interest in swimming. As their interest grew they became active in establishing Glasgow’s private indoor swimming baths clubs. Thus while those that were responsible for the affaires of the city deliberated about the desirability and financing of public baths to meet the needs of the masses, two private baths, Arlington and Western, were opened in Glasgow in 1870 and 1875. A third private baths, Victoria Baths, was opened the same year (1878) as the new Greenside Public Baths at last opened. The private baths were the initiative of local businessmen who put up some of the capital and sold shares to raise the rest of the money required. The private clubs essentially looked after the upper and middle class interests, avoided them having to mix with the working class masses and thus helped to preserve the class divide. Glasgow’s private baths were located in the elite residential areas of the city and were built with ‘some architectural pretensions’.49 The buildings were Spanish Gothic or Moorish in style with simple but elegant windows and wrought iron roofing. The pools had gymnastic equipment, such as rings and trapeze, suspended over the water for the exercise and entertainment of the members. They had staff to look after the members’ interests and maintain a higher level of cleanliness than was possible in public baths. These private baths clubs also contained other types of baths, such as Turkish baths, which together with reading rooms, ‘smokers’ and general recreation rooms provided the club atmosphere and exclusiveness sought by the emerging middle class. Other early private ‘bathing’ facilities, that could perhaps be seen as the forerunners of these substantial private baths of the 1870s were the Turkish Baths to be found in both Glasgow and Edinburgh. These were frequented by the upper and middle classes and sometimes had small ‘plunge’ style pools as part of the facilities. Edinburgh had one on Princess Street as early as 1862, which by 1868 was called the Edinburgh Turkish and Swimming Baths. Records show to be quite spacious and well laid out, although it is doubtful if the pool referred to was other than a small plunge pool. Glasgow, again ahead of Edinburgh, had the Argyle Vapour Baths open in 1859 and by 1861 another at number 15 Sauchiehall Street.50

  • 51 Fred Coalter et al. 1986, op. cit., p. 11.

36Coalter et al (1986)51 when discussing the rationalisation of public sector investment in leisure highlights the polarisation of leisure during the mid to late nineteenth century. The middle classes who adopted a ‘rational’ form of leisure activity and used it to identify themselves as different and separate from the working class masses brought this about. Private baths clubs not only provided a different baths experience for the wealthy with its club type facilities and service but also enabled the users to remain separate from the masses reinforcing the class identity. Coalter (1986) confirms how leisure was used at the time:

  • 52 Fred Coalter et al. 1986, op. cit., p. 10.

“The use of leisure to affirm social differences and moral superiority served to divide culturally the new urban classes who were already segregated residentially.”52

37In 1892 Glasgow Corporation Baths and Wash-houses Report in its rationale for the building and location of public swimming baths refers to the effects of industrial progress on swimming in the following way.

  • 53 Glasgow Corporation Baths and Wash-houses Report, 1892, p. 17.

“Civilization has squeezed them [the working class masses] into lanes and closes, factories and offices. It has polluted the Clyde and the streams around so that they have no place to walk to for a swim.”53

38The same report, in its introduction to the swimming facilities section of the report, questions the appropriate place for the swimming baths being beside the washhouses.

  • 54 Glasgow Corporation Baths and Wash-houses Report, 1892, p. 17.

“It is difficult to find a good argument in favour of coupling swimming facilities with those for washing clothes and washing the body, for swimming is not a domestic necessity….”54

  • 55 Glasgow Corporation Baths and Wash-houses Report, 1892, p. 17.

39Thus it moves the provision of swimming pools away from being part of the ‘movement for cleanliness’ to being part of the cities leisure provision; ‘a luxury, and a beautiful summer’s amusement, exercise, practiced chiefly by young folk and athletes’.55 William Thompson, the general superintendent presenting the 1892 Baths and Washhouses Report, indicated a preference for linking facilities such as parks and baths in order that one would benefit from the other and in order to encourage the wider use of both and thus increase healthy leisure. He thus points the direction for Glasgow for the future.

  • 56 Glasgow Corporation Baths and Wash-houses Report, 1892. Glasgow. p 17-18.

