Building the Municipal Bathing Pool at Hastings, Sussex
THE design and construction of a large bathing pool, with covered promenades, diving stages, sunbathing decks and a restaurant, is a considerable feat of engineering and one which gives great scope to the worker in reinforced concrete. The accompanying illustrations show several aspects of the building of the municipal bathing pool at Hastings, Sussex, which is one of the largest and most up-to-date pools in Great Britain.
THE DIVING TOWER and covered promenade (left) nearing completion. The covered promenade on the left of the tower is 446 feet long and 30 feet wide; its roof, which is surfaced with asphalt, forms an open deck with the sea on one side and the pool on the other. The tower had a total height of 48 feet from the bottom of the pool; its lower 19-feet section is a plain reinforced concrete shaft, and the upper part carries a flight of steps and the diving platforms. The ingenious method of construction is seen in the two illustrations below.
BUILDING THE DIVING TOWER. The steel skeleton reinforcement was first placed in position. Hollow concrete shells, weighing about five tons, were cast on the ground and then lifted by a derrick crane, threaded over the reinforcement, dropped into position and filled with concrete. The illustration on the left shows a shell in position; that above shows another shell being threaded on to the skeleton. The shells were of uniform design. Each consisted of the outer skin of the tower, 3 in thick, with one flight of stairs, and each shell had either a landing or provision for a diving stage.
AN AERIAL VIEW OF THE HASTINGS BATHING POOL during the early stages of the constructional work. The upper promenade encircles the pool and is formed by the roofs of the entrance block, the covered promenade on the sea side, the cafe and the back platform of the grand stand. In front of the diving tower the floor of the pool is 15 feet below the water level; along the central band it rises from 6 feet to 3 ft 6 in at either end. The diving basin and the central deep band are provided with under-water lighting. The Borough Engineer was responsible for the entire design. The pool cost £80,000 to build.
POURING THE CONCRETE (above) with the top diving platform in position on the tower. The finished pool (right) is 330 feet long and 90 feet wide, with a maximum depth of 15 feet. Its capacity is 865,000 gallons of water, which is circulated and filtered every 7½ hours. Water is drawn from the bottom of the diving pit and run to the filter house, where it is chemically treated. It is then delivered to gravity-type sand filters, from which it flows to a common main and a controlling chamber. The filtered water, after aeration, re-enters the pool at the shallow end.
