[cite]Posted By: BexleyRed[/cite]My favourite outdoor pool was the one in Danson Park. I think we must have had better summers then.
My memory tells me that I spent the whole of the summer holidays there in the 70's in perfect sunshine.......maybe not quite like that in reality.
Spent hours queing for hot dogs and FAB ice lollies! I was not even a teenager for most of the time there but I do remember being totally obsessed by the older girls in their bikinis! WOW!!!
The one in Eltham Park just didn't compare to Danson.
We always spent all our money and so no bus fare and a long, hot walk back along the side of the A2 at teatime.....Happy days.
Great thread guys. Plumstead Baths - so many memories. They had a large and small pool as I recall Those gents toilets - you're right, they were freezing. Come on, how many will own up to taking a sneaky leak in the pool because they couldn't face it?
I remember dad taking us to 'family splash'. Individual changing cubicles where the curtain didn't completely cover the gap. Accidently dropping you pants in the wet patch when you were changing Smoky bacon crisps and scalding your tongue on hot bovril from the cafe. Walking back home to Abbey wood with mates, stopping off at Benares shop in Church Manorway for some spangles old english; or maybe the penny bubblegum machine with hollywood monster badges (Frankenstein, Dracula, Wolf man, the Mummy, The Creature from the Black Lagoon) School swimming galas.
I remember danson park lido as well. Too bloody cold for me!
Had my 5th birthday party in Danson Park, a sort of picnic with lots of fishpaste sarnies my mum made. Some rationing was still in force so it was a bit austere but we had a good time playing cricket. They had a large motor boat that took you for a couple of circuits round the lake. Got a photo of my mum and dad in the lido there in the '30s sitting by one of those large fountain things they had : my dad was told by an attendant that he was 'improperly dressed ' as the strap of his bathing suit had slipped 'off the shoulder'. Bit vague about Plumstead baths except for the hot Bovril as mentioned by Six, and one day going through the wrong door into the slipper baths: reminded of this everytime I watch the bath scene in 'Quadrophenia' . The AJS and Matchless motorcycle works was just down the road and they always had the new models lined up outside. There was also a cinema on the left (going towards Woolwich) whose name I can't remember, but I saw one of the first '3D' films there: 'The Charge at Feather River', a U.S Cavalry?Injuns affair. I kept taking my red/green glasses off and was off school the next day with a headache! Not many people know that.
Britain need more outdoor pools (where on earth did lido come from and what does it mean?)
Medders may attest to this, the one on the Medway right slap bang in the shittiest part of brown town Gillingham is quality! Last summer one of the best days where the temperature actually hit 25+ degrees me and a handful of others went over there had a swim in the fly infested pool and a layabout on the concrete then back to mine for a barbeque until the early hours.
For the time you are within the walls of that place you can sort of forget where you are in the world
What was the massive pool in Dartford called? I remember it had a loads of chutes, I think one dropped you about 6 feet at the end.
I remember when they built the waterfront as well, that was a great pool, especially the bit in the kids pool near the juquzzi where the warm water would over flow out on to you!
The Walnuts is another one for the lists of dumps, my mate once got threatened with a knife there back in the 90s, before teenage knife crime ever existed...
The pool in Dartford was Fantaseas.
The one with the big drop was called Kamikaze.
It was quality - think it closed due to subsidence or something.
The term lido comes from the name of the Lido on the sandy barrier beach that encloses the Lagoon of Venice, where sea-bathing took place from the later nineteenth century.
[cite]Posted By: MrOneLung[/cite]The pool in Dartford was Fantaseas.
it sank into the hill didnt it? went there when it opend was bloddy great but im sure somthing bad happend and it closed.
only really went to charlton lido as a kid, remeber trying to do an indiana jones type manuver along the side of the little water box that you were meant to wash your feet in before you enterd the pool, never walked through it as it also looked rough loads of old plasters etc.. never had a varuca ever so i must have had the right choice, saldy went to take my son there bout 4 years ago and there were massive gangs of kids hanging around outside was really intimatadting so went to the arches instead, have herd that that the lido is much better now so will try again this summer altho he now loves the splash park up at belverdere so he always wants to go there, its great he can run around around mum can watch whilst you nip into the pub oposite for a swift pint in the sun..
