Bruce Downie on the History of the Govanhill Baths

Greater Govanhill interviewed writer and historian Bruce Downie, who has recently published a book on the history of the Govanhill Baths.

Photo: Becky Duncan

Interview by Sam Doak

Your book is coming out at a time in which many Glaswegians are concerned about the future of their public facilities. What is the history of the Govanhill Baths and is it at all emblematic of policy makers’ current attitudes to these spaces?

There are definitely parallels there. What you’ve got to remember is that in the middle of the 19th century when the first of these places were being built, people were living in far more cramped conditions than people are living in now. The typical flat would have six, eight, ten or more people living in it. There were cholera outbreaks, typhoid outbreaks these were common. 

The council and industry knew that change was needed so they brought water in from Loch Katrine. They couldn’t build a network of baths and washhouses before that. They knew they had to make cities proper, viable places to live where people were reasonably healthy. If cities were going to work they had to have water and it was less expensive to build these places than have water in every flat. These were the council’s solutions for health and sanitation at the time. It took until the 1990s or the early 2000s until every flat had an indoor bathroom. 

They started phasing these public places out in the 1970s. The majority of houses had running water and washing facilities so the times were changing but they remained very important for communities even after this. For leisure and recreation, the steamies became laundries that people still used. 

When there’s more choice available, traditional solutions may not seem as relevant but certainly in Govanhill’s case the baths were still a centre of the community. It was a place, like a library, that you could go to that wasn’t a pub. Families could mix and enjoy sports and recreation. They were hugely important in a number of ways, particularly social ways.

What does it do to a community when a place like this is taken away? Why did it react like it did?

Although it had seen better days and needed investment to bring it up to scratch, people were hugely attached to the building on Calder Street. It was theirs, it was in the community, it belonged to them. There was a huge emotional attachment to it. That’s why people fought for it. 

I think the Govanhill community is a little bit special. There’s a bit more activism here. All around Glasgow these spaces were closing but here, they were proud of that space and didn't believe it was the council’s to take away. Its absence was a gap in the community for a long time. 

What lessons can be learned from the history of this building?

In a way that's what the book is about. There’s a great lesson to be learned from what's happened in Govanhill. Though in the short term they lost, in the long term they have won, because the building is going to be reopening. I hope people draw some inspiration from that. 

I know that when other similar places closed there were protests, there were petitions, but there wasn't the level of organisation that there was in Govanhill. Here, there were enough people to get beyond that stage, there were strong, articulate, politically minded people in the right place at the right time to mobilise support and encourage people to take the next, confrontational, step of occupation. If other communities had managed to do this, maybe some other of these buildings would have survived. 

It would be possible to bring back some services in new premises. How important is it to preserve the building itself as an aspect of the community’s built heritage?

The charm and the beauty of it is that you can still see a lot of the original features. I think that's part of what people love about  it, you walk in and there are all these original tiles from 1917, built by people that grew up in the 1800s. If they were building the baths now, you’d get a glass fronted, corporate style leisure centre. What you’ve got there has charm, character and historical value. We’ve got to hold onto our heritage where we can, it would be a loss if it wasn’t preserved. 

There are aspects that have to be changed. The fabric of the building has to be brought up to date but it's important that the original features remain where they are and preserved. 

Why did you choose to write a book on the history of the baths? 

The books have been written in s sense to celebrate what has been achieved. It’s been written to celebrate a building that's been given a new lease of life. When I set off to write this I thought, where do I stop? Do I stop with the occupation? That was a definite end of the road but the story isn’t complete considering all the things that have happened since then. That makes it a story worth telling, one that's worth preserving. I don’t think it would be a story with writing if there were a supermarket or block of flats there now. 

It’s a story worth telling because the community stood up and fought for what they wanted and needed. They succeeded, the baths will reopen. The book marks that, celebrates that. The book is a record. The book is to celebrate the victory and preserve the story of a great achievement. The baths are a special building that have been central to life in Govanhill for a long time. You can’t save everything from the past but this is a building worth saving. 

What effect has the activism that centred around the baths had on the wider community in Govanhill?

It's galvanised and revitalised the community in so many ways. It was just a bunch of people meeting in Daisy Street neighbourhood centre and McNeil’s pub who sat down and thought what can we do about this? Can we do anything? They formed the Save our pool campaign. 

They wanted the council to keep the baths open, they didn't want to take it over. As the campaign evolved they knew the council wasn’t interested and that they’d have to do it themselves. They became more than a protest group, they became a community group. That idea evolved into the Govanhill Baths Community Trust, into serving the community and providing them with what they want. Providing health and wellbeing through not just swimming but all sorts of activities. 

When people occupied the building the big, public facing part of that was the picket line. They got all sorts of people with all sorts of problems and issues joining that campaign and that's when they realised that “if we’re going to win this, we have to help all these people”. 

It was very small scale at first, it was craft classes, cooking glasses, small groups, you get little pots of funding to put on a project for a few weeks. That’s how the trust started and evolved. Now they’re an organisation that is on a par with Govanhill Community Development Trust. Although their focus is one one particular building, they’re doing a range of things that are vital for the community. 

Ten years, twenty years ago, people were decrying govanhill. It was a terrible place according to the media. That’s turning, That’s changing. It’s not just Govanhill Baths Community trust behind that change but they were the main players behind that transformation. 

99 Calder Street: A History of Govanhill Baths and Washouse was published in September 2021 and is available here.