“There seems to be no doubt that swimming facilities for the young and Turkish Baths for others, would also attract; and as they would bring crowds of young people, learning them to like the flowers and the fresh air, a few years would see the parks busy with those that had acquired a liking for them through attending the baths. And as the swimming and Turkish baths would help the parks, so would the parks help the baths”.56

40Edinburgh, while it did not have as much squalor and disease as Glasgow still received significant criticism in the sanitary report of 1840 and in spite of the pioneering example of Glasgow with regard to both water and swimming baths did not really advance its control of water and sanitation until 1870 when it took over control of its water supply and then moved on to deal with other aspects such as drainage and sewerage.

  • 57 Jamie Gilmour, One Hundred Years of Warrender Baths Club: 1888-1988, Midlothian, MacDonald Lindsay (...)

41In Edinburgh the first public baths, Infirmary Street, did not open until 1887 some nine years after Glasgow and its second, Dairy Baths, not until eight years later. By this time Glasgow had five public baths with two swimming pools in each. Edinburgh, like Glasgow, also had private swimming baths. The first of these, Drumsheugh Baths, opened in 1882 five years before the first public baths and the second, Warrender Baths Club, in 1887 the same year as the first public baths. The establishment of Warrender Baths Club was prompted by members of Bellahouston Private Baths club in Glasgow and was built, at a cost of £ 11,000, on land purchased from Sir George Warrender57. In other words both cities, in spite of the criticism levelled at their filth and squalor and the living and health conditions of the working class, had commercially run or private baths clubs before public baths. Put another way both cities, through private enterprise, managed to service the wants of the middle and upper class masters before they dealt with the needs of the working class masses.

  • 58 Swimming Notes, 2 August 1884, p. 8.
  • 59 Swimming Notes, 2 August 1884, p. 3.

42The swimming press of the 1880s shows the range of swimming activity that was taking place. It also reflects the beginning of the move of the activity from the polluted rivers to the indoor pools that were opening, in Glasgow at least. However in spite of the pollution there was still significant amounts of swimming taking place out of doors due to the limited number of pools in Glasgow and no pools yet being open in Edinburgh. Much of it tended however to have moved from the Clyde to nearby Loch Lomond which was not polluted. Swimming Notes of August 1884 records in the fixture list for the following week two events in the newly opened Cranstonhill Baths in Glasgow, one organised by Western Amateur and the other organised by the West of Scotland club. It also publicises the Annual Captaincy race and the 100 yards Members Handicap amongst the programme of races to be held at Loch Lomond in the same week.58 On the other side of the country the recorded activities of the Edinburgh clubs, Edinburgh having no pool, are all out of doors. They do however reflect a good level of activity. Both the Forth Club and Humane Society and the Lorne Club have the results of races held the previous Saturday and Wednesday at Chain Pier on the river Forth recorded. Both events are recorded as having a large company in attendance.59

43The difference between the baths and wash-houses that were originally planned to address the cleanliness of the poor, even if they did contain a swimming pool, and the swimming baths that developed in Scotland related to their actual use. Even if they did maintain the name that associated them with cleanliness they were quickly acknowledged as being about leisure, recreation and sport and also about safety for children. Their development and use in the last two decades of the century reflected that. The Scottish Umpire newspaper recorded not only the results of swimming events but also the trend of weekday evenings being busy with the entertainments they provided.

  • 60 The Scottish Umpire, 23rd August 1887, p. 13.

“In Glasgow, almost every week-night is taken up with club races. Some times no less than three clubs have fixtures on the same night.”60

44Such events were also popular with the general public as the pools were central to the local community and therefore easily accessible. The relatively comfortable indoor surroundings and low entry fees, combined with the events occurred on days that did not clash with other sports such as football and athletics, which were mainly Saturday events, made them attractive, inexpensive entertainment. This is illustrated by the Scottish Umpire’s account of a Monday evening event.

  • 61 The Scottish Umpire. 29th April 1885, p. 6.

“That swimming entertainments are popular in Glasgow was amply testified by the competition held in Gorbals Baths, Main Street, on Monday night, promoted by the South Side Amateur Club.... The spacious building was literally crammed from floor to ceiling.”61

45The Swimmer Magazine in February 1886 records the progress in swimming in Glasgow and attributes it to the city baths.

  • 62 The Swimmer, 1st February 1886, p. 10.

