Situated on Skircoat Road, Halifax, the 1960s swimming pool building has been seen on television screens doubling as a police station in the last series of the hit BBC TV drama Happy Valley.
The old Halifax swimming pool dates from the 1960s. It closed during the Covid pandemic and was earmarked for demolition. A multi-million-pound pool and leisure centre was planned for the site of an existing sports complex at North Bridge, Halifax. However, with escalating building costs pushing the project into uncertain financial territory, the council had to pause the new North Bridge Leisure Centre project.
The council said the more than 50-year-old Skircoat Road site had been host to numerous maintenance problems and system failures, requiring continual repairs over many years to allow it to continue in operation until its actual closure during the pandemic.
Stunning Barden mural remains in place
Over the years, I have tried numerous times to gain access to this large, beautiful building, but each time I came back disappointed. Recently, I received a tip that entry was possible through a smashed window that vandals had broken. As I climbed through the window, I was greeted by a massive room with empty swimming pools, diving boards, and a seating stand with the capacity to fit over 100 people. The mosaic on the wall, a mid-1960s ceramic mural titled British Pond Life by Kenneth Barden, strikes you as soon as you enter. It’s a stunning piece of artwork whose fate remains uncertain.
As I started to walk around the main room, I saw a large amount of fly-tipping debris in the empty pools, smashed glass windows, and some graffiti. It was very eerie walking around; I could just picture all the happy families over the years bringing their children for swimming lessons or just enjoying a nice day out at the local leisure centre.
Evidence of works abandoned
Walking around the further reaches of the building inside, I came across the old changing rooms, which had been dismantled. The lockers, toilets, etc had all been placed in one room. It looked like this had been done professionally, because there were leftover construction gloves and helmets. Why did they start work on the building and then leave it?
Moving further down the corridor, I came to what would have been a gym. I saw a sad gym machine sitting by itself, crying to either be used again or dismantled. The gym room had holes in the ceilings and smashed mirrors as far as the eye could see.
Last but not least, I came to the reception area, in a dimly lit hall with sunlight just coming through. People would have been queuing out the door for a swim in these hot summer months. Now, there’s just water dripping from the ceiling onto the desk where a receptionist would have greeted swimmers with a smile, day after day, year after year.
It’s very sad to see a local building like this, which anyone could have benefited from, just sitting there with vandals frequently coming in to leave their mark. I hope that Calderdale Council comes up with a plan to restore the building into something that everyone can once again enjoy.
Editorial note: Yorkshire Bylines is grateful to UrbanEdge for highlighting the plight of this building but does not encourage urban exploration that may be in breach of the law.
