The People of Gibraltar

1930 - “El Montekiu” - Gibraltar’s Sea Bathing Pavilion

On the 15th of May 1930 the Montagu Sea Bathing Pavilion was opened to the public . . .  or perhaps I am wrong and that was just the day that the place was inaugurated by the Governor, Sir Alexander Godley accompanied by his wife Lady Louisa.

Alexander Godley and his wife Louisa Marion

To tell the truth I am surprised Godley found the time to honour the locals with his presence. Almost from the very first day of his appointment in 1928 he had been involved in what can best be described as an unfortunate  vendetta against the Marquez de Marzales Pablo Larios who at the time happened to be Master of the local Royal Calpe Hunt, a position he had held for donkey’s years.

This affair eventually escalated to such an extent that it came to the ears of the joint patron of the Hunt - King George V - no less -  who asked his private secretary to make a few discrete inquiries as to what on earth was going on. The report he received  was succinct: 

We’ve got a problem. On the one hand we’ve got the Godleys, and, on the other hand we’ve got the Ungodley’s!

The feud was eventually settled by the next Governor, Sir Charles Harrington – aka “Tim” – an avuncular looking military gentleman who was nevertheless and by all accounts an admirer of both Adolf Hitler and the Generalissimo Francisco Franco.

Perhaps on King George’s instructions, “Tim” took the Solomonic decision of appointing his wife, Lady Harrington together with Pablo Larios as joint Masters of the Hunt. Godley, on the other hand, never got his Field-Marshal’s baton. 

“Tim”  Harrington on the right and the joint “Masters” of the Hunt, Pablo Larios and Lady Harrington

To return to the inauguration, Godley was by no means the only one there. He was accompanied by dozens of British colonial administrators, military brass, hangers-on of every hue and colour as well as, of course, members of the City Council who were actually the instigators of this new-fangled idea. The ordinary man and woman of the street probably only managed to test the water - so to speak - the very next day, a Friday.

And new-fangled it certainly was. The abhorrence towards the very idea of both sexes swimming around together lingered on even in Great Britain and the Montagu did indeed theoretically allow public mixed sea bathing. Not the first in Europe, but certainly among the first. It was also touted as being an extremely up to date and hygienic establishment. 

The Pavilion took its name from the nearby Montagu Bastion on top of which the Montague Gardens had been opened in 1920 and now overlooked the Pavilion. 

Montagu Gardens before the Pavilion was built

The once rocky area in front of the new Bathing Pavilion had a long history as a suitable place for bathing.

Bathing Place in Gibraltar    (1818 - Thomas)

Crop of a late 19th century photo

The top photograph shows men bathing in a “beach” just to the left of the Old Mole more or less in front of the white building on the right on the second photo. 

The second one shows Casemates at the bottom, the Old Mole to the right and two very similar white buildings facing the sea. Both were possibly  late 19th century military bathing pavilions. According to two knowledgeable local historians, Tito Vallejo and Paco Ross, the one on the right eventually became the site of the Tarik Baths, known by locals as los Baños de a Penique for obvious reasons. It was later rebuilt and became los Baños de Betty which was run by a certain Balbuena who was also known as El Betis.

For readers not particularly conversant with the minutiae of Spanish football, el  Real Betis Balonpié was and still is a Seville based professional football team. A much quoted local joke is that Betis fans will support it regardless no matter how badly they play– or to put  it in local slang , “manque pierda”. Mr. Balbuena may have been yet another suffering supporter. 

However. . .  it was the black building between the two white ones which would later became the Montagu Bathing Pavilion. I am not sure what the second white building on the right was used for but my guess is that it was also a bathing facility similar to the one on the right, this one for the use of the ladies. 

The new Montagu Bathing Pavilion was designed by the  City Engineer, W.H. Pearce with the actual work carried out by “his department under supervision” - in other words mostly by arbañiles from La Línea. The cost was £9 000 - which sounds quite low even taking into account the passage of time. Perhaps the persistently low wages paid to Spanish workers had something to do with it. 

