I love this. A feature on Moseley Road baths in Birmingham, due to close next year. In Bearwood we can appreciate the dilemma. How do you balance the incredibly high cost of trying to maintain the running costs of an efficient swimming centre in an elderly, crumbling building within a heritage building?
A modern, energy efficient leisure centre and pool can be run at a fraction of the running costs of a building like Moseley Road baths, or Thimblemill Baths for that matter. With massive pressures on areas like social care for the elderly (facing budget cuts of up to 30%) or safeguarding children, do you concentrate your resources on trying to maintain and preserve a beautiful old building?
Anyway… take a few minutes to watch this film.
The Bearwood Blog 
I would protest if Thimblemill Baths was closed down, unless another swimming centre replaced it. It’s very useful to local schools and the community in general. The building is a part of our Smethwick heritage, so should the pool be closed down it should remain and be used for something else. I believe that it used to double up as a concert venue and bands such as The Beatles and The Rolling Stones played there in their early days.