tommydazzle
Well-Known Member
Nostalgia and sadness seeing these images.
Cov baths (1 Viewer)
- Thread starter tommydazzle
- Start date
Terry_dactyl
Well-Known Member
What a brilliant vid. Thanks for posting.
I spent a ridiculous amount of time there as I used to swim for Cov…7-8 sessions a week. It’s amazing how many memories that brought back for me!
The old man (and me when I was old enough) used to play 5 aside in there on a Sunday morning…I used to use it as a warm up game before my Sunday League fixture!
Sometimes thered be people from the eclipse under the flyover, as we’d be getting in. Absolutely off their faces. Looked like great fun to 12/13 year old me!
chiefdave
Well-Known Member
Should never have been left to run down to the point it did. Then the old 'we can't afford to repair it' before spending far more than the cost of repairs on the 'replacement' that didn't have anywhere near the same level of facilities.
Remember someone ran the numbers at the time and the idea that it was too expensive to keep open was nonsense when you factored in the cost of both building a replacement and making use of the site.
Of course we've now reached the inevitable point where despite all the promises from the council and the listed status it now seems its going to be knocked down for redevelopment.
Remember someone ran the numbers at the time and the idea that it was too expensive to keep open was nonsense when you factored in the cost of both building a replacement and making use of the site.
Of course we've now reached the inevitable point where despite all the promises from the council and the listed status it now seems its going to be knocked down for redevelopment.
Terry_dactyl
Well-Known Member
The whole thing is a travesty but knocking down the ‘elephant building’ seems especially cruel/cold hearted.
What is it with Maton and being the figurehead for the council wanting to tear down/destroy Coventry’s institutions.
duffer
Well-Known Member
Ooh, I can answer that. It's because he's a c**t.
Terry_dactyl
Well-Known Member
Yeah, that’s what I assumed. Thanks for confirming.
Covkid1968#
Well-Known Member
Got all sorts of memories from good to stupid. Went off the 4th board once and once only (in later life I would tell people it was the 5th..but it wasn't).....perforated an ear drum!!! Also - on another time, I got made to stand outside in my speedo's as a very young lad due to an IRA bomb scare. I'm still not sure how I survived growing up in the 70's.
Captain Dart
Well-Known Member
The council seems totally inept at everything. Is there anything they do well?
chiefdave
Well-Known Member
Blocked me on twitter when I (politely I should add) asked how his suggestion for a new site for our stadium would work when they were already building houses on the site he said the club should buy
RegTheDonk
Well-Known Member
Remember on the news when it was going to be shut down. Good video but obviously a sad subject.
When did they put the big slides in the smaller pool? Not seen them before (though last time I was there was probalby late 70s when I still lived in Cov). I've visited family in Radford and taken the grandkids to the "Wave" but seems a bit daft that was built instead of re-vamping and utilising the old place.
When did they put the big slides in the smaller pool? Not seen them before (though last time I was there was probalby late 70s when I still lived in Cov). I've visited family in Radford and taken the grandkids to the "Wave" but seems a bit daft that was built instead of re-vamping and utilising the old place.
Terry_dactyl
Well-Known Member
Yeah, I’m not sure I knew the slides were there either. We used to call that ‘the training pool’.
I forgot just how massive it all was. It was pretty eerie in parts at the best of times, let alone it’s been abandoned!
Im not sure I ever saw the bowling green bit. It looked like it was still in good nick.
It’s such a shame that it was allowed to descend into ruin.
Marty
Well-Known Member
I used to play up there in the 5 a side on Friday and Sunday evenings. Was a decent league too, half decent standard and no knob heads wanting to fight every 5 mins.
I think they redone the smaller of the pools with the slides around 2000. It had a lazy river type thing going on with it too down one side of the pool. A few of us from school used to go up there Saturday mornings and get a fishy moors after.
Such a shame they've left it to get like this and I bet it costs us an absolute fortune to keep running too, even in this state.
I think they redone the smaller of the pools with the slides around 2000. It had a lazy river type thing going on with it too down one side of the pool. A few of us from school used to go up there Saturday mornings and get a fishy moors after.
Such a shame they've left it to get like this and I bet it costs us an absolute fortune to keep running too, even in this state.
Gynnsthetonic
Well-Known Member
Myself getting the bus after school to go on the diving boards, my kids also loved it up there too daring to jump then dive off 3rd board. We must have the worst run council in the country
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Gynnsthetonic
Well-Known Member
Terry_dactyl
Well-Known Member
Probably only average. There was a story on wales online (as terrible as the Cov Tel site) a year or so ago, showing all the buildings that Cardiff council have allowed to be knocked down over the years. Pretty shameful.
Still, on the plus side, I imagine someone makes lot of money out of it all. Yay!
no_loyalty
Well-Known Member
Watched the video a few days ago, very sad to see as it brought back memories from the summer school holidays in the late eighties and early nineties. I spent whole days there and especially loved the diving boards, dived off all of them. No doubt when they eventually knock it down it will be turned into more student accommodation. I agree that Maton is a complete c**t and has done nothing but harm to this great city.
Briles
Well-Known Member
Loved going there as a kid with my brother and the old man. He'd sit in the jacuzzi whilst we sneaked round behind him and splashed him with cold water. The water slide digging into your back where it wasnt joined properly. Following the footsteps for jungle junction. Brings it all back. Ill be sure to save the video.
