Endowments; Public baths; Recreation centers--Finance; Forfar (Scotland); Carnegie Baths (Forfar, Scotland); Lowson, James A.
Format
correspondence
Genre
Business correspondence
Origin Information
1909
Physical Description
microfilm, 16 mm, b&w
digitized microfilm
Note (Reel no.)
Reel 85
Note
PDF may contain multiple grant documents.
James A. Lowson; Forfar, Scotland
Eighteen months after its closure and replacement with a six-lane, state-of-the-art pool at Forfar’s £39million community campus, the distinctive sandstone building which housed the town baths for more than a century has finally been declared surplus to local authority requirements... Gifted to the town by Fife philanthropist Andrew Carnegie, Forfar’s four-lane Victorian baths were built on a site donated by the town’s Don Brothers textile firm. Steel magnate Carnegie himself attended the official opening of the pool, where generations of locals learned to swim over its 107 year of service to the town." [SOURCE: Brown, Graham. "Old Forfar baths to be offered for sale." The Courier, 1 Sep. 2018, https://www.thecourier.co.uk/fp/news/local/angus-mearns/715790/old-forfar-baths-to-be-offered-for-sale. Accessed 11 Oct. 2018.] "The existing Baths, familiar to most of us, were gifted by Andrew Carnegie and built on ground gifted by Don... At one time in the 1940s you went to the Baths with a towel, costume and a penny and could stay in all day; there were no sessions and you came out looking like a prune. During the evening period there were so many people in that you could not find a space to dive; the numbers must have been totally illegal and unsafe. As well as the swimming pool the baths had slipper baths, about six I think, and they were real baths; a six foot man could stretch out in one and totally immerse himself. The laundry upstairs catered for the drying of clothes for the public at a very modest charge, and this was much appreciated in the winter months when the drying of clothes outside was impossible. Prams, sledges, boggies could be seen heading to and from the Baths laden with washing. The boilers were fired with solid fuel that had to be shovelled forward and into the boiler, and of course all the ash removed and placed in bins. The Baths’ staff did all kinds of repairs to filters, motors, steam and water plant, and the addition of chemicals such as soda and alum. Also, the heavy chlorine gas cylinders had to be manhandled in and out of the premises. The usual hosing down of pool sides, showers, stripping boxes and all other chores associated with the running of the establishment were efficiently carried out and the pool always had a good reputation for being clean. Staffing was not a problem as the three of them were too busy to have any problems. The facilities of the Baths were made available to club members during training sessions in return for cleaning the scum edge round the pool, shovelling coal forward, emptying ash into bins, hosing down etc., all considered good fun - and the treat was a hot slipper bath." [SOURCE: Forfar & District Historical Society. "Club History." Forfar Amateur Swimming Club, 6 May 2004, http://www.forfarasc.co.uk/about/club-history. Accessed 11 Oct. 2018.] "At the centre of the events during the Hong Kong epidemic was a 28-year-old Scottish doctor, James Alfred Lowson. As acting superintendent of the Civil Hospital, he diagnosed the first cases and was responsible for cooperation with the investigating teams. Lowson was born on July 1, 1866, in Forfar, Scotland, graduated from Edinburgh University in 1888, and soon after left for Hong Kong." [SOURCE: Solomon, Tom, FRCP. "Hong Kong, 1894: the role of James A Lowson in the controversial discovery of the plague bacillus." The Lancet, vol. 350, no. 9070, 5 Jul. 1997, pp. 59, https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(97)01438-4. Accessed 11 Oct. 2018.]
Language
English
Library Location
Rare Book & Manuscript Library, Columbia University