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MEMORIES Gavin Boyd CBE The paint peeling off the walls in the pool hall, the roof threatening to cave in, cockroaches happily swimming - all of these are misty recollections of the scenario when I joined the Western Baths Club many, many more years ago than I care to try and calculate. From even earlier years I recall as a visitor Mr. Jamieson who presided over activities in a manner that could only have been bettered by Tommy Wilson.
The Western Baths Club is the Wilson empire (a monumental understatement) masterminded by Tommy, in trainers, assisted for many years through most of the twenty-four hours by the late lamented Norrie, with George in his own kingdom.
Since the whispering tornado of William Mann came on the scene everything is so transformed that it seems that all that remains are the front steps, a Victorian shell complete with it's own Glasgow soot, and the Subway still running underneath and still probably flooded from time to time.
The place has been changed from sort of Victorian steamie to a reasonable replica of a twenty first century health club with such innovations as the gymnasium which no doubt has done much for the health of the younger members but probably severely damaged their elders, the automatic door-entry system whcih excludes members rather than admits them, and the bar - I vividly recall the tut-tutting from traditional members when the idea was first mooted.
One recollection is of having been escorted by Tommy, at my request, into the nearest thing I have encountered to what Dante's inferno must have been - the venerable old boiler - and having been shown how to pull wires, kick various bits and to take hammer to other parts to make it work, I marvel that after so many decades it still managed to produce a drop of steam or hot water even some of the time.
Like the passing of the railway steam engine, one feels a certain nostalgia but since the then looming financial crisis was so adroitly averted and turned to advantage the institution has become renowned for keeping pace with, or even leading in, modern facilities and methods and long may it continue even with the new fangled gas apparatus.
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