John Holliday started work as a GP in Leamington in 1962. Here he describes his first impressions of the Pump Rooms.

And what were your impressions of the place overall?

 

My impressions, which I’m sure were shared by many, that it was a very useful adjunct to the facilities that were offered by the hospital and in those days of course it was generally the Warneford Hospital that we were talking about. Physiotherapy was available at the Warneford Hospital as well as at the Pump Rooms. But I suppose it was more the traumatic problems that would have been referred to the Warneford rather than just the, more the degenerative problems to the Pump Rooms. That’s a generalisation.

And what did you think of the facilities there?

Well they were fairly antiquated and historical, but I’m not sure if that didn’t give the place its ambience. [laughing] Might even have been therapeutic.

And what sort of condition was the building in itself?

It was, one wouldn’t have said it was well maintained, but I remember sort of the tilework and the sort of almost, some of the rooms almost had an oriental feel about them.