Community campaigning is helping lidos enjoy a renaissance, writes Judith Wojtowicz…
Alfresco pools around the country are experiencing a joyful revival, with many derelict sites being restored and new projects taking shape. Last year saw the opening of three new or re-vamped lidos…
the restored Cleveland Pool in Bath, the oldest lido in the UK; the new beachside Sea Lanes in Brighton and the council-funded Albert Avenue pool in Hull, re-opened after 30 years as part of a major leisure centre upgrade.
Plans are in the pipeline for more new lidos across the country, from Liverpool and the London borough of Redbridge down to Ilfracombe in Devon and over the Irish Sea to Dublin, as Councils acknowledge their benefits to the local economy and the wellbeing of residents. After decades of neglect, it seems the tide has turned with more local authorities recognising the societal benefits of their local lido and working in partnership to preserve and protect them.
Ipswich Borough Council, for example, has pledged over £3 million to help restore its iconic 1938 Art Deco pool boarded up for two decades. The total cost of £10 million has been met thanks to a substantial grant from the National Lottery Heritage Fund and investment by pool operator Fusion Lifestyle, which will lead the restoration project and take responsibility for running the facility when it opens in 2026.
Council leader Neil MacDonald paid tribute to the commitment of the volunteer Broomhill Pool Trust in maintaining their campaign to re-open the lido. “As a council our options were limited but the campaign group were consistent in their belief that it could be achieved,” he said. “Balanced against the costs of keeping it closed, and the restrictive covenants attached to the site, a viable lido will safeguard an historic asset and bring in additional revenue to the town,” he added.
Trust chairman Mark Ling has no doubt the re-opened pool will be a commercial and cultural asset. “We have been consistent in our lobbying behind the scenes with the council and others, keeping a high profile and gathering evidence to show the wider importance of restoring the pool,” he explained. Grade II Broomhill dates from the lido heyday of the Thirties, one of many architectural gems which by the turn of the century were suffering from lack of investment, increasing health and safety regulations and dwindling public interest.
A government-inspired move towards indoor pools led to decades of neglect. Michael Wood, associate professor of sport management at Northumbria University and founder of Future Lidos, traces their decline from the Sixties Wolfenden Report which recommended new pools should be built indoors ‘for year-round use’.
He explained: “That led to a period of managed decline as councils diverted funds to building leisure centres, allowing their local lido to fall into disrepair which had the effect of reducing the number of people using them. By the turn of the century two-thirds of the country’s lidos had been lost. Those that remained saw little or no investment,” he added.
Set up in 2021, Future Lidos is an informal network of projects across the UK and Ireland dedicated to helping communities restore heritage pools and create new lidos, bringing the joy of outdoor swimming to even more people. Pool and Spa Scene caught up with Michael fresh from a bracing swim in Gourock Pool, Scotland’s oldest lido, after receiving an award at the annual conference of the Leisure Studies Association held nearby, for his latest piece of lido research.
A devoted outdoor swimmer, Michael laments the loss of so many architecturally striking lidos, a reminder of a time when outdoor swimming was seen as a vital part of staying healthy and fit, accessible to all after the dark days of World War I. Their revival is driven largely by community action, volunteers forming charities, raising funds, setting up trusts and often taking over the running of their local pool from the council.
Commercial success demands more than a pavilion and a pool, and many lidos now offer additional facilities and non-swimming events to attract more people and increase revenue. Nurturing this growing movement Future Lidos launched Pooling Resources, a major collaborative project funded by a National Lottery Heritage grant.
This resulted in a Lido Toolkit promoting wider understanding of the value of lidos and sharing knowledge and best practice to help others. Among them, Hull City Council who worked closely with Future Lidos throughout the restoration of the Albert Avenue Pool which re-opened last year. Said Michael: “The needs that drove the first lido boom 100 years ago have not gone away. If anything, the state of our health, our economy and our planet makes the need even more urgent.”
In response to critics who say the climate crisis makes it hard to justify heating open air pools, green credentials are high on the agenda. Innovative energy solutions can help combat rising costs while technology offers more efficient and less-polluting filtration systems. The Jubilee Pool in Penzance is heated by a 400m geothermal borehole, a massive £1.8m project partly funded from a public share offer that raised almost £540,000 from 1,400 shareholders.
A more modest renovation of Ware Priory Lido included installation of air- source heat pumps and making the water one-third shallower (less water to heat and pump). London Fields uses solar power all year round while Peterborough Lido has reduced water temperature by five degrees. Daily swimmer Clare Marshall, vice-chairman of the Friends of Peterborough Lido, isn’t too bothered by the drop in temperature.
“The lido is a little oasis in the middle of the city,” she said. “Walking through the gates lifts the spirits and swimming in the open air gives me a sense of freedom.” Numbers have increased since the closure of the indoor pool last year, with first timers returning more than once having discovered the cleaner, fresher environment and the camaraderie of the lido community.
