The best public swimming pools around the world

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From Bondi to Berlin and Copenhagen to Cornwall, swimming pools – particularly outdoor ones – are always in demand. Dominic Lutyens dives in and explores the pool’s past, present and future.

\n\nIn countries as far afield as Iceland, Denmark and the UK, and in cities such as Los Angeles, Sydney, Berlin and Beijing, public swimming pools have historically been democratic palaces of leisure. In the UK, many public pools and outdoor lidos have long lain neglected; yet they are now experiencing a revival, as people increasingly rediscover the invigorating pleasures of swimming, especially outdoors. With a growing number of community groups and councils recognising the value of lidos (outdoor swimming pools) and pools to local communities, many are being restored and modernised to meet 21st-Century requirements.\n

\n\nThe golden age of lidos in the UK was in the 1930s, when outdoor swimming became popular, and 169 were built across the country as recreational facilities. This continued into the 1940s and 50s. \”Their designs were grand, and developed a strong sense of place for the communities,\” https://www.happylandgummybears.com/ says Wood. \”But, from the 1960s, fewer people flocked to lidos, due partly to the 1960 Wolfenden report on sport and community, which recommended that public pools be housed indoors. A 1968 Sports Council report, Planning for Sport, stressed the seasonal nature of lidos, deeming them poor value for money. By the 1960s, outdoor pools received less funding and were falling into disrepair.\”\n\nAccelerating their decline, says Wood, was the increase in foreign travel.\”UK lidos compared less well to countries with warmer climates that people were starting to holiday in.\” But unpredictable British weather can’t really be blamed for precipitating the lido’s demise: \”Countries such as the Netherlands, Germany, Finland, Sweden and Iceland – with similar weather – have maintained outdoor pools and their vibrant cultures,\” says Wood.\n\n

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By the 1960s, Icelandic lidos went ludic, emphasising play over sport, with the addition of hot tubs and gigantic slides.
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\n\nArchitecturally splendid, intact interwar and postwar pools in Reykjavik, Iceland, include Sundhöll (which means swimming palace), a modernist building featuring a 25m-long pool, designed by Guðjón Samúelsson, and completed in 1937. Icelandic pools are currently celebrated in an exhibition called Bathing Cultur at the Museum of Design and Applied Art in Reykjavik. By the 1960s, the exhibition shows, lidos went ludic, emphasising play over sport, with the addition of hot tubs and gigantic slides.\n

\n\nIn Los Angeles, there’s the ocean-facing Annenberg Community Beach House, built in the 1920s for actress Marion Davies by her lover, William Randolph Hearst. Incorporating a heated pool that flanks Santa Monica Beach, it was restored and opened to the public in 2009. \”The State of California bought the property in 1959,\” says Jan Dyer, principal of Studio-MLA, the practice that refurbished it. \”The City of Santa Monica took over operations in the 1990s, and invited the public to reimagine its future after the 1994 Northridge earthquake damaged all its structures. Funding from the Annenberg Foundation allowed the City to realise its vision of a year-round public beach house. The original pool was intact but carefully restored, its marble tiles either cleaned or replaced, if damaged, while hand-painted decorative fish motifs on the bottom of the pool were repaired. Studio-MLA designed the children’s play area and surrounding new structures, and introduced sustainable strategies to reduce light pollution and energy use.\”\n\nIn the UK, a renewed interest in lidos began in the 2000s with the publication of books such as Liquid Assets: The Lidos and Open Air Swimming Pools of Britain by Janet Smith, and The Lido Guide by Emma Pusill and Janet Wilkinson. \”Several old lidos are scheduled to re-open this year in the UK, such as Cleveland Pools in Bath, Britain’s oldest example,\” says Wood. \”Another in Hull should follow in 2023 and we can expect to see 20-30 new public outdoor pools by 2030, bringing the number of public lidos in Britain from around 130 to 160.\”\n\nMunicipal pools, such as Moseley Road Baths, a handsome, Edwardian building lined with glazed brickwork in Balsall Heath, Birmingham, built in 1907, and Art Deco seawater lido Jubilee Pool in Penzance, Cornwall – so-called because it was opened in 1935 to celebrate the Silver Jubilee celebrations of King George V – were once impressive, large-scale amenities until they fell into disrepair. The former is being renovated; the latter has been fully refurbished.\n\n

\n\nMoseley Road Baths, an ornate building designed by William Hale and Son, almost closed a few years ago because costs to repair it were so exorbitant. The building had once served various practical functions including laundry washing and individual bathing at a time when many homes didn’t have bathrooms. Over time, condensation and air-borne chemicals had caused decay in the cast-iron arches spanning the width of its largest bathing area – the 75ft by 35ft Gala Pool. However, they have been recently renovated by conservation architects Donald Insall Associates (also responsible for restoring the Ancient Roman thermal springs and Cleveland Pools, both in Bath).\n\n\”Friends of Moseley Road Baths was set up following a public outcry over plans to close the building,\” says Matthew Vaughan, the project’s lead architect. \”They formed a coalition with Historic England, World Monuments Fund and Birmingham City Council, which jointly funded the repairs.\” The baths now offer activities serving the local community, including therapeutic-movement classes, yoga, language lessons, tai chi and crafts exhibitions. The baths have also been used for some time by the LGBTQ+ swimming group, Moseley Shoals.\n\nBalconies flanking the pool have been repaired: \”The Roman baths we restored also had balconies,\” says Vaughan. \”At Moseley Road Baths these would have been used to spectate swimming competitions… and supervise swimming classes later in the 20th Century.\” Pointing out the origins of public bathing, he adds: \”In his Ten Books on Architecture, [Roman architect] Vitruvius wrote about public baths in Ancient Rome. The Romans constructed buildings that took advantage of natural hot springs and mastered the artificial engineering of water. Public bathing was common in Britain during the Roman occupation, for example at the baths in Bath.\”\n\nA bigger splash\n\nNow the Romans’ water-heating techniques are being adopted afresh in our environmentally conscious times, notably at Cornwall’s Jubilee Pool, one of the largest seawater lidos in the UK: \”The drive to refurbish it was instigated in 2014 by Friends of the Jubilee Pool, a charity set up by locals, who raised £1.8m towards its renovation, with support from Cornwall Council, Penzance Council and EU funding,\” says Alex Scott-Whitby, director of Scott Whitby Studio, the architects behind the refurbishment.\n\n

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By the 1960s, Icelandic lidos went ludic, emphasising play over sport, with the addition of hot tubs and gigantic slides.

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