Halfhidden

Untouchable
Administrator
For quite some time now I have been pondering over the rumour that the baths on the promenade are still there and that the council, at the time, simply filled in the void and slabbed it over.
I’ve been meaning to take a look along the promenade and today I took some pictures.

You’ll see that I’ve located a stopcock on the same location as the baths and also a drain. It is also worth noting that the slabs are cracking and uneven in this area suggesting some subsidence. Further to that you can see where the foundations for the coastguard lifeboat station stood.

Is it possible that the baths are still under the promenade?
 

Hedge Slammer

Untouchable
There's an outfall of some sort down on the sea wall directly below that drain cover - it got a thick stainless steel plate covering it over. I alway assumed it to be part of the old Victorian sewer system that discharged onto the beach... I'll get a photo next time I'm on a Lidl mission. :)

I'm still not 100% clear on where the baths in the top photo actually stood... I'd thought that they were in the Caldwell's building (that became 'Cafe Marina' and burned down around 1936), but looking at the roof structure in that top photo makes me think that the baths themselves were in a building behind (the one with the roof all smashed in in this aerial photo from 1950):
full


So if that's the case, what was inside the Caldwell building? o_O
 

Halfhidden

Untouchable
Administrator
I assume that the building with the damaged roof was the old lifeboat station wasn't it?
My understanding was that the baths were at the rear of Cafe Marina but were part of the same building. That large, dark rectangular opposite the serpentine works is where Cafe marina stood. The stopcock and cover in the colour photo's above are located further East of the Cafe Marina site, in fact opposite the end cottage of the serpentine works.
So it looks less likely that this stopcock and drain had anything to doe with the cafe or the baths.
The mystery deepens.:eek:
 
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