Copyright AGJ and Contributors 2004/08. Updated 30/3/2008
Kings Meadow Baths
Opened 1903
Reading
Not now a “Lost Lido!”
Grade II listed August 2004
UNDER THREAT - 2004
The Ladies Riverside
Bath (actually opened 1903! by the Mayoress Mrs Holland Bull on May 27thThe Ladies Open-air Bath just along the bank of the river, opened in 1903, purely for the ladies!
Many children were marched from school to learn to swim.
Once a year, the male swimmers were allowed in for the annual Inter-School Gala!
Closed to the public since 1974, the building remains, slowly decaying. The pool now serves a purpose accessible to the sub-aqua diving club.
The Men’s Bath also lived alongside the river Thames on Kings Meadow in Reading. This bath only admitted male bathers. Everyone said it was very cold and slippery. The bath was fed by the water from the river. Here is a quote about me from Mr. A C. from Reading,-1994
”The men’s open air bath was much bigger than the Ladies - King’s Meadow. Boys were tested here for swimming certificates. There was a covered part where one could leave one’s clothes, but no place for spectators, such as existed at the Ladies bath.
I used this with my son and his friend, a boy Sainsbury, the nephew of the Miss Sainsbury - headmistress of Palmer Junior School at one time, just after the war 1946-47...”
OUTCOME: Apartments now occupy the site of the Mens Bath.
The site of the Men’s Bath
