History: Giant diving boards at old lidos

[Jonny69]

I was reading a post on another forum by a chap who had been on a tour of the historic Croydon airport. The buildings still remain in the middle of what is now an industrial estate and inside they have restored it so it is almost exactly as it was in the 1940's. He signed his thread off with a picture of a giant diving board in the middle of a garden centre in Purley, just up the road from the old airport:

http://img268.imageshack.us/img268/8779/purley2.jpg

The story behind it is there used to be a lido where the garden centre now stands, which was closed in 1979. A leisure centre replaced the lido but for some reason or other the diving board was never demolished with the lido and it now stands, restored, in the garden centre.

I tried to find a bit more information about it so I could go and have a look, because it's quite local to me, and while I was out wandering the net I noticed a number of lidos had HUGE diving boards in them!

This one was in Dagenham but is now completely demolished:

http://img197.imageshack.us/img197/5700/leys2.jpg

I think it's completely fascinating as I assumed all lidos were just plain outdoor pools like the ones in Brockwell Park and Guildford. I didn't know some of them were so amazingly styled, with that sort of pre-googie (http://www.spaceagecity.com/googie/) architecture. They must have looked amazing when they were built in the 30's, no wonder they were so popular.

A bit more information here (http://homepage.ntlworld.com/oliver.merrington/lidos/lidos1closed.htm), but it's not actually much help.

[Muban]

They are pretty mazing and I love the architecture. They really weren't 'just' somewhere to swim. Plymouth Tinside Lido is particularly impressive, fairly recently restored. It would be nice to see more restored to the same degree.

[FakeSnake]

There are a few Lidos in the area here, and salt water swimming pools to explore.

The plymouth one is particularly fantastic.

[Jonny69]

They really weren't 'just' somewhere to swim.
I think we're missing that wow factor these days. The architecture at that Dagenham one was pushing 20 years ahead of anything else, it must have looked mind blowing back then.

[Knipples]

The Clifton Lido here in Bristol is amazing! It was built and then loads of houses sprung up around it. It fell into ruin until about 5 years ago when some people decided to get together and restore it. Now it looks like this!

http://www.lidobristol.com/

http://www.lidobristol.com/swimming.php

[Tiggy]

There is a Lido at Woodhall spa which is about 45 minutes from here. Well worth the travel as there is a small independent cinema nearby and some wonderful hotels and country parks.

[vix]

I love Lidos, think they are really interesting places. Prefer the derelict ones to the restored ones too - I have some kind of strange interst in deserted pools!