Last week I had my granddaughter Erin staying for the week. On Wednesday I took her out for the day. We took the train just a few miles up the coast to a lovely harbour, seaside town called Stonehaven. This is the town I visited last summer for a short, four day break. I loved it there and promised Erin I would take her one day. To read about the town just follow the link.
http://www.undiscoveredscotland.co.uk/stonehaven/stonehaven/index.html
For Erin the major attraction was the impressive out door swimming pool. It was built in the 30’s and has all they style of a genuine art deco building.
It has been beautifully restored and Erin and I spend a very enjoyable couple of hours there. Fortunately;………..I still have all my photos from last year
This art deco Pool is the only functioning 50 metre filtered heated sea water open air facility known to survive in the United Kingdom. It was first opened by local public subscription in June 1934, when the townsfolk showed remarkable foresight in building it to full Olympic metric standards. Massively popular from the 30's to the 70's with figures reaching 65,000 annually, its popularity dwindled in the 80's as people tended to holiday abroad. With attendances dropping to under 15,000 and its fabric showing its age, its was earmarked for closure by the Council in 1994. This threat, saw the formation of the "Friends of the Pool", a local conservation body dedicated to saving it.
Following several years of often tough negotiation, closure was avoided via the adoption of a mutually agreed strategy whereby the Council provides an annual capital budget, plant maintenance and qualified lifeguard staffing, whilst the Friends contribute through fund raising activities and marketing skills, and provide a pool of enthusiastic volunteers who fully redecorate the pool each Spring in advance of its summer season.
The complete renovation of the pool in vivid cheerful art-deco colours and the implementation of various other improvements including a replacement water chute, sun awnings, four column floodlights, thermal pool covers and marketing initiatives such as ships and the creation of a website, saw annual attendances gradually increase and , it’s now heading towards 40,000.
The success of the relationship was recognised in May 2000 when the Friends and the Council entered into welcome Formal Partnership to assure the pool's long-term future. The pool provides great pleasure for locals and visitors of all ages, from infants to pensioners.
Very nice Loretta, I remember the pool from last year. I like to see old buildings restored, so much character.
ReplyDeleteIt looks like a very nice place. I spent the hottest part of the summer in the pool so I could definitely enjoy that.
ReplyDeletewow loretta what happy place to visit can I come to-lovely
ReplyDeleteWhat a beautiful piece of history. Thank you my friend.
ReplyDeleteDid you have sun? We have been having cool rainy weather, maybe today it will clear up.
ReplyDeleteWonderful! And well done on the locals keeping it open!
ReplyDeleteWe had a fabulous open air pool in a local town that I spent all my time in as a child. It had a large pool like this one, a smaller toddler pool, and a paddling pool for babies. It also had it's own cafe.
The council saw fit to close it, and no amount of pressure would persuade them otherwise :( Along with knocking down the tennis courts in the park next door, the young kids now have little to do.
This post and its pictures bring a great big smile to my face :))
I remember these photos of the pool. It would have been a pity if they'd closed this.
ReplyDeleteAbsolutely stunning. We have many outdoor pools here, but none with this kind of character. I think culturally the US is more into redoing things than Britain, as opposed to restoring.
ReplyDeleteIt's so great that they managed to rescue it from closure. It shows what can be done with the right co-operation and planning between local councils and volunteer groups. The restoration is wonderful.
ReplyDeleteAs a child, I spent many, many hours down at the public pool and I've always loved a swim. They've done up the place very well, and art-deco was a fabulously interesting period for decoration. I sometimes wander around in any city I might visit, looking at architectural features of buildings. The art deco ones are fairly easy to spot.
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