[cite]Posted By: MrOneLung[/cite]The pool in Dartford was Fantaseas.
it sank into the hill didnt it? went there when it opend was bloddy great but im sure somthing bad happend and it closed.
i think the company ran out of cash. The building has gone but you can still see the layout of the site there, i have run past it a few times.
I went a few times but it was amazingly expensive i seem to remember. Absolutely packed at weekends empty other times. Remember one weekday when my school was the only one to have a day off and virtually every kid had the same idea and ended up there.
Comments
My memory tells me that I spent the whole of the summer holidays there in the 70's in perfect sunshine.......maybe not quite like that in reality.
Spent hours queing for hot dogs and FAB ice lollies! I was not even a teenager for most of the time there but I do remember being totally obsessed by the older girls in their bikinis! WOW!!!
The one in Eltham Park just didn't compare to Danson.
We always spent all our money and so no bus fare and a long, hot walk back along the side of the A2 at teatime.....Happy days.
mind you was never Crayford in was Barnehurst.
Plumstead Baths - so many memories. They had a large and small pool as I recall
Those gents toilets - you're right, they were freezing.
Come on, how many will own up to taking a sneaky leak in the pool because they couldn't face it?
I remember dad taking us to 'family splash'.
Individual changing cubicles where the curtain didn't completely cover the gap.
Accidently dropping you pants in the wet patch when you were changing
Smoky bacon crisps and scalding your tongue on hot bovril from the cafe.
Walking back home to Abbey wood with mates, stopping off at Benares shop in Church Manorway for some spangles old english; or maybe the penny bubblegum machine with hollywood monster badges (Frankenstein, Dracula, Wolf man, the Mummy, The Creature from the Black Lagoon)
School swimming galas.
I remember danson park lido as well. Too bloody cold for me!
Bit vague about Plumstead baths except for the hot Bovril as mentioned by Six, and one day going through the wrong door into the slipper baths: reminded of this everytime I watch the bath scene in 'Quadrophenia' . The AJS and Matchless motorcycle works was just down the road and they always had the new models lined up outside. There was also a cinema on the left (going towards Woolwich) whose name I can't remember, but I saw one of the first '3D' films there: 'The Charge at Feather River', a U.S Cavalry?Injuns affair. I kept taking my red/green glasses off and was off school the next day with a headache! Not many people know that.
Medders may attest to this, the one on the Medway right slap bang in the shittiest part of brown town Gillingham is quality! Last summer one of the best days where the temperature actually hit 25+ degrees me and a handful of others went over there had a swim in the fly infested pool and a layabout on the concrete then back to mine for a barbeque until the early hours.
For the time you are within the walls of that place you can sort of forget where you are in the world
I remember when they built the waterfront as well, that was a great pool, especially the bit in the kids pool near the juquzzi where the warm water would over flow out on to you!
The Walnuts is another one for the lists of dumps, my mate once got threatened with a knife there back in the 90s, before teenage knife crime ever existed...
The one with the big drop was called Kamikaze.
It was quality - think it closed due to subsidence or something.
The term lido comes from the name of the Lido on the sandy barrier beach that encloses the Lagoon of Venice, where sea-bathing took place from the later nineteenth century.
it sank into the hill didnt it? went there when it opend was bloddy great but im sure somthing bad happend and it closed.
only really went to charlton lido as a kid, remeber trying to do an indiana jones type manuver along the side of the little water box that you were meant to wash your feet in before you enterd the pool, never walked through it as it also looked rough loads of old plasters etc.. never had a varuca ever so i must have had the right choice, saldy went to take my son there bout 4 years ago and there were massive gangs of kids hanging around outside was really intimatadting so went to the arches instead, have herd that that the lido is much better now so will try again this summer altho he now loves the splash park up at belverdere so he always wants to go there, its great he can run around around mum can watch whilst you nip into the pub oposite for a swift pint in the sun..
i think the company ran out of cash. The building has gone but you can still see the layout of the site there, i have run past it a few times.
I went a few times but it was amazingly expensive i seem to remember. Absolutely packed at weekends empty other times. Remember one weekday when my school was the only one to have a day off and virtually every kid had the same idea and ended up there.