Bermondsey Baths, Spa Road.
The picture taken from the Forum shows the original Bermondsey Bathhouse and Swimming Pools on the corner of Spa Road and Neckinger - which was replaced by the Grange Road Baths in 1927.
The original Baths and Washhouse opened in 1854 and cost the sum of £16,500. In 1879 the typical admittance cost was Hot Bath 6d amd 3d, Tepid Water 4d and 2d, while a Cold Water could be had at 3d and 1d. The Bath was open Monday, Wednesday and Friday for Normal Swimming and on Tuesday and Thursday it was for First Class Swimming only.
We can see from the Bermondsey Swimming Association of 1904 that the Baths were used by the local schools - do you recognise any of the names of the participants from the 1904 Swimming Gala?
When the New Baths opened in 1927, the Old Baths were demolished and as we can see from the old aerial photo, with the building demolished, and later a new council administration building was built in its place - in the picture we can see the boiler house chimney is still standing at this time.
If we look again at the picture from the Forum we will see tram lines in Spa Road, in fact the trams did run through Spa Road from the line that served Grange Road and Southwark Park Road. The 1914 map shows the horse trams still running in Grange Road but the service in Spa Road had stopped by this time, originally the service ran through Spa Road to serve Spa Road Station, turning left at Thurland Road to join the line again at Jamaica Road, no doubt with the closure of Spa Road Station it became uneconomic to run the service.
- Bermondsey Baths - Spa Road