Dun Laoghaire Baths Newspaper Report
Many years after Charles Haliday campaigned for baths in Kingstown, the baths were refurbished and modernised. This newspaper article from 1935 outlines proposals to design new ‘modern’ baths for the area.
Dun Laoghaire Baths Newspaper Report
Dun Laoghaire Baths Newspaper Report
Many years after Charles Haliday campaigned for baths in Kingstown, the baths were refurbished and modernised. This newspaper article from 1935 outlines proposals to design new ‘modern’ baths for the area.
Mr Charles Haliday (1789-1866) was a public-spirited Dublin merchant and antiquarian. He campaigned and petitioned for baths for the poor of Kingstown - now Dun Laoghaire - and its surrounding areas. This came about after the construction of the railway cut off access to the sea for many.
Before the coming of the railway, the sea shore was accessible to the public. There had been small bays or inlets under the cliffs at Salthill, Dun Laoghaire and Blackrock, where according to Charles Haliday, women and children frequently went swimming.
Political pressure for free public baths was applied because they were seen as a valuable social amenity for the residents of the area. At that time, baths were also seen as an important health measure.
The sanitation conditions for the less well off were often very poor in the nineteenth century, with many areas described as hovels and slums. Bathing was viewed as a necessity. After three years of petitioning by Mr Haliday, a 'women's bathing place' was constructed at Salthill and a 'men's bathing place' at the West Pier.
The women's bathing place was built over the West Pier sewerage works in 1877. The Salthill bathing places were the subject of much complaint because sewerage was continually being washed into this area.