Where Have all the Lidos Gone?

Bathing Pool Poster

First of all, what is a lido? Is it anything more than a swimming pool? Strictly speaking, a lido can be defined as any open-air swimming pool or bathing beach. The word means beach or seashore, in seventeenth century Italian, from the Latin litus for shore. The Lido’s use as a word for a bathing place originates with Lido di Malamocco, the town on a long, narrow reef just to the south of Venice, where the sheltered, sandy beach was, and remains a popular resort for the wealthy and fashionable.

The 1930’s saw a wave of enthusiasm for lidos throughout the UK, both on the seashore and inland. Bathing and swimming were increasingly popular, seen as healthy activities for all the family; by the end of the decade there were around 170 throughout Britain. This was a whole movement and it was radically new. 

Bognor with bathing machines, from a nineteenth century postcard

During the previous 200 years, swimming had been regarded as an exclusively masculine activity. Women of the lower classes could frolic in the water, fully dressed, on female only stretches of beach, but nobody thought they could or should actually swim. Meanwhile wealthier ladies could immerse themselves by stepping from a bathing machine into slightly deeper water, whilst dressed in voluminous and impossibly impractical bathing costumes. They couldn’t swim either.

The decline of Victorian prudishness had an enormous effect, by 1901 mixed bathing was no longer actually forbidden in the by-laws of seaside resorts and so lidos could begin to evolve in the UK. For bathing enthusiasts a lido had to include additional facilities, especially an area for sunbathing which was increasingly seen as an additionally healthy activity. Most would also have somewhere to buy refreshments, at the least a tuck shop, while the most exclusive venues could have a high-class restaurant.  

Strand Pool, Gillingham, from a postcard

One of the earliest lidos was the Strand Pool at Gillingham in Kent. A local entrepreneur, Thomas Cuckow, realised an opportunity to creating a seawater bathing pool in the mud flats on the tidal shore of the River Medway. The pool used disused railway sleepers for shoring up and carriages as changing rooms. The incoming tide, filtered through sand beds, would fill the pool and it was emptied via a sluice gate. The pool opened in June 1896 with a special sports gala. The programme included underwater swimming, water polo matches and a greasy pole competition.

The Strand Pool prospered, once taken over by the town council in the 1920’s its facilities were increased to include a paddling pool, boating lake and park. Water filtration was improved and in 1935 concrete pools replaced the original muddy, tide-dependant pool. Strand Pool has always been locally popular and today, operated by Medway Council who have updated the facilities yet again, it continues to thrive.

​ But many more lidos have not survived. Even in the 1960’s almost every town had a pool of some description, but no longer. One, the huge bathing pool at St Leonards-on-Sea in Sussex, was an ambitious design, on a grand scale by Hastings town engineer Sidney Little, with the Olympics in mind.

St Leonards Bathing Pool, postcard. It was never a financial success. 

By the 1950's it had become the main feature in a holiday camp.

The 1933 St Leonards’ pool was twice the size of the more stylish and upmarket Art Deco pool at Saltdean near Brighton, which was built in the same period. Both struggled financially. While the St Leonards pool only made a profit in its first year of operation and was finally demolished in the 1980’s, Saltdean has gained Grade II* listing and survived, by the skin of its teeth and through the vigorous activities of local enthusiasts.

At the opposite end of the scale, many mining villages in Wales acquired their own outdoor pools, when the local miners took time on their days off, during strikes and the redundancies of the depression to dig a pool for their own communities. All of these have been lost. The only historic pool of any note in Wales today is the Grade II listed Lido Ponty, in Pontypridd, which dates from 1927. Its Art Deco buildings and terraces were added in the early thirties.

Lido Ponty fell into disrepair during the 1980’s and was closed down in 1991. Its restoration, completed in 2015, was thanks to an EU-funded regeneration project. The restoration aimed to balance the conservation of the existing historic lido with the addition of a modern café, poolside terrace, visitor centre, multipurpose venue and dry play area.

So how many Lidos have been lost in the UK? Anne Green Jessel, a former competitive diver and international coach has a better answer than anybody. She has compiled an extensive, though not exclusive list on her fascinating website, https://www.lostlidos.co.uk, which lists 85 and counting, though she has counted them as a swimmer, not actually as lidos with extra facilities and her list includes some indoor pools.

