I also remember the Guilford Crescent swimming pool. The Baptists used to hire it every Wednesday night for the whole evening; it just goes to show really how big the Sunday schools were. There was Selwyn Davis from Ormsdale Street and Carol Collin's father. They used to be the two men who would teach the swimming. You would just go along and pay you 6p and that would be your entrance fee. The bus fair was a penny then, in the early 50's, we would save the bus fair and walk up to the swimming pool then after we would rush out to the bakers shop for bread pudding on the corner of Bridge Street. They used to come on a great big wooden tray and you would get a huge piece of pudding for 1p.
You did actually have to be pretty rich to own a pair of bathers in those days. Most of us hired a pair and they were all one size. You would put them on and tie up the string on either side. That was the done thing- they would only allow those in the men's baths because they would show too much!