The lido is equipped for those with disabilities, a feature that is much appreciated by adaptive athlete and Channel swimmer Sophie Etheridge who uses it for training. Opening times were extended last year to December, and it’s hoped the same will happen again this year. Elsewhere some enthusiasts are happy to swim with no heating at all which also avoids the not-insignificant costs associated with seasonal mothballing.
This is certainly the case at Jesus Green in Cambridge, where lifeguards have been known to break the ice on a cold winter’s morning. Ian Ross, the city council’s sport and recreation manager, told us: “All year-round operation has the benefit of making the lido more viable rather than funds being used to set down and winterise pool closure, then have staff time and maintenance costs to set up again the following year.”
Jesus Green is celebrating the centenary of its first 1923/24 season with the publication in September of a commemorative book. The book’s title ‘100 Yards, 100 Voices’ reflects the pool’s ‘claim to fame’ as one of the two longest outdoor pools in the country, brought to life through the contributions of swimmers. “Our aim was to create a vivid picture of the life of Jesus Green Lido through the seasons,” said co-author Annie Morgan-James, who wrote the book with Becky Allen.
Another unusual feature of this long, narrow pool is the ‘deep end’ in the middle, acting originally as a way of separating men and women at either end. The design was intended to replicate swimming in the River Cam, which runs alongside and in the early days supplied water to the pool, including the occasional fish! Running costs are comparatively low due to the pool not being heated.
Eco credentials include air-source heat pumps to heat the water for showers, and aerated showers to reduce water usage. Water quality is maintained through regular back washing along with 24/7 filtration systems through sand bed filters that are in good condition despite their age and year-round use.
“Pool plant contractor Sterling Hydrotech and H2O Servicing provide the technical advice and expertise necessary in helping maintain a pool that is 100 years old and 100 yards long,” said Daryl Emes, Cambridgeshire partnership manager for Better, which manages the pool on behalf of Cambridge City Council. “The use of stabilised chlorine is the biggest difference as sunlight burns off the traditional chlorine much quicker,” he said.
“Overnight pool covers are not feasible due to the size and our challenge is manually clearing leaves falling into the water from the protected lime trees that surround the lido.” This is exacerbated because of the traditional scum channel arrangement rather than deck level water skimmers of more modern pools.
Since the pandemic the pool has stayed open in winter with more and more people enjoying the camaraderie of openair swimming and the rush of ‘feel good’ endorphins afterwards. Val Moore is a qualified cold water swimming coach and advises those taking their first tentative winter dip be it ‘skin swimming’ in just a costume or wearing gloves, bootees and cap.
“Post pandemic there was an upsurge of interest in so-called wild water swimming, although people are starting to worry about pollution,” she said. “Lidos are a half-way house to lake, river and sea, a better-supported, cleaner and safer environment.”
Nicky Blanning, chairman of Friends of Jesus Green, swims in both pool and river and says: “There is something magical about being in the water surrounded by nature which draws me back, even though we are all more conscious of the bacterial infections that might arise from river bathing.
“I believe more people may be opting to swim in the lido in preference to the river for all those reasons, but there are ‘hard core’ swimmers who continue to use the river regularly because they have done so for many years. I certainly know many who swim less often in the river now the lido is open all year. Some will only swim ‘heads up’ as opposed to doing front crawl in the lido.”
Faced with closure in 1994, the saltwater pool of Stonehaven near Aberdeen is another example of people power, saved thanks to a vocal campaign. Now registered as a charitable trust under Scottish legislation, volunteers put in thousands of hours across the site all year round to help the council keep costs down.
This includes essential maintenance work, power washing, painting, pre-season cleaning and ‘just about anything else that needs doing’. While the pool runs at a loss, attendance has steadily gone up with the last two years setting a modern-day record. Fundraising is ongoing, most recently to replace a £50,000 water chute to meet health and safety regulations.
“Raising that amount in just one season shows how much the pool is loved,” said Friends of Stonehaven Open Air Pool spokesman Steve Harris. “The growth of outdoor swimming during and after the pandemic encouraged people to support the lido and we are hoping to extend our season for a trial period to assess winter demand once the heating is switched off.”
Be it nostalgia, or for more fundamental reasons, momentum for the lido renaissance shows no sign of slowing and has gained support from an unexpected source; a Parliamentary motion tabled by the MP for Cheltenham. Max Wilkinson, a regular at Sandford Parks Lido in the Cotswolds spa town, calls for government action to save and protect lidos.
Referring to the health and heritage benefits, he is seeking support to help lidos become financially and environmentally sustainable for the future. As he told us: “Lidos are important for our health and wellbeing as well as preserving our heritage. They are facing an uncertain future due to significant financial challenges caused largely by energy costs and ongoing maintenance requirements of heritage assets. Lidos are much more than a place to swim – we ignore them at our peril.”