Sky_Blue_Dreamer
Well-Known Member
With that level of water I might finally be able to pick up that brick from the bottom in my jim-jams!
This has also brought to mind a weird dream I used to have. Basically I'd be on the diving boards and look down and there'd be a massive great white shark swimming around in the diving pool area. It never went into the main pool bit with people swimming and kids splashing around - just ominously circling the depths of the diving pool area.
This has also brought to mind a weird dream I used to have. Basically I'd be on the diving boards and look down and there'd be a massive great white shark swimming around in the diving pool area. It never went into the main pool bit with people swimming and kids splashing around - just ominously circling the depths of the diving pool area.
Terry_dactyl
Well-Known Member
I think that means you’re going to come into some money!
Those diving boards were fucking scary. Third was the highest I went. However, if anyone asks in real life, I went off 5th and killed that fucking shark!
itsabuzzard
Well-Known Member
Learned to swim there and got my lifesaving badges - pyjamas and rubber bricks 
Only managed the third board and stood in awe gaping at the lunatics hurling themselves off the top. I swear someone did the top board on a scooter (not a Lambretta).
Only managed the third board and stood in awe gaping at the lunatics hurling themselves off the top. I swear someone did the top board on a scooter (not a Lambretta).
fernandopartridge
Well-Known Member
It was about 1994 they opened the splash pool, I remember going with friends from primary school and doing the same ritual. Fishy moors after and then a look around Shambles.
DT-R
Well-Known Member
Is it just me that looked at that gym floor and thought how much theyd love to pull some up and clean it up and put it in their kitchen? 
Also, the splash pool, slide, and rapids all seemed a lot bigger when I was younger. Looked very small in that video.
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Also, the splash pool, slide, and rapids all seemed a lot bigger when I was younger. Looked very small in that video.
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ccfctommy
Well-Known Member
The days of student accommodation blocks being built are probably long gone.
DT-R
Well-Known Member
The problem for such a long time has been the red tape around listed buildings. People have bought old run-down churches, pubs, school houses, etc. to do them up, only to be hit with so much red tape they can't actually do anything to them. So rather than let people revive old buildings, they've just gone to ruin. They either need to make it more accessible and easier to get planning permission to renovate, or they'll just continue to ruin to a point of knocking them down.
My in-laws bought an old thatched cottage in Worcestershire years ago to do up and live in. They needed permission just to paint the kitchen, and even then, they had a choice of 1 colour the council would agree to. It ended up taking them years to do up, and so many requests, refusals, and disputes.
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Mcbean
Well-Known Member
It’s a Labour council ?
What's that building going up opposite the baths then? I'd just assumed it was student accommodation.
Captain Dart
Well-Known Member
Isn't something going up on the lot between Pool Meadow and the CODE student accommodation.
Yeah, that's where I meant. Tbf It's nearly opposite the baths! looked about 8 stories high when I last went by a couple of months ago.
Captain Dart
Well-Known Member
On Coventry Planning Portal. It is Phase II of the CODE student accommodation with some retail. Looks like Gala Bingo are diversifying. I don't think there will be a bingo hall in the plans.
SkyBlueCharlie9
Well-Known Member
My team deal with listed buildings. Red tape is a fallacy. Yes you need to design alterations carefully, its more expensive as need to apply for LB consent for a lot of works to fabric, but a good heritage architect will sort that out easily and painlessly. Not saying your folks D-T-R, but amount of people that buy listed buildings and have no idea what they are doing, then fcuk them up with shoddy architects and builders is considerable (unauthorised works can be criminal offence). People dont do research before buying listed buildings sadly, and the mess it created then wastes local government time and resources.
That said some Local Authority Corporate regeneration teams and housing, dont understand value of large scale urban listed buildings. The buildings become neglected and often want to demolish heritage for the sake of it as part of bigger plans and viability concerns. My starting point is always to try and blend the old with the new. Cov cathedral old and new is a good example.
Sky_Blue_Dreamer
Well-Known Member
I think the point was largely the expense. Part of that is needing specialist architects and needing to meet with planning officers more often to make sure what is being done is acceptable. Then there's the fact that so many things require planning permission that don't in non-listed properties, which takes time and money. Then often requiring certain materials which are more expensive. Then running costs are a factor as you can't bring in more modern, efficient technologies (such as glazing etc.)
There's so many listed buildings and there's only so many people that can afford to make the alterations/upkeep as required by the listings. So inevitably they go to ruin. The regulations are adding in massive costs that are far too burdensome for the vast majority of people (and even organisations) to cope with.
I also find it funny that people say that old manor houses etc. can't be changed, when those families would have spent fortunes making sure those properties were the height of fashion and modernity as proof they had the money to keep it up to date and afford the latest technologies.
fernandopartridge
Well-Known Member
Looking at the signage etc I'm not sure that's right, I think that they might have been part of the original design of the sports centre but got disused over time. Worth remembering in the 60s a lot of houses still didn't have a proper bathroom or inside toilet!
Ccfc_Addy
Well-Known Member
Wow, this is really sad to see. I was a basketball nut when we moved back to the UK in 1997, we used to watch the Coventry Crusaders there and I was a part of their training programme. Was the only place locally that had a waterslide, too