New student space

City’s historic pool becomes social space for journalism students

It used to be the home of toned swimmers thrashing up and down a 30 metre pool, training for the 1908 Olympics. Fast forward 115 years and room AG19 in the College building has become a new social space for journalism students.

Cutting the ribbon at the pool’s opening event on 9 February was City journalism alumna and founding editor of gal-dem Charlie Brinkhurst-Cuff, who was “happy to be back at City”.

“When I was here in 2015, we used to congregate in the corridor because there was no common room,” Brinkhurst-Cuff said. “You didn’t really meet other people from different parts of the building.”

The original pool was the only local public swimming pool between WW1 and WW2. In the 1920s, the roof began to slowly collapse above the swimmers, due to high condensation and rising chlorine gases.

Once an open air swimming pool, it was subsequently used as an ammunition storage facility - surviving a German bomb in the second world war..

It was eventually forced to close in 1998, when fallen roof glazing led to its demise. Though the university considered investing £500,000 into remedial works, a fre in the building in 2001 dissuaded them.