“Never in the history of our art has such progress been made in one year as has been the case in the commercial capital of Scotland-to wit, Glasgow. Club after club has, within months, sprung into existence, and all appear to be in the most prosperous condition. This happy state of affairs is due in great measure, to the existence of a superior suite of public baths. There is now in each district of the city a fully-equipped bathing establishment, the cost of each building being from £15,000 - £20,000.”62

  • 63 The Swimmer, 1st February 1886, p. 10.

46At this time in 1886 Glasgow had five private swimming baths and five public baths. In the case of the public baths each baths centre contained two pools. Although in Glasgow due to the number of baths in existence, most of the swimming by 1886, certainly during the winter, was indoors. The Swimmer does however record the New Year’s Day Race in 1886 being in the Clyde opposite the Humane Society Boat House at Glasgow Green. On this occasion the river is recorded as being ‘yellow and strong running and at 42 degrees Fahrenheit’ due to the rain63.

47The same issue of The Swimmer Magazine also comments positively on the hopes for baths in Edinburgh.

  • 64 The Swimmer, 1st February 1886, p. 10.

“Edinburgh, with Leith and Portobello, is also waking up, and, no doubt, as soon as the projected public baths are opened in “Modem Athens,” the inhabitants will take advantage of the opportunities offered them.”64

48However such hopes were a long time in being fulfilled. The two places mentioned, that had clubs which operated in the river, Leith and Portobello, did not in fact open pools until 1896 and 1900 respectively, some 10 and 14 years after the magazine’s comment. Table I shows the establishment of both public and private baths in the two cities between 1870 and 1914.

Table 1: Comparison of the opening dates of public and private swimming pools in Glasgow and Edinburgh

Date

Glasgow

Edinburgh

1820s

Willow Bank Baths

1853

Eastern Public Baths (outdoor)

1860

Pitt Street Tepid Baths

Holyrood Swimming Baths

1865

St Andrews Public Baths (outdoor)

1870

Kings Place Baths (outdoor)

Arlington Baths Club

1875

Western Baths Club

1878

Greenhead Public Baths

Victoria Baths Club

1882

Woodside Public Baths

Drumsheugh Baths Club

1883

Cranstonhill Public Baths

Pollockshields Baths Co.

1884

Townhead Public Baths

Dennistoun Baths Club

1885

Gorbals Public Baths

1887

Warrender Baths Club

Infirmary Street Public Baths

1895

Dalry Public Baths

1898

Springbum Public Baths

Leith Public Baths

Maryhill Public Baths

1900

Glenogle Public Baths

Portobello Public Baths

1902

Whitevale Public Baths

Kingspark Public Baths

Govan Public Baths

1907

Warrender Baths became public

1914

(Private baths in Bold)

(Private Baths in bold)

49Compliled from Campbell, Agnes (1918) Report on the Public Baths and Wash-houses in the United Kingdom. Edinburgh, Edinburgh University Press and Glasgow Corporation Baths and Wash-houses Report. 1892.

50In spite of the growing number of indoor pools the level of swimming activity in winter, while increased, was limited, as the pools were not heated in the sense that pools are heated today. In comparison to the 1896 New Year outdoor race in the Clyde at 42 degrees Fahrenheit the indoor race at Woodside Baths in the same month was at 54 degrees Fahrenheit. The Swimmer however, through the winter months, records the many annual meetings, educational lectures and other social events that filled part of the time in addition to the planned but more limited series of winter race meetings noting that:

  • 65 The Swimmer, 15th February 1886, p. 23.

“... Swimmers have been giving themselves over to entertainments of the social order where tea, and at times something stronger have been the predominating element.”65

51Put in the context of population and needs it is evident that Glasgow had greater needs around the third and fourth quarter of the century than Edinburgh due to its larger population and greater level of industry. This could account for the scale of Glasgow’s baths development far outstripping that of Edinburgh. It does not however account for the fact that Edinburgh is so much later than Glasgow in actually getting baths opened. In that context it would have to be said that while Glasgow was inordinately slow in opening public baths Edinburgh was even worse.

  • 66 R. H. Campbell, "The Victorian Transformation" in Rosalind Mitchison Why Scottish History Matters,(...)

