‘By the side of the silvery sea’: The
Prince of Wales Swimming Baths.
The lyrics to one of Britain’s most popular music hall
songs proclaim that Victorians and Edwardians of all social-classes aspired to
‘spend their summer's holiday, down
beside the side of the silvery sea.’ This paper examines the consumption
of Ornamental Swimming as a popular form of entertainment for Victorian
holiday-makers to Lancashire’s premier seaside holiday-resort of Blackpool.
Billed as the ‘The Greatest Swimming Show
in the Universe’, the privately-owned Prince of Wales Swimming Baths
entertained its customers for sixteen summer seasons from 1881-1896. The baths was a significant addition to the
resorts attractions and totally in keeping with the towns mission to cater for their
visitors ‘health, pleasure and recreation’. The very existence of such a
facility reflected the expanding variety of specialist acts displaying their
aquatic sporting prowess within the world of popular entertainment. All of the
nation’s champion swimmers of the period had exhibited at the baths during
their professional careers, performing aquatic feats to audiences who had an
insatiable appetite to be entertained by both risky and risqué performances.
1. Why did the Baths command such a prominent position amongst Blackpool’s numerous pleasure palaces? It was built in 1881 between the North Pier (1863) and the Central Pier (1868). A consortium of Preston businessmen had decided to build the baths to add to the hotel and variety theatre they already owned on that same block of land. The baths provision was most certainly a financial venture.
3. What role had the baths and washhouses movement assumed in the life of Lancashire’s mill-town workers during this period? The provision of Baths and Washhouses by local authorities’ circa-1880 was growing apace within Lancashire. For every swimming baths there existed at least one swimming club.
4. To what extent had the ‘art of swimming’ become a form of entertainment? Swimming clubs were compelled to not only provide races at their galas that were ‘open’ for professionals to compete in but to also provide other entertainments for the spectators. An exhibition of ornamental swimming allowed the professional swimmers to be paid for the exhibition rather than for the open race. The swimming club galas proved to be of great financial benefit to both the club and the local Corporation.
5. How important was ‘ornamental swimming’ in the struggle for emancipation of working-class females? The popularity of young female ornamental swimmers guaranteed its status as did the dangerous and often mystical nature of their performances at a time when most people could not swim.
The tableau’s that adorned the promenade entrance to the Prince of Wales Baths are clearly designed to entice the passer-by into the Baths where they were assured to have ‘Fun’. Segregation was not based upon being ‘Male’ or ‘Female’; neither was it a question of being a 1st, 2nd or even 3rd class bather. The allegorical messages contained within the semiotic images ‘hint’ of risky and risqué performances by females in ‘official costumes’. The subliminal messages are cleverly aimed at a predominantly working-class clientele largely from the industrial heartland of Lancashire. A visit to a ‘water show’ produced an eclectic mix of customers for a whole variety of reasons; perhaps the dangerous feats performed, or the predominance of scantily clad female natationists or even the cost of yet another form of variety entertainment at the seaside – all for just 6d. Whilst the tableau’s were effective in drawing-in the ‘punters’ on the promenade in 1888 a seller of photographs of ‘actresses’ was being arrested by the police on Bank-Hey Street, which runs parallel to the promenade and also offered a second entrance to the Baths. This was by no means an isolated incident and serves to illustrate a stark difference in Victorian attitudes towards the amount of flesh that could be revealed by female performers before offending public decency.
A police officer had considered that some of the pictures on sale by the hawker were indecent and ‘not fit to be exhibited in the public street’. The measure of moral decency appears to be based upon the fact that there were no photographs of statues. It was the officers considered opinion that the pictures were ‘improper and would tend to injure the morals of the people’. The court found the defendant guilty with the option of paying a 40-shillings fine or 28 days in prison. The defendant did ask the court if the Chief Constable could tell him in future which photographs he may sell and the Chief Constable promised to do so. The tableaus on display at the Baths Promenade entrance were to stay in place until the baths closed in 1896.
This photograph is a visual testimony to a specific moment in time and place that provides the observer with the potential to interpret the consumption of Ornamental Swimming as a popular form of entertainment in Blackpool. The Prince of Wales Baths provides the context for the historiography of swimming as established in the new leisure world and the role of the leisure entrepreneur in satisfying the insatiable appetite of Lancashire’s Lads and Lassies to be entertained. The tableaus provide an opportunity to debate the role of female natationists in an activity that provided the spectator with a curious mix of physically demanding feats performed by those prepared to expose their bodies in a way that sat on that most delicate of see-saws called Victorian respectability.
Billed as the ‘The Greatest Swimming Show in the Universe’, the privately-owned Prince of Wales Baths entertained its customers for sixteen summer seasons from 1881-1896. The baths was a significant addition to the resorts attractions and was totally in keeping with the towns mission to cater for their visitors ‘health, pleasure and recreation’. The growth of Public Baths and Washhouses within Lancashire’s hinterland from 1870 onwards had ensured that the typical visitor to Blackpool now had a general knowledge of ornamental swimming as experienced at their local baths and variety theatres. Blackpool attempted to give their visitors what they were used to at home, but only bigger and better!
