community
5 Minutes With…
Mark Gregorian
Mark Gregorian
Mark Gregorian is the new manager at Darrick Wood Swimming Pool. It’s the centre’s 94th birthday in 2022, so we caught up with Mark to get to know more about the centre’s history and plans for the future… How did you come to working at Darrick Wood Pool - and what's your employment history?
home. These boys were found on the streets of Soho, were sent to the house where they trained as musicians, eventually joining the army or marines. At least 200 of these boys learnt to swim at the pool before the school moved away in 1938. The pool eventually came under Local Authority ownership and has been the preferred place of many generations of families to learn to swim.
I moved to Orpington in 2003 where we lived until 2005. My wife’s parents coincidentally also lived in Orpington, and it was my wife’s step-father who found her a house as she was on a six-month secondment working in Frankfurt. At the time I was a Border Officer in France and having to make the daily commute from Orpington to It’s the centre’s 94th birthday this year Coquelles, France and vice versa was taking which is amazing. Who uses it and do its toll, and so we upped sticks and moved you have regular customers? to Marden which had a population of The Spa and Darrick are like chalk and 4,000 at the time. I joined the tennis club The Spa and Darrick cheese and it took a while getting used and my wife was still able to commute are like chalk and to a slower pace of life. However, the into London. Around 2013, I saw the opportunity to get to know the Darrick cheese and it took a plans to expand the village by half members well is one difference that working again and with elderly in-laws and a while getting used to at a smaller site affords you. There are change in my career, we migrated back a slower pace only three principal people, but this doesn’t to Orpington. I had a series of jobs, from detract from the fact that communication still working in private health clubs to five-star of life has to be transparent. I would say that since hotels and entertainment venues, before leisure re-opened after Covid the level of work joining Mytime Active in 2019. My lifeguard has grown. But with staff numbers declining, my time and pool qualifications had expired by this time but management skills have improved. I still enjoy making Mytime were good enough to pay for me to be re-qualified. memorable moments for customers; that’s why we all work I was employed at Mytime’s busiest centre, the Spa at in the industry - we have many lovely and loyal members Beckenham as a Duty Manager where every day I faced as well as regular schools that book swimming sessions for different challenges. I did this until December 2021 when pupils. Our customers range from four years of age to 86, I took over as Operations Manager at Darrick Wood from so there really is something for everyone. Our customers Paul, who had been in the post for 18 years. are the lifeblood of the centre and we love seeing them.
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Can you tell us a little of Darrick Wood Swimming Pool’s history?
Well, it’s truly fascinating as I learned from Wendy Parker, a local resident. The pool was built in 1928 making it 94 years of age by the Shaftesbury Homes Society for the boys who lived at Darrick Wood House, which was a boy’s
What are you doing to mark the birthday celebrations? At the moment I would say all ideas are in the melting pot as far as celebrating a momentous birthday. We might do a charity Swimathon or cake sale, or we might ask the Mayor to visit.
Any new plans for the centre moving forward? Darrick has a thriving swim school which we are trying to grow; we are always on the lookout for the next Rebecca Adlington or Adam Peatty! We host general swim sessions every weekday, aqua aerobics three times a week and Family Splash sessions at the weekend. Hopefully we can bring back the popular exercise classes to the hall this year which stopped due to the pandemic. Darrick Wood Swimming Pool in Lovibonds Avenue is open from Monday – Friday 11am-8pm and Saturday and Sunday from 8am-5pm. For details call 01689 857021.
20 Life in... Orpington March 2022
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