Corridor takes the plunge

You probably wouldn't know it, but at the end of Marshall Street in Soho lurks a glorious former swimming pool dating from 1850. Having closed in 1997, the building now faces redevelopment.

But before the interior changes forever, theatre company Corridor have turned the idea of a public tour into a promenade piece of theatre, in which the building's past glories haunt the present in a series of ghostly dramatic tableaux.

Girls lie asleep in locker rooms, clothes are strewn on floors and a solitary spectator sits above the vast, empty, blue-lit pool that echoes with the sound of splashing water. Seeing it, you feel rather how the prince must have felt, walking into Sleeping Beauty's castle after 100 years.

As well as evoking something of swimming's peculiar poetry and grace, Deep End cleverly honours the long lost civic function of these public institutions, which here included a maternity clinic and public baths for the great unwashed.

Rather cleverly, all the drama belongs to the present. Modern day Soho is represented in vibrant scenes down a stairwell, in strong contrast to the deathly pallor of the past.

Old buildings are a terrific source of memory, both personal and social. This curious, rather lovely piece understands this notion beautifully.

Until Sun, Marshall Street Baths, Marshall Street W1, tours last 30min and start every 15min from 2.30pm to 4.15pm and 6.30pm to 9.15pm, £7.50, £5 concs. Tel: 0870 429 6883. Tube: Oxford Circus

Geraldine Pilgrim: Deep End