Leon Kossoff began a series of paintings of the Children's Swimming Baths in Kilburn in 1967 and continued to work on charcoal sketches and paintings of the same subject into the early 1970s. Depicting various times of the day during a busy weekend, the pool is always crowded with swimmers: 'Swimmers stand and sit, leap or spring, cleave translucent water - at the same time they could be in some ancient limbo'.

This painting is the earliest surviving work of the series, other examples can be found in both public and private collections: 'Children's Swimming Pool, 11 o'clock Saturday morning, August 1969' (Saatchi Collection); 'Children's Swimming Pool, Autumn 1972' (Arts Council Collection); 'Children's Swimming Pool, Autumn Afternoon 1971' (Tate Gallery), and 'Children's Swimming Pool No.3 1970/72 (Jenny Stein).
(See D. Mercer, Leon Kossoff Recent Paintings, Whitechapel Art Gallery, Exhibition Catalogue, January - February 1972, p.13)