Although too many open-air pools have been lost up and down the country, others do flourish and in a surprising variety of places. Greater London has eight lidos open to the public, including natural bathing in the Serpentine river in Kensington Gardens and the more structured, ever popular Tooting Bec lido which dates back to 1906. The newest pool in London was the Kings Cross bathing pond, opened in 2015 behind the station, however this was intended as a temporary installation and has now closed.

Hathersage Pool, Derbyshire was opened in 1936

There are also popular pools even in small villages, such as the beautiful lido in the village of Hathersage in Derbyshire. Hathersage has a population of only 2,000 but its proximity to the city of  Sheffield brings it plenty of custom. Being close to the county boundary, Hathersage pool has funding from both Derbyshire Dales District Council and the neighbouring High Peak Borough Council. 

Seaside towns in the British Isles may have larger populations than Hathersage, but many have fewer advantages to help financially. Some seaside pools, such as the spectacular Tarlair pool near Banff, which today is unfunded and fading into history. Tarlair is the UK’s most northerly lido, but has sadly become just a Grade A listed, art-deco ruin.

Other pool sites have been altered to accommodate year-round, indoor bathing. For example, in Rhyl the original open-air pool became the indoor Sun Centre, with slides and waves. After a second metamorphosis Sun Centre is now the SC2, which has re-introduced a limited amount of outdoor bathing alongside an indoor fun pool.

Tarlair Swimming Pool, 1930's postcard

Today the Northernmost properly funded lido in the UK is the Stonehaven Lido in Aberdeenshire, which has a fifty-metre pool with sun terraces and heated seawater. It’s run by Aberdeenshire Council in conjunction with the Friends of Stonehaven Open Air Swimming Pool. The Friends have become a Scottish Charitable Incorporated Organisation (SCIO). A number of other pools also stay functional due to the considerable efforts of the voluntary sector.

Scarborough in Yorkshire has adopted a different approach. The brand new Alpamare Water Park, near the site of the former North Bay pool is a pricey, privately run and inelegant replacement for two beautiful seawater lidos. However if its heated fresh water, exciting water features, year-round operation and newly opened wellness spa gains more footfall and provides more employment than the old, cold lidos, it may benefit the town. 

Porthtowan Rockpool, Cornwall. Not really a lido, but wonderful!

The Westernmost lido is in County Down in Northern Ireland. The Tropicana consists of two shallow, seawater pools with slides, opened in the 1980’s and aimed at children. Further down the coast is the much deeper and rather Spartan, although locally popular Rock Pool which was built in 1933. Both are run by Down Council.

In England there are at least 15 successful open-air pools remaining beside the sea, and many more inland. These range from brand-spanking-new water parks to art deco masterpieces, more mundane bathing pools, paddling pools and tidal rock pools. A number of these pools stay operational with the enthusiastic efforts of the voluntary sector.

Imagination and innovation are needed to keep many going. For example in Cornwall is the spectacular art-deco triangle of Penzance Lido jutting out into St Michael’s Bay, Cornwall. It was opened in 1935 and named with great celebration for King George V's silver jubilee. Formerly run by the town council and now by Jubilee Pool Penzance Ltd, a Community Benefit Society. Jubilee Pool is currently breaking new ground with a bore hole being drilled to provide geothermal heating for the pool.

In Wales, no original seaside pools have survived but some have evolved into good sized paddling pools. One of the best is Blackpill Lido, run by Swansea Council. This is free and has a large splash pool, a baby pool and fountains, in a lawned area with play equipment, cafe and the start of the land train which runs along the front.  

Blackpill Lido, Swansea

 

Children gravitate towards waves, fountains, even puddles and as we have entered a more health-conscious era, similar to the 1930’s, the popularity of swimming pools and water-play areas is bound to increase, particularly at the seaside. Open-air pools encourage healthy exercise, saltwater ones may have additional health benefits over highly chlorinated ones and if sustainably heated, their seasons can be extended. 

The days of creating huge lidos with Olympic standard swimming pools are probably gone, but there should be opportunities to contribute to public health and amenity, attract holidaymakers and enhance the environment with new and exciting pools.         

