The glorious photos of the proudly refurbished Victoria Baths in Manchester (Eyewitness, 15 May) bring to mind the remark by Berthold Lubetkin, designer of Finsbury Health Centre, that “nothing is too good for ordinary people”. Your report says the first pool to reopen was originally for the wealthiest Mancunian gents, but this was a civic project, designed by the city surveyor and architect. The real gents had other private facilities – there were both Russian and Turkish baths in the Midland Hotel.
Lubetkin of course was a migrant, designing for the public good. He ultimately despaired of being able to design for ordinary people and took to pig-farming. But the civic functionaries who also provided health-giving facilities for communities – often in the face of opposition from richer ratepayers – have vanished almost as completely as slipper baths.
Victoria Baths has been saved by a preservation trust, which might be said to be part of David Cameron’s “big society”. That may have been an attempt to colonise all sorts of community work that had been going on long before the phrase was coined by the spin doctors, but while the likely incoming government shows no signs of letting up on austerity, passing more and more cuts down to local councils, it would be good to think opposition parties might seek to put fewer obstacles in the way of inspired community projects like the reborn baths.
Judith Martin
Winchester, Hampshire
• Join the debate – email guardian.letters@theguardian.com
• Read more Guardian letters – click here to visit gu.com/letters
