5 Minutes With

community 5 Minutes With…

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?

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 Coquelles, France and vice versa was taking its toll, and so we upped sticks and moved to Marden which had a population of 4,000 at the time. I joined the tennis club and my wife was still able to commute into London. Around 2013, I saw the plans to expand the village by half again and with elderly in-laws and a change in my career, we migrated back to Orpington. I had a series of jobs, from working in private health clubs to five-star hotels and entertainment venues, before joining Mytime Active in 2019. My lifeguard and pool qualifications had expired by this time but Mytime were good enough to pay for me to be re-qualified. I was employed at Mytime’s busiest centre, the Spa at Beckenham as a Duty Manager where every day I faced different challenges. I did this until December 2021 when I took over as Operations Manager at Darrick Wood from Paul, who had been in the post for 18 years.

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

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.

It’s the centre’s 94th birthday this year

The Spa and Darrick are like chalk and " which is amazing. Who uses it and do you have regular customers? The Spa and Darrick are like chalk and cheese and it took a while getting used to a slower pace of life. However, the cheese and it took a opportunity to get to know the Darrick while getting used to a slower pace members well is one difference that working at a smaller site affords you. There are only three principal people, but this doesn’t of life detract from the fact that communication still has to be transparent. I would say that since leisure re-opened after Covid the level of work has grown. But with staff numbers declining, my time management skills have improved. I still enjoy making memorable moments for customers; that’s why we all work in the industry - we have many lovely and loyal members as well as regular schools that book swimming sessions for pupils. Our customers range from four years of age to 86, so there really is something for everyone. Our customers are the lifeblood of the centre and we love seeing them.

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.