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Article and research by Susan Gilbert, Director of ArchiFACT Limited.                

Things Look Better in Black and White; Picture of the Week 24 May 2016

To accompany my new header photograph, here's a close up of the same scene.

I often prefer black and white photographic images to coloured ones. When were these buildings photographed? When were they built? The black and white makes them seem very old, until you notice the windows above the garage door, and in the dormer, top left. Looking at the header picture, un-cropped, tells you more. But can you pin it down?

Ok this was a backstreet in Brighton, just off the Old Steine, in 1971. Photograph taken from the third floor of Brighton College of Art, I printed the original in college, negative is long since lost.

Aden, Peaceful Again? Pictures of the Week 23 July 2015

After months of terrible fighting, in which the people of Aden have suffered from gunfire, bombing, starvation, thirst and disease, the battle seems to be over. Supplies are arriving by sea and air. To celebrate, here are a few postcard photos of Aden at peace, in around 1959. Most are by photographer Dick Ketchian.


The handsome Idrus Mosque. I hope it has survived.

Water cart in Crater

Waterfront buildings

The famous Tawila Tanks,
dating back to the 7th century

Crater town which has apparently
been badly damaged in recent fighting.





What changes? Albion Street, Leeds 40 years ago - Picture of the Week 21 June 2015

This is not a picture of buildings in a city centre, it's a picture of people, in a city centre. Without people, cities don't exist. Fashions in clothes will change a bit, as illustrated. In Leeds today, flares are probably even les socially acceptable than fur coats, however baby buggies are still current, as are pedestrian precincts, shoe shops and 'To Let' signs.

This photo of mine was used on the cover of the book - Planning Cities, Legacy and Portent by Architect, Author, Town Planner and Lecturer at the University of Leeds, Bill Houghton-Evans, 1975 (pub. by Lawrence and Wishart.)
Today (June 2015) if you Google 'Albion Street, Leeds' you are directed to a car park. However, the real Albion Street, Leeds, is still a pedestrian street. There are still no cars and the area is still full of shoppers, with or without flares. Does London's Oxford Street have a lesson to learn?

Dungeness A Nuclear Power Station

The Dungeness nuclear power station - today known as Dungeness A - photographed at sunset in 1970. When you turned your back on the Dungeness lighthouse this was the view - at sunset.

This Magnox power station was connected to the UK National Grid in 1965.  It had two nuclear reactors and was built by a consortium known as the Nuclear Power Group. In the 1970's the Dungeness B power station was built, which was the first gas cooled reactor in the UK and began operation in the 1980's. At the end of 2006 Dungeness A ceased power generation. It is currently being de-commissioned, though the final site clearance is likely to take another 100 years. 

In the mean time, the prospect of rising sea levels, combined with the constant movement of the shingle bank upon which both power stations sit, has been causing concern. More than 10,000 square metres of shingle are moved by lorry every year to keep the shingle bank up to the right level. Perhaps locating a Nuclear Power Station on a shingle spit known to be susceptible to long-shore drift was not the cleverest start, but now there is talk of a Dungeness C station...

http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2014/mar/19/edf-accused-dungeness-nuclear-shutdown-energy-reactors

Historic Colt House, Bosham; Picture of the Week 23 May 2014

Going through old family photos I came across this one of my grandparents house in Bosham, Sussex, under construction. I've blogged about their house before, but at the time had few photos of it. This was a Colt house, partly pre-fabricated and constructed almost entirely of timber, apart from foundations and chimneys. These houses became very popular in the 1930's. Further research will, I hope, tell me exactly when this one was built, I've always assumed it was before WWII.

I spent large parts of my childhood in this timber framed and clad house. It had three reception rooms, four bedrooms, a lovely bathroom with separate toilet, a kitchen with a large, solid fuel Aga, a scullery and a front door which was at the back of the house - a gravel drive swept right around the side of house to this front door which in my lifetime the door wasn't used - the entrance lobby was used for storage! The photograph below shows the completed building in the 1950's. The French doors from the sitting room are open onto the brick patio, the windows to the right are in the dining room. The small porch to the right contained the main entrance and connected by a brick corridor to the coal bunkers and the large garage.

