Thursday, July 22, 2010

Ruins

At the northern end of my beach, tucked in a little cove between some cliffs, near a posh seafood restaurant with a view to kill for...





There was once a palatial indoor swimming complex. It was built around the turn of the nineteenth century, back when swimming pools were actually for bathing (i.e. getting clean). At the time, it was the largest swimming pool in the world. It was fed with saltwater, I think, and you had to wear a woolen bathing suit.


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It burned down in '66. Pieces of it still remain. I'm not sure what they used to be; it's hard for me to see how to superimpose what used to be over what's left. It now belongs to spiders, ducks, and seagulls.


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One time last year when I was clambering around them, I met an old man who told me that during the Summer of Love ('69), he used to come to these ruins sometimes to get some quiet, to get away from the streets.

Here's a Flickr group with more pictures, since I don't have any showing the whole thing.

13 comments:

  1. wow. that's really cool. Great pictures too. (It's past midnight in my time zone, hence the mono-syllabics.)

    xo,
    sl

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  2. Sarah Louise - Thanks, SL. Sweet dreams.

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  3. Its funny that we don't preserve things like this from times that are closer to ours.

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  4. holly, i'm in love with the feathers photo. i vant it. wow.

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  5. Krystal - And kind of a shame, hey? Though I suppose they do tend to become targets for graffiti and other eyesoreness.

    Noel - Thank you! :) As in, you would actually like to possess it? *commences plugging* [http://cuileann.etsy.com]

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  6. These are gorgeous! I can't stop staring at them.

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  7. Priya - Haha, I'm glad? Thanks!

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  8. what a gorgeous, gorgeous place.
    that feather photo is beautiful!

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  9. Erin - Dirty pretty cruel birds have totally taken it over :)

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  10. What an astonishing piece of not-todayness. How it must be in the memories of all those people who went bathing there.

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  11. Amber - Ah...it would be wonderful to track down someone like that...

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  12. these are so picturesque. as if that's the most creative adjective for a photograph. ;)

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