Star joins celebrations as baths are reopened

Actor and director Peter Mullan is to reopen a community swimming pool today following an 11-year campaign by local residents.

Govanhill Community Baths on the southside of Glasgow has been given a £100,000 revamp and will open as a well-being centre.

Mullan will be presented with a gold key to unlock the building which has been closed for more than a decade.

He will be joined by Deputy First Minister and Glasgow Southside MSP Nicola Sturgeon and city councillor Archie Graham.

Mullan, who starred in Train-spotting and Warhorse, has supported the Govanhill Save Our Pool campaign since it was launched in 2001.

The campaign at one stage saw a seven-month occupation of the building by locals. The baths first came into use before the First World War. Their refurbishment was funded by the Scottish Government, and Historic Scotland has now provisionally agreed a grant of £980,000.

The building in Calder Street will officially reopen its doors in three phases over four years, the first stage of which comes to fruition today.