Victoria Leisure in Southport is celebrating 150 years of Swimming and Fitness at the Promenade this week, as part of the Southport Heritage Open Days festival.
There are various tours available this week, with the first one taking place this Wednesday (17th September 2025).
Pre-booking is required.
The legacy of the Victoria Baths is still evident today in part of the original building.
Victoria Leisure Club still operates three separate pools which were part of the original suite of swimming baths which characterised the original building.
Victoria Health and Leisure Club won the 2025 Business Of The Year Award at the Your Southport Stars Awards, organised by Southport BID, in May this year.
This tour will show visitors how this section of the building was, and is today following the evolution of time.
There will be some audio to listen to at the exhibition stand.
See the Architect’s drawings from the late 1800s, specifying all the original pools, along with a very special piece of memorabilia from over 100 years ago.
Hear all about the closure of the baths building around 1978, to the reopening of the left hand section of the building to form the Southport Squash club in the 1980s.
The Southport Squash Club then needed a new lease of life as squash was on the decline, as the beginning of the ‘gym and work out’ sector was emerging in the UK.
This, we now know, was the forerunner to the explosion in the mid 1990s and into the millennium, as the fitness and healthy lifestyle sector took hold.
Timings & Tours
Wednesday 17 September: Between 2pm & 4pm
Thursday 18 September: Between 2pm & 4pm
Friday 19 September: Between 2pm & 4pm
Sunday 21 September: Between 1pm & 3pm
Location & directions
Central Promenade, Opposite the Marine Lake Bridge at the top of Nevill Street, Southport, Merseyside, PR9 0DS
- For more details of Heritage Open Day events in Southport please visit: Homepage
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