The Lido Story

The lido building boom of the last century peaked in the 1920s and 1930s. At this time of deep economic recession, investment in public facilities and public health were seen as essential for the nation’s future. Soon an open-air bathing pool was a badge of honour for any self-respecting municipality, and they were important tourist attractions, contributing to the growth and prosperity of countless seaside towns.

The lidos that survive from this time hold deep architectural heritage value in their tiles and bricks and whitewashed concrete. From elegant, functional simplicity to flamboyant examples of the Modernist and Art Deco movements, each one testifies to the innovation and ambition of its creators, and expresses the unique spirit of its place.

More than this, our lidos are reservoirs of important social history. They were a progression from pioneering 19th-century pool building in places like Liverpool, Southampton and Derby – but they differed in two important ways.

First, they were deliberately classless. Lidos arrived at a time when workers were beginning to have leisure time, and these open air pleasure palaces catered as diligently to the mill worker and her family as they did to the wealthy and fashionable. Many were built under job creation schemes for unemployed workers in the Depression. Becoming central features of the holiday camp experience of the mid 20th century, outdoor pools provided and celebrated working class joy for many decades.

Secondly, they emerged at the same time as mixed bathing, providing an equal leisure opportunity for women alongside men. Their popularity with children, and with holidaymakers in general, cemented their role as a much-loved family activity.

By the 1930s, open-air pools had become emblems of municipal modernity and of faith in a brighter, more enlightened future - in much the same way that public libraries had become a generation or two earlier. At their peak, there were more than 300 active public outdoor pools in the UK, with no less than 11 on Merseyside and 68 in London.

In the 1960s, the policy tide began to turn. Two influential reports, in 1960 and 1968, catalysed a move to building only indoor swimming pools. From then on, councils’ budgets were diverted to creating indoor pools and leisure centres, and many outdoor pools were allowed to fall into neglect and disrepair. The situation was compounded in the 1980s, when central government cuts to council funding made it even harder to sustain public services like lidos.

The 1980s and 1990s were the darkest time for UK lidos, when the country’s stock of outdoor pools dwindled by almost two thirds. But even then, communities were fighting back.

In Hampton in the 1980s, and in Cheltenham in the 1990s, community groups formed charities, raised funds, took possession of the lease and reopened their pools, setting a template for what was to come.

In a community-driven movement linked to the exponential rise of outdoor swimming, the revival of lidos has really gathered pace this century.

Community groups have stepped in to revive pools in dozens of towns across the UK, and councils have responded to community demand by investing in lidos from Hackney to Hathersage.

The Future Lidos group has grown from half a dozen project leaders on a Zoom call in 2021 to over 30 projects and campaigns across the UK and Ireland.

In 2023 (dubbed the Year of the Lido), we saw lidos reopening in Bath and Hull, and the first new outdoor pool since the 1990s opening in Brighton. There was investment in the future of lidos in Ware, Newbury and Tooting Bec, and plans were laid for major redevelopments in Plymouth and Portsmouth. New pools were announced in Ilford, Hackney, Ealing and Ilfracombe. And more and more lidos moved to opening in the winter months, in response to demand.

We are poised on the edge of a second golden age for lidos.

The needs that drove the first lido boom a hundred years ago have not gone away – if anything, the state of our health, our economy and our planet makes the need even more urgent.

With the right investment, lidos can nourish our health, our happiness, our economy and our communities long into the future.