EIGHTY-five years ago, Bournemouth council spent the hefty sum of £40,000 building the Northwood Estate Swimming Baths.

These were the days when many homes had no running water, so the new building also offered the chance to have a hot bath for sixpence.

Since then, the building has survived bombing, fire, changing public fashions and at least one serious threat of closure. Today, as Stokewood Leisure Centre, it can point to rising user numbers and a loyal community of customers.

Bournemouth already had municipal baths at the Pier Approach when it decided to open a new building off Stokewood Road.

Whereas the Pier Approach baths used seawater, the new pool was filled with fresh water. Its heating came from the borough incinerator, located in an adjoining building.

Its pool was 75ft by 36ft and contained 100,000 gallons of water. A brochure at the time noted: “The whole of the contents of the Bath is changed once every four hours, the water being in continual circulation.”

There were 50 wooden cubicles for changing and a tiered balcony for spectators.

Sixpence would buy you a bath in hot, fresh water, with towel and soap included. The charge went up another sixpence if you wanted seawater.

Built by Hawkin Bros of Wallisdown, the building opened on July 12, 1930, with a civic welcome followed a Grand Swimming Gala in the evening.

In the winter, the pool was to be covered by a sprung wooden floor to turn it into a dance hall. The space could also be used for indoor bowls and bowling, and later on, it would even host boxing matches. A putting green was added in front of the baths in 1936.

In 1939, the baths were closed to the public with the outbreak of World War II.

The building was protected with sandbags and blast-proof doors and became an emergency first aid and gas decontamination centre.

It re-opened to the public in the summer of 1940, but on two days each week, it was set aside for the use of servicemen.

By 1942, the large first floor refreshment and club room had become a designated rest centre for air raid victims.

Along with several other local buildings, it was a place people could come for food, clothes, shelter and help with billets when their homes were damaged or destroyed. Meanwhile, the water in the pool was used as an emergency supply for the local fire brigade.

On November 1, 1943, two German planes bombed Charminster. One bomb hit the junction of Gerald and Heron Court roads, causing shock waves which shook the pool building. The baths remained intact, despite 700 nearby homes being damaged, one person killed and around 30 injured.

In peacetime, the baths continued to be popular.

Harry Butler became engineer in charge of Stokewood in 1947. “Then followed much hard work, including emptying the pool at the end of September and fitting a complete sprung dance floor within the pool area,” he said later.

By the mid-1950s, the council realised that swimming was popular enough for the pool to be open all year round. In 1957, that meant an end to the Saturday dances at Stokewood, making Bournemouth Indoor Bowling Club homeless.

In April 1967, fire broke out in the building. Harry Butler, by now deputy manager at the Pier Approach baths, lived behind Stokewood and saw steam and rushed over.

“Dashing to the front entrance hall, it all worsened and attempting to look into the pool area was like looking into the blackest of nights,” he recalled.

The fire brigade arrived to find the building smoke-logged. Crews used water from the swimming pool as well as local hydrants to put out the blaze.

The council and its contractor, W Hayward & Sons, spent the next year not only refurbishing the baths but modernising them at a cost of £62,000.

The men’s slipper baths were turned into changing accommodation. A new annexe was built for ladies’ changing. Changing cubicles and timber balconies were removed from the bath hall, releasing space for ‘pre-cleansing’ and modern toilets. New heating and ventilation were installed.

The whole project cost around £62,000.

The refurbished centre stayed open throughout the energy crisis of 1974, when the Pier Approach and Kinson baths were shut. But it was threatened in 1987, when the building of the Littledown Centre raised the question of whether a smaller pool was still needed.

A campaign – including a 4,000-signature petition from Bournemouth Disabled Swimmers Club – kept Stokewood open and even prompted a £400,000 refurbishment.

And in 1995, Vanessa Bolwell, a student at the Bournemouth and Poole College of Arts and Design, was chosen to produce murals depicting the changing times and fashions for each decade since the pool’s opening.

As well as swimming, the centre today offers sunbeds, aerobics, martial arts, boxing and a fully equipped gym.

A chat with users of the over-50s swimming sessions reveals their affection for the place,

Miriam Martin, of Queens Park, said: “I learned to swim here when I lived around the corner. I was about 8-10, about 55 years ago.

“It’s nice to be here again. The staff are brilliant.”

John Thompson, now of Westbourne but originally from near Darlington, discovered Stokewood in 1961, when he was with the Army in Bovington.

“I used to come here on Wednesday nights training with Bournemouth Dolphins,” he said.

“I moved down here eight years ago and when I came back, I couldn’t believe it was the same building. I thought it would have been knocked down.”

Manager John Davies said the centre enjoys a strong bond with its users, who see it as part of their community.

“They’ve got such an affection for it,” he said.