Dressing gowns and the swimming pool

[brendan]

I was delighted to learn at the Blue Dolphin Club AGM, last night, of the latest U-turn regarding whether or not people can go to the pool wearing dressing gowns.

First general manager Simon Pratt said it was okay to do so. Then a notice appeared at the entrance to the pool saying that members must come properly attired (i.e. no dressing gowns).

Then in the last BDC newsletter, reiterated last night by Jan Prebble, we learn that we can go to the pool in dressing gowns --- but apparently Mantilla are not to keen on it.

I wonder if you turned up at the pool and gym entrance dressed only in swimming trunks of costume would that be viewed as "properly attired"!

[chrisbarritt]

lack of logic and maybe even sense on this issue.Presumably, then, one is permitted to walk the corridors, the gardens and the arcade in dressing gowns, but once one enters the leisure area and the eventual spa, where old Dolphin Hotel bath gowns are provided to wear within, one is refused entry. That makes the no dressing gown zone the area between the entrance to the club and the entrance to the changing rooms?

[marybaden]

If "She who must be obeyed" says we can wear dressing gowns, I guess we can - and tough it out at Spa Reception !

[ds1]

I can't think of any other residential development where it would be acceptable to wander arounf the grounds in dressing gowns, bath hats, nighties etc. I fully support the management in trying to drag this place into the 21st Century!

[nelsontenant]

To most of us it's not a "residential development" (that's estate agents' talk); it is "home". And wearing bathrobes, etc is not something that doesn't happen in the 21st century.

[ds1]

What an utterly ridiculous comment. We are tenants here in a block of flats, it is not a care home or health spa!

[nelsontenant]

Why is my comment ridiculous? this is where I live. it is my home. yes, i am a tenant in a block of flats. when was it decreed that a block of flats cannot be a home.

[ds1]

This is where we live - yes. It is our home - yes. It is acceptable to wander around in your nightgown - no. Just as it would be unacceptable to wander down to Sainsburys in your nightgown.

[nelsontenant]

It has been acceptable for many years now. probably since the square opened in the late 1930s. we're talking about nightgowns, we're talking bath robes. and we're not talking about going down to sainsburys. we talking about going downstairs to a part of the complex.

[1748coll]

I have lived in the Square for a couple of years now, and I have to say that it is NOT acceptable for anyone to wander around out of their flat in their night/bedclothes. I have been mortified when I used to use what was 'Zest', and see men and women (it has to be said, the more 'elderly') wandering around in all manner of bedwear and kimonos. Why do some tenants think that the swimming pool is an extension of their front rooms? Just because it happens to be in the same building? I completely agree with DS1, and think it is quite rude to assume that nobody else using the facilities minds this 'acceptable' practice.

Thank you, to the Management of the Health Club to stop this practice. I have been more than embarrassed showing my friends and family the facilities, only to have them ask me if I lived in 'a posh Shady-Pines-Old-Folks-Home', because a bedclothed fellow tenant has been wandering around. So it is not an isolated incident, ds1's argument, it seems.......

I would ask nelsontenant if I was to wear only a vest and boxer shorts in my living room, that I wander down to Mr Patel's in the morning in the same outfit, as 'it is part of the complex'?

May I dare to ask that we also address, with the coming summer months, the practice of next-to-nudity in the gardens?

[stellabland]

Let's face it, eccentricity is a large part of the charm of this place. Every morning I walk the three miles to work yet once through the gates of Dolphin Square, I can gurantee that not once will I see anyone confidently sporting an ancient tartan dressing gown. West London is the poorer for it - and oddly enough, it makes Dolphin Square home to me.

[nic]

I don't care if people wear their dressing gowns - as long as people are actually wearing clothes I can't see the problem. Actually I think Sainsburys would have a problem stopping someone going into their store simply because they were wearing a dressing gown - I cannot imagine how they would legally manage that.
Given how bad I look in my bathers I would have thought that dressing gowns would be a huge improvement.