With swimmers of all ages lined up ready to smash a world record to pieces, it was supposed to be the crowning glory after the remarkable refurbishment of one of our best-loved pools.
But Camden Council’s attempts to show off the delights of the modernised Kentish Town Baths in Prince of Wales Road by filling the pool with a record number of people treading water ended in disappointing failure on Saturday.
They can breathe again in Finland.
The mean joke over the weekend was that there would be celebrations in Scandinavia and a lavish banquet with national delicacies such as sauteed reindeer and strong vodka near Lake Kussijarvi, where swimmers organised 308 people to tread water together in an icy lake in 2002.
Their place in the Guinness Book Of Records remains intact.
Camden officials had been confident that they could find at least 309 people to take part but those hopes began to fade as they realised the numbers turning up in their trunks and costumes were only slowly inching past the 250 mark.
In a last-minute push, people passing by – whether they had swimwear or not – were stopped in the street and asked if they would come into the pool to help beat the Finns.
The official requirement for the record is to have the “largest number of people treading water in a single location”.
In Vantaa – a Finnish town with a similar sized population to Camden, roughly 200,000 – they set the record by jumping into a hole in the frozen lake.
The slightly less chilly Willes pool in Kentish Town saw 260 water-treaders.
The group included Belsize councillor Jonny Bucknell and a swimmer from Ealing who has hopes of competing in next year’s Olympics.
The open day event marked a year since the Victorian baths re-opened following a restoration project.
The pool had been prone to boiler breakdowns and the council was considering selling the building before a £25million rescue package was agreed.
While other local authorities shut down ornate pools of the Victorian age, Camden bucked the trend and saved theirs.
Despite the failure to crack the record, council leader Nasim Ali still managed to focus on the positives.
“I used to come to this swimming pool when I was in school,” he said.
“It was cold, dirty and mouldy, and I genuinely used to be scared to jump in the pool.
The water was even cold,” he recalled.
“Now it looks like a world-class venue and one that Camden should be very proud of.”
By Richard Osley