These and other photographs show a solid, unpretentious building with traditional tile hanging to the first floor and a clap-board clad ground floor, both imitate the local vernacular. The windows are metal framed, probably Crittal, the hanging tiles are actually cedar shingles, which over time mellowed to a soft grey and never needed painting, the clapboard was a creamy white.

Inside there was no plaster. Apart from dado height panelling on the stairs the interior had soft, fibreboard walls, wallpapered downstairs but not up. In a wind the house would creak and pop, but flexibility is no bad thing.

Steam Engines, Science Museum 1972 - Picture of the Week 3 April 2014

SS Canberra at Gibraltar, Sept. 1997 - Picture of the Week 15 Feb 2014

SS Canberra at Gibraltar in September 1997

SS Canberra visited the port of Gibraltar on her final cruise in September 1997 . Originally built as a trans-oceanic liner in 1960, she made her first voyage from Britain to Australia in 1961. On this maiden voyage she visited the port of Aden, where I was living. We children were taken to the harbour to see the new liner. We weren't allowed on board, but I remember her, and the SS Oriana which we had seen on her maiden voyage in December 1960. All the big liners called at Aden, it was a major shipping port in those days.

Postcard showing SS Oriana at harbour in Aden C1960
 (photograph by Rahmin Bensoor)

Years later, I visited Gibraltar to make a photographic record of work carried out to remedy problems with the Harbour Views apartments on the right of the top photograph. Staying in a flat opposite the Safeway supermarket, I woke one morning to see the Canberra had docked. She was one of many cruise liners to come and go from Gibraltar. She had been converted to a cruise liner after service in the Falklands war; larger, more efficient aircraft had made the flight to Australia possible and the transatlantic ocean voyages became unviable.

My photograph shows Canberra's last visit to Gibraltar. She was on her final cruise, the following month she was scrapped.

The Grocer's Bike - Picture of the Week 19 January 2013

I love this photograph! But I never knew I'd taken it until I was looking through a box of old prints. The grocer's bike was propped up between two hoardings in Ealing in 1972.

I won't apologise for the blurring and lack of definition in parts of the image, because I like the effect, though it's not intentional. This is an old contact print from a 2 1/4 square inch negative, shot on a Rolleicord twin lens reflex camera. The camera was borrowed, I was trying out the format. On the whole I found the camera cumbersome and frustrating, but the negative size was great. These negatives no longer exist, so this slightly blurred and atmospheric contact print is all I now have of this photograph.

Cumulus Clouds Over Queen's Court, Milton Keynes - Picture of the Week 30 November 2013

Photograph taken 12  years before I even had a digital camera. The figures in the centre of the courtyard are actually a 1988 sculpture - Vox Pop by John Clinch

Portrait 'Adrian and Tom, Brighton College of Art, 1970' - Picture of the Week 24 November 2013

Art Students at work in the second floor fine art studio
 

I spent a year at Brighton, finding out that I wasn't a painter. I spent more and more time taking photographs and printing them in the darkrooms there. This is one, a portrait of fellow students at work, doing what I couldn't - putting paint on canvas and knowing what they wanted to represent. At the time I had some of the technique but none of the necessary imagination.

 

This is the sort of portrait photo I like to take. I don't take many formal portraits, I don't find them very interesting to create. I much prefer photographing people doing what they do. Some people call this documentary photography, but I believe a photograph which tells you about what people do, can also tell you who they are and that is portraiture. 

Piccadilly Circus London, Forty Years Ago - Picture of the Week 16.11.13

 

I photographed Piccadilly Circus in around 1974/5, with the Shaftesbury memorial fountain and statue of Anteros, not Eros as is usually stated, standing in the centre.   Anteros was the Greek god of stable, requited love, his older brother Eros was the god of unrequited or mistaken love.  The figure of Anteros was said to be the world's first aluminium statue and was designed in 1892 by sculptor Alfred Gilbert. I don't know if he's a relation, but anything's possible! I made the black and white prints in the darkrooms at Ealing Tech.
 





