The Lido in the city of

Peterborough Peterborough ( ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city in the City of Peterborough district in the Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county of Cambridgeshire, England. The city is north of London, on the River Nene. A ...

Cambridgeshire Cambridgeshire (abbreviated Cambs.) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the East of England and East Anglia. It is bordered by Lincolnshire to the north, Norfolk to the north-east, Suffolk to the east, Essex and Hertfor ...

was first opened as the Corporation Swimming Pool in 1936 by the Mayor of Peterborough Arthur Mellows, and is one of the few survivors of its type still in use in the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Northwestern Europe, off the coast of European mainland, the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...

. A striking building with elements of

art deco Art Deco, short for the French (), is a style of visual arts, architecture, and product design that first Art Deco in Paris, appeared in Paris in the 1910s just before World War I and flourished in the United States and Europe during the 1920 ...

design, the

Lido Lido may refer to: Geography * Lido (Belgrade), a river beach on the Danube in Belgrade, Serbia * Venice Lido, an 11-kilometre-long barrier island in the Venetian Lagoon, Venice, Italy * Ruislip Lido, a reservoir and artificial beach in Ruisl ...

and surrounding gardens cover an area of roughly , lying adjacent to the embankment of the

River Nene The River Nene ( or ) flows through the counties of Northamptonshire, Cambridgeshire, Lincolnshire, and Norfolk in Eastern England from its sources in Arbury Hill in Northamptonshire. Flowing Northeast through East England to its mouth at Lutt ...

, south of the city centre. Designed in the "hacienda style", it is considered one of the finest surviving examples in England.

Facilities

The land on which the swimming pool is situated was purchased by the corporation from the

Ecclesiastical Commissioners The Ecclesiastical Commissioners were, in England and Wales, a body corporate, whose full title was Ecclesiastical and Church Estates Commissioners for England. The commissioners were authorised to determine the distribution of revenues of the Ch ...

in 1927. The main pool is deep at the deep end sloping to at the shallow end and holds 500,000 gallons (2,273 m³) of water. The site, which also includes two other heated outdoor pools (learner and paddling), a large sunbathing lawn, balcony and refreshment area was designated a Grade II

listed building In the United Kingdom, a listed building is a structure of particular architectural or historic interest deserving of special protection. Such buildings are placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Hi ...

in 1992. It is open to the public from late May to early September, closing during periods of inclement weather.The Lido: outdoor swimming pool
Peterborough Evening Telegraph, 12 May 2009 Peterborough Sub-Aqua Club are official tenants of the Lido, renting some of the rooms beneath the clock tower. In 2016, the Lido erected a silhouette of Walter Cornelius as a weathercock on the swimming pool's

weather vane A wind vane, weather vane, or weathercock is an instrument used for showing the direction of the wind. It is typically used as an architectural ornament to the highest point of a building. The word ''vane'' comes from the Old English word , m ...

References

Footnotes

Bibliography

External links

The Lido Outdoor Swimming PoolThe Regional Fitness & Swimming CentreLidos in the UKPeterborough Sub-Aqua Club

Grade II listed buildings in Peterborough Lidos Swimming venues in England Art Deco architecture in England {{England-sports-venue-stub