52In conclusion the evolution of baths, and swimming pools in particular, in both Scottish cities was primarily the result of the development of the industrial urban-based society. Their provision, initially justified as necessary for cleanliness quickly became accepted as necessaiy for recreational purposes in an urban society. Their establishment was initially more reflective of what the dominant or controlling class felt was socially desirable than of public demand. The pattern of establishment, in both cities, of both public pools and private baths clubs was also a reflection of the emerging middle class resulting from the success of industrialisation. The pattern of swimming baths provision, both private and public, in the two cities was the same and reasonably related in scale to the respective size of the populations of the two cities. There was delay in starting establishing baths in both Scottish cities even after the examples in England and the permissive legislation. This delay was particularly significant in Edinburgh and can really only be explained in relation to it being less of an industrialised city than Glasgow and possibly to the lower levels of pollution of the river Forth than of the river Clyde. The conditions that prompted the earlier development of baths in Glasgow were as much related to meeting the leisure needs of the new urban community as to solving the problems of cleanliness. Both the issue of cleanliness and of leisure needs had arisen due to Glasgow’s rapid growth, as it became one of the most industrialised cities in Britain and the ‘workshop of the Empire’.66 Edinburgh, on the other hand, although it was not without slum housing, squalor and cleanliness problems to solve, being smaller, with significantly less industrial focus and with a much larger professional class with artistic and cultural interests, was less subject to the pressures of the industrial urban environment and therefore slower to respond.

Literaturverzeichnis

BIBLIOGRAPHY

BILSBOROUGH Peter, One Hundred Years of Scottish Swimming. Edinburgh, Napier Polytechnic, 1888.

Glasgow Humane Society Minute Book, 14 February, 1848.

BOYD BRENT Jane, About Scotland: Architects of the Enlightenment. 2004.

CAMPBELL Agnes, Report on the Public Baths and Wash-houses in the United Kingdom, Edinburgh, Edinburgh University Press, 1918.

CAMPBELL R. H, “The Victorian Transformation” in Rosalind MITCHISON, Why Scottish History Matters, Edinburgh, The Saltire Society, 1997.

Census of Scotland 1861, Population Tables and Report, Vol. II. Edinburgh, Murray and Gibb. pp. lxvi and lxvii.

Census of the United Kingdom: Employment, 1881.

CHAMBERS William, Report on the sanitary conditions of the Old Town of Edinburgh for the Poor Law Commissioners, 1841.

COALTER Fred, LONG Jonathan, DUFFIELD Brian, Rationale for Public Sector Investment in Leisure, Sports Council and Economic and Social Research Council, 1986.

DAICHES David, Glasgow, London, Grafton, 1982.

GILMOUR Jamie, One Hundred Years of Warrender Baths Club: 1888-1988, Midlothian, MacDonald Lindsay Pindar, 1990.

Glasgow Baths and Wash-houses Report, 1891.

Glasgow Corporation Baths and Wash-houses Report, 1892.

GORDON George, Perspectives of the Scottish City, Aberdeen, Aberdeen University Press, 1985.

HOBSBAWN Eric John, Industry and Empire, Harmondsworth, Pelican, 1969 LEE Clive H, “Modem Economic Growth and Statistical Change in Scotland: The Service Sector Reconsidered”. Scottish Economic and Social History 3, 1983.

LITTLEJOHN Henry, Report on the Sanitary Conditions of the City of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, 1865.

M’[AC]URE John, The History of Glasgow, Glasgow, Hutchison and Brookman, 1830, A Reprint of A View of the City of Glasgow, 1736.

MCLEAN Hugh A, Glasgow Medical Journal, reprinted by MacDougall, Glasgow, as A Short Review of Public Health Administration in Glasgow, 1911.

MITCHISON Rosalind, A History of Scotland, London, Routledge, 1970.

RIDDELL John. F, The Clyde: The Making of a River, Edinburgh, John Donald, 1979.

SHIFRIN Malcolm, Victorian Turkish Baths: their origin, development and gradual decline , 2004
http://www.victorianturkishbath.org

SMOUT T. C, A Century of Scottish People 1830-1950, London, Fontana Press, 1987.

Report on the General and Sanitary Condition of the Working Classes and Poor in the City of Glasgow, 1841.

Scotsman, 6th July 1859.