At the Prince of Wales Baths the spectator was treated to a ‘water show’ designed to intoxicate the customer with daring and dangerous aquatic feats performed by some of the nation’s best exponents of ornamental swimming. All of the countries ‘champion swimmers’ from 1881-1896 had performed at ‘The Sight of Blackpool’. The baths had the facilities commonly found in most public baths in Lancashire: a large swimming pool for males, a smaller pool for females, private slipper baths and a Turkish bath. However, that was where the similarities ended as the baths was predominantly for water shows; when the season was in full swing opportunities for public swimming reduced as the number of daily performances increased.
The leading aquatic entertainers who ‘topped-the-bill’ were made up of a small group of elite performers who were variously described in the publicity material as:
‘The champion of champions’ (Joey Nuttall);
‘The champion all-round swimmer of the world’ (Professor James Finney);
‘The heroine of London Bridge’ (Mary Finney);
‘The champion lady swimmers of the world (The Sisters Johnson);
‘The greatest scientific and ornamental lady swimmer in the Universe’ (Miss Hermione)
The common denominator was that they had stood at the head of their profession as competitive speed or long-distance swimmers and had moved into ornamental swimming as a means of earning a steady but lucrative living. This was of particular significance to the working-class female performers as it provided them with an income of their own whilst also providing positive role models for other females to follow.
He swims under
water, with both feet and hands tied, the whole length of the bath. He swims
with both feet out of the water. He swims like a fish, like a crab, dives,
swims, and revolves like a seal, swims on one side, without the use of his
arms, remains under water until you think he will never come up again, and in a
word, performs such marvellous feats as “must be seen to be believed”.
Accompanying Professor Finney was Miss Blanche Hermione, who is lauded for her performance thus:
There is
nothing this young lady cannot do in the water, she is, without exception the
most accomplished lady swimmer I have ever seen, and when I tell you that her
feats cover a wide range, from waltzing in the water, to diving head first into
it from the balcony above, you will be able to form some conception of Miss
Hermione’s ability.
The entertainment is then brought to
an end with an ‘Aquatic Derby’, which Nemo declares to be ‘the most
side-splitting farce ever seen in a bath.’ The pantomime is described as
involving four ‘hobby horses’ that had been named after prominent politicians
of the day: Gladstone, Salisbury, Chamberlain and Parnell. The jockeys of such steeds attempt to race
across the bath but invariably fall off on numerous occasions due to the
instability of their horses and because of the inevitable collisions that occur
in such a confined space. We are assured that such happenings ‘cause the race
to be one of excitement as well as of extreme merriment.’
The success of the aquatic farce as
a finale to the entertainment was subsequently developed into a series of
pantomimes whose themes would be changed each season by the shows proprietor,
Mr William Henry Broadhead. The water
pantomime was variously called ‘an aquatic
farce’ or ‘a laughable burlesque’ with such titles as:1. On the Ship Canal.
2. The Warriors Adventures.
3. McGinty Among the Cannibals.
4. A Swim for a Wife.
Nemo concludes his description with a comment on the show’s propriety by assuring his readers that:
… all the
swimmers are attired in beautiful costumes, which are the pink of modesty, you
will see how well this amusing and instructive entertainment is adapted for
ladies and children, as well as for the up-grown sterner sex. To recommend such
an institution is a pleasure.
The
dangerous nature of some of the performances can be illustrated by a fatal
accident that occurred in 1888. On Monday, July 16, the trapeze artist, William
Walker of Hulme in Manchester, better known as ‘Bravo’ had a fall during a
practice session at the baths. Fellow professional gymnast, ‘Voltyne’, real name Edwin Bent, said that
they were performing on the triple aerial horizontal bars and flying trapeze
during the rehearsal when, attempting a double somersault Walker landed on his
head in the safety net and broke his neck.
The
account of the accident to the Coroner by Voltyne and his subsequent actions
require no further comment from me:
He [Bravo]
turned once and a half round instead of twice, which brought him on his head. I
heard him make a noise, and immediately ran into the net. He had turned over on
his back and I put my feet against his shoulders and pulled his head. I heard a
crack, which I think was behind the neck. His chin was upon his chest. Before I
pulled his head back he appeared to be chocking.
The jury returned a verdict of ‘accidental death’.
By
1894 the popularity of ornamental swimming was waning as a form of
entertainment. As audiences became all too familiar with the art of swimming so
its ability to entertain diminished. This was further complicated by the
opening of the Blackpool Tower Aquatic
and Variety Circus on the next block to the Baths. By 1896 most of the
elite performers were appearing at both venues on short-term contracts. From
the 1897 season The Tower Circus dominated the provision of water shows in
Blackpool but only as a finale to the circus performances. The use of The Tower’s water tank continues to the
present day.
At
the end of the 1896 season the Prince of Wales Baths closed its doors for the
very last time. The site was bought by the Blackpool Tower Company who
demolished it in 1897 to make way for the Palace Theatre. Thus, sounded the
death-knell of ornamental swimming as an art form in Blackpool, the ‘Brighton
of the North’. Most of the elite performers had used the Baths as a focal point
for their activities as variety act performers; they would venture forth to
perform as speed or distance swimmers in exhibition or challenge races
throughout the country and even in Europe and North America. The discipline of
ornamental swimming was essentially a family affair that could be exhibited
both at local swimming galas and on the variety theatre stage. Just as the new
leisure world provided an opportunity for the art of swimming to flourish and
grow so did the efforts of the Amateur Swimming Association eventually cut off
its life-blood within the nation’s local swimming clubs. 
