Arlington Baths Club

rdf:langString Arlington Baths Club

rdf:langString Arlington Baths Club is a non-profit member-run swimming club in Glasgow. It is housed in a purpose-built Category A Listed Building that opened on 1 August 1871. The Arlington Baths Club was the first swimming club in Glasgow. The building is in the Charing Cross area and was part of the westward development of the city. Built largely in the traditional tenement idiom, albeit with some extraordinary flourishes such as the famous Charing Cross Mansions, this area quickly attracted the well-off middle class residents who also constituted the membership of the Arlington Baths Club. The Club was therefore created on the doorstep of its membership, the great majority of whom lived within easy walking distance. From this emerged the traditions of the Club. The membership appeared first thing in the morning before going to work and returned in the evening after work, before going home in a regular twice daily ritual. A replica of Arlington Baths was built soon after in London, whither the drawings of the Arlington were spirited sometime towards the end of the 19th century, never to be seen again. This building was bombed during the Second World War and was never rebuilt. The building of the Arlington Baths coincided with the implementation of the first of the Public Health acts in 1870 and was considered by some to be the precursor to the growth of public bathing in the UK.