The Banstead Image Library
The Sugar Bowl swimming pool
This is where my father worked and I learned to swim.
Picture added on 26 November 2021 at 22:11
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Great picture from the past. On left is turnstile and ticket office. On right the lawn where you could have tea served. At the far end the building where they took in basket of your clothes. Happy days.
Added by Mike Shackel on 27 November 2021
My dad Douglas (Dick) Kemp worked here as a part time odd job man/gardener to supplement his wages as an RSPCA officer. One of his jobs was to remove leaves and rubbish from the pool.
I learnt to swim here in 1958 prompted by the Chef who promised me 10 shillings to swim a width. I used dog paddle to get across watched by the Chef much to my dads disgust as I hadn’t used a proper stroke as only front crawl was the accepted stroke for dad.
The Chef was Spanish and liable to outbursts in his kitchen.One day he showed me the correct way to pick up a Lobster only for it to grab his hand with its pinchers the kitchen turned blue with his shouts and everyone quickly disappeared.His hand was bandaged for a few weeks.
I remember helping to blow up hundreds of balloons which we put in a large net and raised to the ceiling in the ballroom to be released at midnight on New Year’s Eve.
I had free reign of everywhere when dad was working there it was paradise. The owner’s daughters were at boarding school and when they were home for the holidays we ran the kiosk and turnstile at the pool. We got Mars bars for our wages,bliss.
We used to rent out our Lilo’s for 6d an hour which was very lucrative on a sunny day.
In the garden area near the wooden changing rooms was a chalet type building inside it was an old Pianola in which you had to insert a brail like roll for amazing music to magically permeate the garden where we would spend hours pretending we were playing to the sunbathers lying on the lawn some even thinking we were playing. This building was out of bounds to the paying public but I was allowed to go in it because I was with the owners daughters.I believe their names could have been Cherry and Louise. Such happy days.
I learnt to swim here in 1958 prompted by the Chef who promised me 10 shillings to swim a width. I used dog paddle to get across watched by the Chef much to my dads disgust as I hadn’t used a proper stroke as only front crawl was the accepted stroke for dad.
The Chef was Spanish and liable to outbursts in his kitchen.One day he showed me the correct way to pick up a Lobster only for it to grab his hand with its pinchers the kitchen turned blue with his shouts and everyone quickly disappeared.His hand was bandaged for a few weeks.
I remember helping to blow up hundreds of balloons which we put in a large net and raised to the ceiling in the ballroom to be released at midnight on New Year’s Eve.
I had free reign of everywhere when dad was working there it was paradise. The owner’s daughters were at boarding school and when they were home for the holidays we ran the kiosk and turnstile at the pool. We got Mars bars for our wages,bliss.
We used to rent out our Lilo’s for 6d an hour which was very lucrative on a sunny day.
In the garden area near the wooden changing rooms was a chalet type building inside it was an old Pianola in which you had to insert a brail like roll for amazing music to magically permeate the garden where we would spend hours pretending we were playing to the sunbathers lying on the lawn some even thinking we were playing. This building was out of bounds to the paying public but I was allowed to go in it because I was with the owners daughters.I believe their names could have been Cherry and Louise. Such happy days.
Added by Janice Chapple on 27 November 2021
Extremely interesting, the history of place can take you back in time. Well done Janice, and thanks for sending it.
Note from LNW: There was no name included with this contribution!
Note from LNW: There was no name included with this contribution!
Anonymous comment added on 29 November 2021
Burgh Heath
