The Victorian Society protests at the closure of Manningham Baths as the Grade II-listed Edwardian pool finally closes its doors to swimmers.
On Friday afternoon the The Victorian Society will declare Manningham Pool a heritage crime scene.
‘It is a crime to close Manningham Pool without fully understanding how important it is to the local community and to our national heritage’, said Dr Ian Dungavell, Director of the The Victorian Society.
‘We are still hopeful that Bradford Council will wake up to the importance and rarity of Manningham Pool. Even though times are tough we are sure that councillors wouldn’t have made this decision if they knew how much this historic pool is valued by those who use it’.
The council has made the decision to close the Grade II-listed Manningham Pool before completing a full Equalities Impact Assessment. An EIA is necessary to discover if particular groups are disproportionately affected by the loss of the pool.
The Victorian Society believes that the Muslim community, the elderly, and local school children will all lose out once Manningham Pool has closed.
History
There are more than 50 listed Victorian and Edwardian pools in the country but only 14 remain in use and open to the public for swimming. Manningham Pool was designed by Bradford City architect, Frederick Edwards and opened in 1904. The pool building remains remarkably intact and still has its original changing cubicles and the pool itself still has ceramic spittoons at regular intervals and a so-called scum channel down each side.