View from Piccadilly Circus, looking down Shaftesbury Avenue.
Posters advertise the Black Mikado which premiered at the Cambridge Theatre in Earlham Street on 24 April 1975. The show, a musical based on Gilbert and Sullivan's operetta, re-set in Jamaica, had 472 performances before going on a national tour and starred Patti Boulaye, Floella Benjamin and Derek Griffiths.

 

Shopping in Highgate (C1971) - picture of the week 18 October 2013

This was never the smart end of Highgate, it was the Holloway end. Even so this man was having difficulty keeping his temporary grocery going, at the time the area was infected with planning blight. However he stocked vegetables and fruit, a few cans and packets of staple foods, as well as bags of Winalot. He was proud of his shop and happy to have his photograph taken.
 
Much of the area of small Victorian terraces was later re-developed.

Lalique Galleries, London 1930's; Picture of the Week 16 August 2013




Photo by Bill Houghton-Evans C late 1930's

This and one or two other photographs of modernist buildings, taken by Bill Houghton-Evans in the 1930's, mark the beginnings of a young man's interest in architecture, before WWII. 

Breves' new Lalique Galleries opened in the Autumn of 1934 at 2, Basil Street (at the Knightsbridge end of Sloane Street), London, S.W.3. The Times wrote a useful description:-

"The ornamental glass associated with M Rene Lalique deserves recognition as the first attempt in Europe to express the full possibilities of glass as a plastic medium, and Messrs Breves, its agents in London, are to be congratulated on the general effect of their new galleries. A plain shop front faced with travertine, with the names in white metal above, opens to a deeply recessed window which allows a clear view of the whole interior. As far as possible all the working features such as doors, and the decorations of the new galleries are constructed of Lalique glass, in association with stainless steel."

René Jules Lalique (1860 - 1945) was a French designer best known for his creations of glass art and wares including figures and busts for expensive cars, perfume bottles, vases, chandeliers, jewellery and chandeliers. He also made more modest pieces including small ornaments and ashtrays. Lalique's glassware firm remains successful today.

Bill Evans was in the army until 1945, serving in North Africa and Italy, then he attended Nottingham College of Art where he studied Architecture. He practiced as an architect for many years and was also a much respected author, lecturer, town planner and teacher at the University of Leeds.

Breves Galleries in Basil Street no longer exist, but have been briefly immortalised in Michael Holroyd's book Basil Street Blues.

Cuthbert Brodrick, Architect of the Month for July 2013

Architect of the Month - Cuthbert Brodrick 1821- 1905

Interior of Leeds Corn Exchange, built in 1860
(photograph c1980)

Cuthbert Brodrick was born in the East Riding of Yorkshire, in the coastal town of Kingston-upon-Hull on 1 December 1821. He was one of ten children, the sixth son of John and Hannah Brodrick. His father was a wealthy merchant and ship owner, and the family lived at 39, George Street, in the best residential area of Hull.

Brodrick attended Kingston College, he left school at fifteen to become a pupil in the offices of Architect Henry Francis Lockwood at Dock Street in Hull, where he stayed for 8 years learning the profession. In May 1844 he set off on the Grand Tour of Europe, travelling through France and Italy to  Rome, no doubt hoping to expand his architectural studies and expertise.

This must have worked, on his return to Hull in in 1846, Brodrick was offered a partnership in Lockwood’s practice. He turned this offer down to set up on his own, at Savile Street in Hull.

In 1852, when he was 31, Brodrick entered a national competition for the design of a new town hall for the burgeoning town of Leeds. It is said that Brodrick's mother Hannah tried to dissuade him, thinking he had no chance of winning. The competition was judged by Charles Barry, known for his work on the Palace of Westminster and Brodrick's design won. Leeds Town Hall was opened by Queen Victoria in September 1858.

At the time, Leeds was in competition with Manchester for the title of cloth-manufacturing capital of Great Britain. Manchester had just achieved official status as a City and Leeds was determined not to be outdone, however their application to become a city was turned down and Leeds had to wait until 1893 for city status. In the mean time it acquired a magnificent Town Hall. The building and Cuthbert Brodrick became famous, and he moved to Leeds, to set up his practice there, at 30 Park Row. 

