The Swimming Club

In her 'Life' my mother wrote, "After Sunday School the boys and I would return to the house and get our tricycles and my bike and swimming suits and go down to the Chini Club for a swim before returning to the house for lunch. Or we would go right down to the landing stage and get a rowing boat to take us across to the Swimming Club where we would eat our lunch which we took with us, and spend the afternoon swimming and playing in the sand, usually with the Solly boys and Margaret who sometimes took us over in her car. Dad would come later, having been at the Sports Club watching cricket, and take us home in the car."

This picture looks back across the Old Port to the Old Town, with a number of dhows at anchor. The Swimming Club's raft is at centre, with a line of tyres which acted as a safety line if someone was swept away by the current.

We were rowed across in a small boat - seen at left - which came in to....

....the end of the Swimming Club pier - one of the boats can be seen near the pier. The club building was set up back from the beach and always seemed rather dark and damp. Occasionally, if it rained heavily, we were forced to take shelter there, which we didn't enjoy. It had one attraction to some members of the community: it had the only fruit machine.

The beach wasn't as good as those along the coast but we spent many happy hours on it. This picture shows us with the John (left) and Mark Solly. The yacht is mine. Called Defender after my grandfather's ship, it was made for me by one of the Harrison Line engineers.

Sometimes there were events at the Club. This group photo was taken on the steps of the club house.

The top three pictures are by kind permission of Tony Chetham, with my thanks, but he also sends a more recent picture of the Swimming Club: only the ruins of the pier remain.