Harborne pool

This morning I swam at Harborne Baths. It took a bit more than 40 minutes from my home close to Five Ways shopping centre, in Ladywood. The swim was a very pleasant experience, as my short video, below, records. It only took about 10 minutes to go back on the bus and I didn’t have a long wait.

I’m wrong in the video though. The pool was opened in 1923, not 1925.

I had tried to go to the pool the evening before, but was stymied by its rather quixotic opening hours. Sadly, and I’m not quite sure why, it seems the online times provided on the council’s website bear no relation to the real timetable.

When I phoned up to ask if they were open a very helpful guy told me that the council’s website was ‘rubbish’, which I think seemed in the circumstances to be a reasonable assessment!

Harborne is probably something of an anachronism, despite its charms, character and the excellence of the staff. That’s because it is 23m, rather than 25m long, which is the standard distance for a short-course competition pool. Also, because there are no changing rooms (you have to change on the pool side, where there are lockers and changing compartments), it might seem a bit cramped. As I say in the video, there’s a risk that you could trail mud all over the poolside. Not a pleasant prospect! I guess that the fact the showers are also on poolside might make some people feel uncomfortable.

Nonetheless, I really liked the place. It’s got character, which few modern pools seem to have.

Hopefully this afternoon I’m off to check out another pool, probably Mosley Road Baths this time.