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The listed Fellow's Bathing Pool at Christ's College is believed to have been used by illustrious alumni including Charles Darwin, Louis Mountbatten, Nicolas Serota and even comedian Sacha Baron Cohen.
Archives suggest the grade one listed pool was dug in a corner of the college garden in the mid-17th century, but over the last 20 years it has slipped into gradual decline with only a few Fellows braving the water.
Former student Richard Barlow-Poole, who swam in the pool in the late 1930s had given a large donation to renovate it but it was insufficient and last year suggestions were put forward to turn it into an ornamental pond.
But after Christ's development director Catherine Twilley, a keen swimmer, launched an urgent appeal to alumni to redevelop the pool and restore the Palladian-style pavilion, donations quickly poured in.
The new pool is now supplied by mains water and kept clean by a roving robot.
"Until its renovation this year, Christ's pool was fed by Hobson's Conduit, the 400-year-old water course provided by the carrier Thomas Hobson to bring clean water into a disease ridden town," said a spokesman for Cambridge University.
"On hot afternoons this summer Christ's students, Fellows and staff cooled off in sparkling water supplied by the mains, filtrated and kept pristine by a roving robot.
"At the suggestion of Barlow-Poole, who sadly died before he could see it restored, the pool has been renamed the Malcolm Bowie Bathing Pool in honour of the Master of Christ's from 2002 to 2006.
"The title bathing, rather than swimming, hints at a reflective, soul-soothing activity: a gentler counterpoint to frenetic lane bashing.
"In a little corner of Christ's, hidden behind ancient walls, the swimming and dreaming goes on."
A recent investigation into the pool's history now suggests that it is not Victorian but could be far older than originally thought.
Emmanuel College, which stands next to Christ's, also boasts a pool complete with thatched changing room - and which pool is the older of the two is hard to fathom.
Christ's records show that a pool existed before 1688 but there's a tantalising gap in its archives for the preceding decades.
The design of Christ's pool is suavely classical with its perimeter decorated by busts of Christ's scholars - including astronomer Ralph Cudworth, poet John Milton, mathematician Nicholas Saunderson and polymath Joseph Mede.
MUST CREDIT PICTURES BY:
Geoff Robinson / Rex Features Ltd.
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