Esoteric London

Cock Pond, Clapham Common, The Pavement, London, SW4. Photo © Roger Dean 2013

Edmund Yates: His Recollections and Experiences – Edmund Yates, 1884:

What is now the gorgeous Holborn Restaurant was in those days [1847-1852] the dingy Holborn Swimming-bath – a very gloomy and, truth to tell, a very dirty and smelly place of recreation. I remember once, being mad about swimming – an art which I had just acquired in the delicious Brill’s Bath at Brighton – coming to the Holborn establishment full of pleasurable anticipation; and I remember, as soon as I had seen and – well, smelt the water into which I proposed plunging, putting on my jacket again, and sacrificing the shilling which I had paid for my bath.