As the commercial use of Sydney Harbour expanded westward
various swimming spots and baths were sacrificed for profit.
The most notorious tale of pool dismantling belongs to the
bathes that once graced the end of the Pyrmont Peninsula
Images
Bathing
at Pyrmont
There had been municipal baths at the end of Pyrmont Point
since 1875. In 1901 these plans were drawn up for their
improvement. The swimming basin was enlarged and deepened
and the smart shore building contained 85 dressing boxes,
showers, club rooms, refreshment rooms and a gym. Notice
the rock platform to which the building is anchored. The
pool was tidal, and the floor was sand. ‘You
could see the bottom, clear as you like. We used to catch
yabbies in that pool’. (City
of Sydney Archives, CRS 569/T1096)
The
point of Pyrmont
The 1902 Pyrmont Baths were a very important social meeting
place for amenity-starved residents of Pyrmont and Ultimo.
In 1906 the City Council decided to permit ‘Continental
bathing’ one evening a week. Men were only permitted
to come in if they were accompanying a lady. This became
a great social tradition, fondly remembered by some for
its romantic connections. (City of Sydney
Archives, Vade Mecum, 1916)
‘Wantonly
destroyed’
The Pyrmont Baths in decline. When the Sydney Harbour
Trust announced that the baths would have to be demolished
to make way for commercial wharfage, the residents put
up a fierce resistance. In 1929 the baths were severely
damaged and a police report found that local children
had wantonly destroyed the building. Local memory tells
a different story, of the authorities deliberately ramming
the structure to loosen its fabric and hasten its demise.
(City of Sydney Archives, CRS 34/1358/29)
End
of the road
This photo of the entrance to the Pyrmont Baths, taken
in 1929, looks like an end game image. But by this date,
the Great Depression had slowed maritime industrial expansion
and the government did not demolish the pool as threatened.
But neither would the Council pay for its upkeep. The
locals took over its administration, repaired the damage
and kept it going for another 17 years. (City
of Sydney Archives, CRS 34/1358/29(4))
