Name that Swimming Pool - PLEASE HELP!!!

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malaria
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Joined: Sat 03 Jan, 2009 14:16

Name that Swimming Pool - PLEASE HELP!!!

Postby malaria » Sat 03 Jan, 2009 14:39

Hello pool experts!

When I was about 14 years old I visited a swimming pool. I live in London and can only assume that it was not far from here. To my memory the swimming pool had four waterslides and you bought arm-bands of various colours that allowed you a predetermined amount of time on the slides. The slides were rated from easy to hard and you could see them from outside:

YELLOW - Corkscrew - Just went round in a wide corkscrew (Easiest)
GREEN - Twister - A bit more complex (not entirely sure if this one actually existed or if I'm imagining it)
BLUE - Aqua (or something like that) - Even more complex
BLACK - Black hole (or something) - Glittery, dark, had many dips and twists, the scariest (Hardest)

The pool probably no longer exists, but people I went with have no memory of it and it would be fantastic to hear that at least I am not just imagining it, or even better, that it still exists and I can visit it again! I'd really appreciate any help!


nkyg

Pool

Postby nkyg » Tue 17 Feb, 2009 19:07

That's Richmond Water Chutes.

And it was awesome. Sadly it shut down in the late 80's / early 90's. I believe it was attached to a regular swimming pool which still exists. (Richmond Lido?) I'm also fairly sure the pipes have long since been removed from the building.

My memory is that the yellow slide was called the Twister, the Green was the Corkscrew, the blue the Aqua (aquaplume? aquaduct?) and the black one was the black hole (which looked a shabby dark red from the outside due to the coating on it)- but then I was seven at the time.

Rumour is that there was an accident there of some kind.

There were various rumours ranging from the usual absurd 'razorblades planted in the pipes' theory to something about a pile-up in the black hole caused by someone stopping themselves half way down.

Gotta say I've always been curious about it though, and google gives me nothing.
Rich3119

Re: Name that Swimming Pool - PLEASE HELP!!!

Postby Rich3119 » Mon 17 Apr, 2017 13:31

It was the Twister, Corkscrew, Aquajet & Blackhole
Brendan

Re: Name that Swimming Pool - PLEASE HELP!!!

Postby Brendan » Thu 30 Aug, 2018 15:39

I have the fondest memories of Richmond Water slides/chutes. It was the best treat in the world to be taken there. As a ten-year-old in the 80s I was intoxicated by the place and used to think about it all the time. Even the smell and colour of the plunge pool. However, when it came to the actually going, I was too scared to go on any other than the yellow slide!

It'd be great to bring these slides back to Richmond, people have no idea what they meant to kids in west London in the 80s.

B
Kiz

Re: Name that Swimming Pool - PLEASE HELP!!!

Postby Kiz » Sun 28 Oct, 2018 12:37

I worked there in the 1980s. It closed in 1989. It was a lot of fun as everyone who worked there was young so plenty of laughs and socialising. We would sometimes ride the chutes after work - forming huge chains of people to see how fast we could bomb down. Or send someone down the chute with no water running apart from a thin film of water coating the slide, which meant they went faster. Some guy almost got knocked out as he was bouncing off the roof.

Tragically, a teenage boy died (in 1987 I think). He was found drowned in the pool under one of the tubes. They think he got knocked out or trapped under the lip of one of the tubes where it entered the pool, and he wasn't spotted quickly enough.

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