Scotsman, 12th May 1860.

Scotsman, 28th July 1860.

Scotsman, 2nd October 1860, Scotsman, 12th October 1860.

Scotsman, 21st March 1861.

Swimming Notes, 2 August 1884.

The Scottish Umpire, 29th April 1885

The Scottish Umpire, 23rd August 1887.

The Swimmer, 1st February 1886.

The Swimmer, 15th February 1886.

WOOD Alexander, Report on the Condition of the Poorer Classes of Edinburgh and of their Dwellings, Neighbourhoods and Families, Edinburgh, Edmonston and Douglas, 1868.

WORRALL Frank, Victorian City, Glasgow, Richard Drew Publishing. 1982.

Anmerkungen

1 David Daiches, Glasgow. London, Grafton, 1982, p. 51.

2 John M’[ac] Ure, The History of Glasgow 1830, Glasgow, Hutchison and Brookman., p. 376. A Reprint of A View of the City of Glasgow, 1736.

3 Jane Boyd Brent, About Scotland: Architects of the Enlightenment. 2004, p. 1.

4 Hugh A. McLean, Glasgow Medical Journal, reprinted by MacDougall, Glasgow as A Short Review of Public Health Administration in Glasgow. 1911, p. 14.

5 The ‘Athens of the North’ was a term given to Edinburgh in the 1820s by poet Hugh William Williams because of its architecture.

6 Rosalind Mitchison, A History of Scotland, London, Routledge, 1970, p. 381.

7 Alexander Wood, Report on the Condition of the Poorer Classes of Edinburgh and of their Dwellings, Neighbourhoods and Families. Edinburgh, Edmonston and Douglas. 1868, pp. 48-50.

8 Ibid., p. 15.

9 Hugh. A. McLean, Glasgow Medical Journal, reprinted as A Short Review of Public Health Administration in Glasgow. Glasgow, MacDougall, 1911, p. 14.

10 R. H. Campbell, "The Victorian Transformation" in Rosalind Mitchison Why Scottish History Matters. Edinburgh, The Saltire Society, 1997, p. 90.

11 J. C. Symons, Assistant Commissioner on the Condition of the Handloom Weavers, 1839.

12 Edwin Chadwick had been involved in the reforming of the Poor Law and in factory working legislation prior to becoming Secretary to the Commission investigating the sanitary conditions throughout Great Britain.

13 Report on the General and Sanitary Condition of the Working Classes and Poor in the City of Glasgow, 1841, p. 176.

14 Eric John Hobsbawn, Industry and Empire, Harmondsworth, Pelican, 1969, p. 86.

15 George Gordon, Perspectives of the Scottish City, Aberdeen, Aberdeen University Press, 1985, p. 3.

16 Figures come from the Census of Scotland 1861, Population Tables and Report Vol. II. Edinburgh, Murray and Gibb. pp. lxvi and lxvii.

17 Ibid, p. 30 using figures from Booth, C. "Occupations of the People of the United Kingdom 1801-1881", Journal of the Royal Statistical Society, 49. (1886) p. 414.

18 Professional occupations were given as law, medicine, arts and entertainment, civil service, teaching, church, police and armed forces.

19 Census of the United Kingdom: Employment, 1881.

20 Clive H. Lee, “Modern Economic Growth and Statistical Change in Scotland: The Service Sector Reconsidered”. Scottish Economic and Social History 3, 1983, p. 22.

21 Henry Littlejohn, Report on the Sanitary Conditions of the City of Edinburgh. Edinburgh, 1865, p. 32

22 Ibid., p. 45.

23 William Chambers, Report on the sanitary conditions of the Old Town of Edinburgh for the Poor Law Commissioners, 1841, p. 153.

24 Agnes Campbell, Report on the Public Baths and Wash-houses in the United Kingdom, Edinburgh, Edinburgh University Press, 1918, p. 13.

25 Fred Coalter, Jonathan Long, Brian Duffield, Rationale for Public Sector Investment in Leisure, Sports Council and Economic and Social Research Council, 1986, p. 8.

26 E. g. the Highways Act of 1835 made street football illegal where its activity on the highway annoyed other users.

27 Factory Acts of 1844 (maximum 12 hour day) and 1847 (Ten hour Act)

28 Bank Holidays Act 1871 provided for four Bank Holidays in England and five in Scotland. Although there were minor changes in the number of holidays over the years the act remained in place until 1971 when Bank Holidays came within the new Banking and Financial Dealings Act.

