NEW SWIMMING POOL

Otago Daily Times, Issue 23883, 10 August 1939, Page 19

NEW SWIMMING POOL

THE KING ENJOYS SQUASH

The new swimming pool in the grounds of Buckingham Palace is a very luxurious affair indeed (states the Queen). About 40 feet long by 20 wide, it occupies the site of the old "real tennis" court, and juts out from the north-west corner of the palace buildings just behind the Belgian suite, from which there is direct access to the bath. With electrically controlled heating ensuring constant temperature at all times, a dozen or more comfortably appointed changing rooms, and specially softened ot>A purified water, it is probably the best equipped private swimming bath in the world.

So far only the Princesses and members of the royal entourage have had the opportunity of using it. The decorative scheme is carried out in green tiles, shading from deep green under the water to the palest leaf green at the sides. The King, who has found that the claims of duty occupy so much of his time that his opportunities for exercise are being more and more limited, decided some months ago to take up again that most strenuous and concentrated form of exercise, squash. Accordingly, at the end of the swimming bath an up-to-date squash court, complete with its own changing rooms, baths, and showers, has been constructed, and now there are plans afloat, I hear, for the organisation of a squash rackets championship for the Household. If this idea comes to pass a hot favourite will be Wing-com-mander E. H. ("Mouse") Feilden, Captain of the King's Flight.