The Purification of Being at North Woodside Baths

I've been to a lot of swimmies in my time. I have even frequented the rather plush Piscine Molitor in Paris' well-to-do 16th arrondissement (before it was closed down in 1989). As a boy, the baths at Whiteinch in the west of Glasgow, in a wonderful old red-brick building (now luxury apartments), was my introduction. Later, whilst living in cities like Istanbul in Turkey and Tripoli in Libya, I had the opportunity to test out their baths - the hammam - and similarly enjoy the refreshing and revitalising experience of cleansing oneself.

At school, we were sometimes taken to the Arlington Baths in Woodlands (it was just down the road from St. Aloysius in Garnethill). Here, it was the last 5 minutes that I always looked forward to - free time as it was called, where we could try out the hoops and the trapezes, and the diving dale (all something of a crazy novelty since Glasgow's swimming pools due to bizarre health & safety regulations had no diving dales and certainly no acrobatics). It was this five minutes of  'free time' - spontaneous time and natural time in which time itself cannot be said to exist - that made the whole 2 hour trip worth the while. 

Later, I would happen upon North Woodside baths just round the corner, another example of a Victorian bath-house with all the features you would expect. Its 2 floor interior, with collonades and full roof skylight, is exquisite, and the pool itself is always surprisingly empty. It's also a lot cheaper and a lot less exclusive than the Arlington although it doesn't have the trapezes. It is one of Glasgow's little gems, since so many of Glasgow's old bath-houses have either been demolished or been converted into pokey overpriced condos. In terms of a 'slow flow of Glasgow', you reallyu can't get any slower than North Woodside baths. And its entrance is impeccable!