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:



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:



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 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, but it's not actually much help.