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Tolly doesn't need a bath anymore

It was the project of the decade in 1920. It took four years to raise the funds. It was used for nearly 70 years. The Tolly swimming pool was the pride of the school; one of the features that made Tolly exceptional. Most OTs have pleasant memories of summer evenings after school, whether it was perfecting their diving or simply enjoying splashing about in the shallow end.

Its fund-raising slogan Tolly Needs a Bath set Muswell Hill alight in the 1920s. Any boy from a rival school who held his nose as he passed a Tolly boy risked a duffing up. Many such skirmishes were recalled by the writer's Uncle, Jack Cheater, who as a young pupil was roped in to deliver leaflets.

But in 2007, a glance over the fence at the famed facility is a depressing sight. The uniform rows of wooden changing cubicles we knew in the 60s are long gone, replaced by Portakabins, which themselves have been removed for other functions. The control cabin still stands, but overlooks only the paviors (with weeds growing 2 feet high in the cracks), which surround the pool, now empty except for rainwater and a dark crust of rotting leaves.

There are probably very good reasons why the pool is no longer required. Perhaps it falls too far below the modern health and safety standards, which are putting many activities once considered harmless on the danger list, and is too costly to bring up to date.

But perhaps we can console ourselves in a wider view: we still have the buildings; the Boys' building once had a hall, with oil paintings of the founders, plaques commemorating athletic achievement and memories of assemblies, choir rehearsals and school dinners. Now instead it has an enviable library and IT centre.

No doubt the swimming pool will eventually be replaced by a facility more appropriate to the current decade and which itself will fall into disuse, bringing a tear to the eye of a returning mid-century Old Fortismereian.

The baths in the early 90s

The baths in 2007 - photo courtesy of Chris Hughes (48-53)

Additional photos of the Boys' School

The Boys' School is rapidly changing shape inside, particularly in the area immediately surrounding the Hall. Where the Balcony once overhung the 4th year, the mezzanine has been replaced by an extended room, carpeted, populated with PCs and no doubt hard-wired with power and signal-carrying cable trays. But there are some corners which are structurally unchanged since WWII. Some of these corners are featured in recent photos, featured here...

Boys' Gallery