Brodrick's next competition win was a design for a new Corn Exchange for Leeds. The old one was only 35 years old, but already inadequate in scale for the growing needs of the corn factors (traders). The first stone was laid on 7th May 1861 on the site near the Kirkgate Market, which had opened there in 1857 following a move from Briggate, though the famous market hall, home of the original Marks and Spencer, would not appear until 1904 .

Corn Exchange interior in around 1915

The builder chosen for the Corn Exchange was Samuel Addy, stonemason, who had been responsible for the Town Hall's clock tower. The Corn Exchange's domed roof structure, in wrought iron, was made at Kirkstall Forge, which is said to be the oldest iron and steel works in Britain, by Butler & Co. The Clerk of Works was apparently a Mr Cairns. The building project was delayed by the discovery of previously dug pits on the site as a result of earlier digging for iron ore, possibly to feed Kirkstall Forge. This discovery no doubt gave Brodrick and Mr Cairns a few sleepless nights but, despite hold-ups, Leeds Corn Exchange opened for business on 28 July 1863.

In 1870 Brodrick moved to France and bought a house at St. Germain, near Paris. After he retired he spent his time painting, exhibiting his work and indulging his love of gardening. In 1898 he went to live near his niece in Jersey, where he rented a house at Gorey on the west coast of the island. He designed and planted a garden there, perhaps his last design task. He died on 2 March 1905, and is buried in St. Martin's Churchyard, Gorey.
  
Other buildings designed by Cuthbert Brodrick include:-

The Leeds Mechanics Institute 1860, which became the Civic Theatre in 1949 and in 2008 the Leeds City Museum;

The Oriental Baths in Cookridge Street, Leeds 1866 - demolished in 1965 - site now occupied by an unattractive Weatherspoon's pub named 'the Cuthbert Brodrick,' though obviously not designed by him;

The Scarborough Grand Hotel;

Headingley Hill Congregational church 1864 - now known as the Ashwood Centre and used by City Church, Leeds.
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Acknowledgements and for further information and photographs of Victorian Leeds, see http://www.leodis.net/discovery/default.asp

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This is the first of what will, I hope, become a regular feature on the architects who have designed some of the iconic, and maybe not so iconic, buildings around Britain.  Buildings which we usually take for granted, but have histories of their own.

Picture of the Week for 25 July 2013: Thatched Cottage at South Mundham, Sussex, C1956

We lived in this beautiful cottage for several months when I was six or seven . We also lived in a bungalow near Aldershot, a large detatched house beside a railway line near Gatwick, a suburban semi in Chichester, a railway carriage on the beach at West Wittering and my grandparents' Colt house at Bosham - all before I was eight.

As my father was in the army, settling anywhere permanently was not on the cards.

This is another of his photos.

Grafitti ; What have they done to the earth? Picture of the week for 20 July 2013

With graffiti, style and technique isn't as powerful as a strong message. Taggers take note.

Mystery Stone Building - Pictures of the week for 14 June 2013

I have come across these old prints of a stone building and know nothing apart from that it might be  somewhere in Scotland. Can anybody enlighten me? My ignorance isn't due a flaw in my memory, I freely acknowledge that they are not my photographs. I just want to know something about this fascinating structure.

Aden; Fishermen and liner; Picture of the week for 17 May 2013

Photograph taken by my father, John S. Gilbert, probably in 1962, the print has deteriorated with age.

I have been told the ship looks like the Oronsay, which visited Aden in that year.

The fishermen appear to be mending their nets on the shore.

Crater Pass Bridge, Aden, Update and Picture of the Week for 26 February 2013

Political unrest which began last week in Aden means the builders of Aden have to postpone their efforts to reconstruct the old bridge. However their survey work was completed and they just need the situation to become calm again so they can continue their efforts to finish this great project.

These two photographs show the rocks below the old bridge and the view up the mountain from the top of the bridge. They were taken by my father, John Gilbert, in about 1960, unfortunately when he had a brief craze for a Polaroid camera, so the image quality is inferior to the previous picture of the bridge, posted before.  The rocks are rugged and volcanic. The caves visible in the left hand photo were probably enlarged to use for military purposes, the mountainside has a number of fortificaions built at different times. There are around 103 steps up to the fortification below the caves.