Pearce was himself supervised by Lt Col. H.W. Tomlinson who apparently was able to fit his military day job as Commander of the Royal Engineers under Godley, with that of being Chairman of the Gibraltar City Council. Even at this late stage in our political history, our local council was established with an in-built majority of five appointed officials over four members elected by male ratepayers only.

As regards the Sea Bathing Pavilion, on offer were no less than 200 cubicles, 100 for males and 100 for females - or rather gentlemen and ladies as they would have been referred to at the time. Refreshments, snacks and the like were also available. I am not sure where these were sold as I  can’t remember ever taking either in the Montagu.

Commercial Wharf area with the Bathing Pavilion on the middle left - I am not sure whether it was open during WW2  (Mid 1940s)

Generally I have to admit that I was an infrequent visitor to the “Montagu Public Sea Bathing Pavilion”. It had by now become known in the far more succinct local parlance as “El Montekiu”- and although not too many people still alive and kicking in Gibraltar today might agree with me, in the late 1940’s I would guess that it could easily have been classified on the Guinness Book of Records as one of the most dangerous bathing pavilions on earth.

 Very much as I remember it

After my time

For a start, in those days the entire slipways were always covered in slimy Algae making it as slippery as an ice-rink. I never saw anybody actually break a leg but I seriously hurt myself quite a few times and I wasn’t the only one. There must have been a few serious accidents.

Algae covered slipways

The Montagu raft removed for the winter - During the summer months it would be anchored about 50 or so yards in front of the main building

I also still carry scars after all these years from diving from the raft’s slippery board. The water was undoubtedly deeper than closer to shore but not enough to  protect divers from the enormous amount of sharp metal debris on the seabed. I hope they did a good clean up job after I left.

A refurbished Montagu as most people will remember it - but sadly, not me.

On the whole my friends and I tended to avoid the Pavilion. If by chance we needed to cool off in summer - and we seem to have needed to do this on a daily basis - we would visit one or the other of our three beaches on the eastern side of the Rock. Only when the weather was too rough to contemplate swimming on the east side would "el Montekiu" be worth considering. And even then, as many of us were members of the Calpe Rowing Club which was next door to the Pavilion, we usually ended up there instead.

Side view of the Montagu from the Calpe Rowing Club on the extreme bottom left with white posts

Despite all this I still kept a soft spot for the place and I was sad to learn from afar that when land reclamation work was taking off in Gibraltar in 1987, the Montagu Bathing Pavilion - which had by now become yet another of the Rock’s idiosyncratic  institutions - was being earmarked for demolition to make way for something perhaps more useful to many, such as much-needed housing, but - selfishly I admit - of far less nostalgic value to me.  

The end of an era

A postscript.

Difficult to believe but apparently, mounting pressure over the years halted the destruction of the building, although not before the place was gutted and the original plaque commemorating the inauguration was found to be missing. 

It eventually came to light that a local businessman by the name of Albert Stagnetto, owner of a store in Parliament Lane, had been authorised to collect some of the wooden beams lying around the gutted building. He  had noticed the original but now rusty plaque among the rubbish and had decided to salvage it.

According to Peter Leonard, writing for a Gibraltar Airways website in 2019, after 30 years in his possession, Mr. Stagnetto offered to return the plaque to the Government of Gibraltar on the condition that it be restored and once again put on display. The Government agreed and the plaque was back in place by 2020.

A post, postscript

Who on earth was the “Montagu” in Montagu Bastion - from which the Pavilion got its name?  

According to Gibraltar’s Ministry for Heritage, it was named after Ralph Montagu, Marquis of Monthermer, who had been made the First Duke of Montagu in 1705, a year after the capture of Gibraltar. The Bastion was sited at the end of the Old Mole and was covered by the Montagu Counterguard.

And there you have it – a massive 18th century bastion with a 19th century equally massive counterguard, and a popular local institution all named after somebody who as far as I can make out, had absolutely nothing whatsoever to do with Gibraltar. Typical.

Ralph Montagu, Marquis of Monthermer, the 1st Duke of Montagu (17th century)

Brenda Smith  (Undated)