Friday 9 May 2014

A new spiritual home - Sans Souci pool

...until the new Bexley pool arrives...

A nicely heated outdoor 50m pool, an indoor pool which has 3 x 25 m lanes. It is used a lot for swimming lessons. And a lovely setting in Sans Souci Park, under Captain Cook Bridge, looking over Kogarah Bay.

I used to go to Sans Souci for school swimming in the 1970s. It must be about the same age as Bexley - is lined with the same tiles.

Here's something I noticed. Australia went metric from 1970, in stages. The measurements of length are metric. It is a 50m pool, and there are tiles down the side marking 25m and 33m (and even one just saying M ! ). But the depth tiles are in imperial measurements. 3ft 6ins and 5 ft being two.

A previous visit to Sans Souci is blogged here. 



































2 comments:

Graeme said...

Only after you mentioned it, I noticed that 1959 built Canterbury pool also has dual measurements, though the reverse, with the depth in metres and the distance in feet. On reflection, they are slightly different in style, so I suspect the depth ones were redone, perhaps to comply with some safety standard, whereas the distance didn't matter.

In this litigious world, I wonder whether Sans Souci management have considered the possibility of some metric kid hitting their head on the bottom, not knowing what ft are.

Also makes me wonder exactly how long the Canterbury pool actually is!

Clint Gearside said...

I think that pools have dual measurements because of the build date, the older being done in feet but upgraded to metres to comply with international standards as world records are only done recognised if done in 50m pools.