Bramley Baths: Diving in to a community-led Leeds gem

National World - LocalTV

We explore Bramley Baths, the last remaining Edwardian bath house in Leeds, as it approaches its 120th anniversary.

Transcript

00:00I've been using Bramley Baths since I was a toddler, since just starting walking.

00:04My dad used to bring me swimming with my brothers and sisters,

00:07come from one of six, so there were lots of us,

00:10and then have nine children myself now.

00:13I've brought them all swimming here and they've all learnt to swim,

00:17and I just love the place.

00:19Michelle Gilligan has a lifetime of memories from Bramley Baths,

00:23the community-led gem that's seen thousands of Leeds locals learn and continue to swim.

00:28Some of those based at the Grade 2 listed social enterprise have been reflecting

00:32on how community support preserves its past, delivers its present,

00:36and will secure its future, with complete closure narrowly avoided in 2011.

00:41It's all thanks to John Battle, who retired from the government

00:44and actually got asked to save the baths back in 2011,

00:49with some other people who were called friends of Bramley Baths,

00:52and it run down to 20, 30 hours a week usage,

00:55and it was going bust because it was losing £300,000 a year,

00:59and they went on the doors and said,

01:01would you back it if we kept it up and went community-led?

01:04And then the rest is history.

01:05It's the last surviving Edwardian bathhouse in Leeds,

01:08and for that reason it's special, but it's also special because

01:10it has been in continuous use since 1904.

01:14It's obviously changed its service delivery through wartime,

01:17and cholera, and pandemics, and things like that, but it's always been in use.

01:22I've seen it progress from almost bare bones of service delivery

01:26right through up until now, where we're doing lots more outreach kind of work,

01:30hence our job roles, so it's just been a wonderful journey to be part of.

01:34We look after 17 schools who come here and bring kids to swim,

01:38and we teach over 1,050 other children to swim.

01:42We do fun swims, family swims, general swims, lane swims,

01:46so we serve a wide range of the population.

01:49I've got some quite horrid memories of being brought with school

01:53and having to dunk us feet in what smelt like vinegar

01:58before you were allowed to get changed and sorted,

02:01and then we used to have a few teachers that were a bit on the cruel side

02:05when they were teaching you to swim.

02:06They'd rip that pole away when you just weren't quite sure, just to force you to.

02:11So obviously I learnt to swim here, which was great, but it's a lot nicer now

02:16when you see how they teach the kids to swim.

02:19I actually learnt to swim here, so I've got very strong memories

02:22from my childhood swimming up and down the pool.

02:24We've got lots of exciting plans to do more creative things,

02:28engage people much more with our heritage,

02:30through developing more arts and cultural programmes,

02:34social prescribing and health and wellbeing work.

02:38Part of the gem is not just the historic building,

02:40but the trustee board, who work hard as volunteer board,

02:44gives great support to the management team.

02:46I'd like to think that we would be a really good example

02:49of what community working and social enterprise looks like,

02:53even on a national level.

02:54So for me, keeping that 120 years going,

02:57that's why it depends on what the community wants.

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