2 Attachment(s)
Cornwallis Street Public Baths
Does anyone have any recollections, information, photos, facts, etc... of Cornwallis Street Public Baths?
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Cornwallis Street Public Baths are mentioned in Pat O'Mara's book The Autobiography of a Liverpool Irish Slummy, pub. 1933. Quoted below:
"Jackie almost always could procure money either to go to the Cornwallis Street public baths, managed by Ted Heaton, the Channel swimmer, or the Palais De Luxe Picture House...
Whenever we had money, Ted Heaton's baths in Cornwallis Street, in lieu of the docks, was our favourite spot. Here all the school speed trials were held; here the swimming team to compete with other swimming teams in the Empire was selected...
I used to somehow corral twopence (most of the time from Jackie Sanchez) for these baths and stay there as long as my strength held out. It was a dirty place for dirty boys...
Next news item: Ted Heaton's baths had been closed in Cornwallis Street and his wife had committed suicide. Seeing my surprise, they explained in detail. Did I remember the dirty water in the baths - the water that had sent me into a decline? Well, a boy had drowned in the pool and it was so dirty that they had to empty the entire pool in order to locate the body. Ted, the famed English Channel swimmer, had been dismissed in disgrace, after which he opened a pub at the bottom of Duke Street. Here, his wife, smarting under the disgrace, had taken poison."
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I also found this in PUNCH, OR THE LONDON CHARIVARI, VOL. 150 - FEBRUARY 9, 1916
"Mr. Ted Heaton, a noted Liverpool swimmer, is acting as
sergeant-instructor to the Royal Fusiliers at Dover, and is expected to
have them in a short time quite ready for the trenches."
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I wonder what the pub in Duke Street was called: a swimming, or diving connection maybe?
Attachments: I did a quick search on 'Ted Heaton': articles from the New Zealand Evening Post, 1901 & 1909