29 Fred Coalter et al. 1986, op. cit., p. 9.

30 Peter Bilsborough, One Hundred Years of Scottish Swimming. Edinburgh, Napier Polytechnic, 1888, p. 1.

31 Glasgow Humane Society Minute Book, 14 February 1848 shows that of 34 cases in 1847/8 18 were accidental drownings and 16 were suicide attempts, 25 males/9 females, 28 rescued/6 drowned. Awards were not dependent on the result of the rescue attempt but on the risk involved in the attempt

32 The Forth Club in 1850 and the West of Scotland Club in 1866.

33 The Loch Katrine water scheme started in 1855. This did a lot to change the civic image of Glasgow and set it up as being ahead in terms of municipal action. T. C. Smout, A Century of Scottish People 1830-1950, London, Fontana Press, 1987, p. 45.

34 John. F. Riddell, The Clyde: The Making of a River, Edinburgh, John Donald, 1979, p. 129.

35 Ibid. p. 129-130.

36 Handbill advertising the baths held by University of Glasgow/Scran.

37 St Andrews closed in 1873, Kings Place in 1884 leaving only Eastern Baths which were taken over by the Corporation in 1876.

38 Scotsman, 6th July 1859, p. 3.

39 Scotsman, 12th May 1860, p. 1.

40 Ibid., p. 1.

41 Ibid, p. 1.

42 Ibid., p. 1.

43 Scotsman. 12th October 1860, p. 1.

44 Scotsman. 21st March 1861, p. 1.

45 Ibid, p. 1.

46 Scotsman, 2nd October 1860, p. 2.

47 Scotsman, 28th July 1860, p. 1.

48 Glasgow Baths and Wash-houses Report, 1891, p. 7.

49 Frank Worrall, Victorian City, Glasgow, Richard Drew Publishing. 1982, p. 85.

50 Malcolm Shifrin, Victorian Turkish Baths: their origin, development and gradual decline. 2004
http://www.victorianturkishbath.org/6DIRECTORY/ListBodies/ScotSF.htm

51 Fred Coalter et al. 1986, op. cit., p. 11.

52 Fred Coalter et al. 1986, op. cit., p. 10.

53 Glasgow Corporation Baths and Wash-houses Report, 1892, p. 17.

54 Glasgow Corporation Baths and Wash-houses Report, 1892, p. 17.

55 Glasgow Corporation Baths and Wash-houses Report, 1892, p. 17.

56 Glasgow Corporation Baths and Wash-houses Report, 1892. Glasgow. p 17-18.

57 Jamie Gilmour, One Hundred Years of Warrender Baths Club: 1888-1988, Midlothian, MacDonald Lindsay Pindar, 1990, p. 9.

58 Swimming Notes, 2 August 1884, p. 8.

59 Swimming Notes, 2 August 1884, p. 3.

60 The Scottish Umpire, 23rd August 1887, p. 13.

61 The Scottish Umpire. 29th April 1885, p. 6.

62 The Swimmer, 1st February 1886, p. 10.

63 The Swimmer, 1st February 1886, p. 10.

64 The Swimmer, 1st February 1886, p. 10.

65 The Swimmer, 15th February 1886, p. 23.

66 R. H. Campbell, "The Victorian Transformation" in Rosalind Mitchison Why Scottish History Matters, Edinburgh, The Saltire Society, 1997, p. 90.

Autor

Teaches Sociology of Sport and Research Methods in the Department of Physical Education, Leisure and Sport at the University of Edinburgh. She has also worked extensively with agencies involved with voluntary sector sport, in particular in the swimming area, in both Scotland and England. Her current research is in the area of the history of swimming in Britain, and in particular of learning to swim, between 1846 and 1914.

Der Text und andere Elemente (Illustrationen, importierte Anhänge) stehen unter OpenEdition Books License, sofern nicht anders angegeben.

Diese digitale Publikation wurde durch automatische optische Zeichenerkennung erstellt.
Suche in OpenEdition Search

Sie werden weitergeleitet zur OpenEdition Search