Opinion: I Don’t Care Where the Pool Goes as Long as It Has a Flume I’m Allowed On
Thimblerow or Glover Street? Our columnist has only one test for Perth's new leisure centre, and it involves a slide.
A flume, the only part of any pool debate that really matters. Photo: Ross4587, “Large Flume - geograph.org.uk - 3572539”, via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0
Everyone in Perth has an opinion about where the new pool should go. Thimblerow. Glover Street. Somewhere with parking. Somewhere without a council meeting attached to it.
I have one opinion: there must be a flume, and I must be allowed on it.
The old pool’s flumes were part of my childhood. I went down them in 1993 in a pair of trunks I am still sorry about. I went down them in 2009 with my own children. I would like to go down them in 2031 with my grandchildren, provided my knees and the building both survive.
Cost? Location? Car park? These are important questions, and I wish the council and the campaigners well in answering them. But a pool without a flume is just a big bath full of people’s verrucas.
So build it at Thimblerow or Glover Street or on the roof of the Concert Hall. Just give me a slide, a wave machine and a hot chocolate after. I’m a simple man. I’m also 46.
The real story: Perth leisure centre plans row (The Courier)
Letters to the Editor
The views expressed are those of the reader, and frankly that's on them.
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I’m also 46 and I also need a flume. We should form a group.
— Paul D., Viewlands, 30 October 2026 -
My husband went down the flume in 1991 and lost his trunks. He’s never recovered. The flume has.
— Diane K., Hillyland, 30 October 2026
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