By Monica Jones
All year long , come rain, shine and snow, you will hear the sounds of happy swimmers taking the plunge at the Hampton Pool. I par-ticularly love walking down Dukes Passage on my way in to Bushy Park and seeing the steam rising off the pool on a winters morn-ing. It is quite unusual to find an outdoor pool in the UK these days, although I have (mixed) memories of learning to swim in the local outdoor pool, unheated, when I was a child. The Urban District Council of Hampton origi-nally opened Hampton Pool in 1922 and suc-cessive local authorities managed it until it was temporarily closed after the summer sea-son of 1980. For 4 years after the closure, the pool became a fly tippers paradise and the council announced it would permanently close it and return it to parkland. Step in the Sink or Swim campaign where, what is now the Hampton Pool Trust, took on the council and proved beyond doubt how much local support there was for the pool, raising £25,000, largely down to the inspiring John Boyle, who rallied an army of fund collectors. The council admitted it had been wrong and added £20,000 to the fund and the future of the pool was decided. It has not always been plain sailing (excuse the pun) and further fund raising in the form of the Splash for Cash.
Fast forward several decades and the Hamp-ton Pool is looking to celebrate its 100th anni-versary with a series of popular pool side con-certs, as well as concerts at the Hammond Theatre down the road. Your editor very much enjoyed the Illegal Eagles there recent-ly, one of the early celebratory gigs. Fund raising is still very much the order of the day and the summer concerts do a lot to sup-port the finances of the pool. The decision to allow development of the building itself, add-ing an undercover viewing facility and im-proved changing rooms, was received in Feb-ruary this year. It is a huge undertaking. But the pandemic did a lot to introduce new mem-bers to the pool, when outdoor activity was allowed. It is a fantastic facility that needs cherishing for future generations.
Hampton Pool is a registered charity and run as a not for profit company. If you want to do your bit (and can’t get tickets for their excel-lent concerts) you can donate on JustGiving under ‘supporthamptonpool’.
Find out more about the pool and the summer concerts at www.hamptonpooltrust.org.uk www.thehammondtheatre.co.uk/whatson