The Sky Pool is a swimming pool at the

Embassy Gardens Embassy Gardens is a residential and business development built by Ballymore Group in the Nine Elms regeneration zone in London, England, surrounding the Embassy of the United States, London, United States Embassy building opened in 2017. It featu ...

development in the

Nine Elms Nine Elms is an area of south-west London, England, within the London Borough of Wandsworth, with some parts (including the Nine Elms tube station, tube station) extending into the neighbouring London Borough of Lambeth. It lies on the River Thame ...

region of

Wandsworth Wandsworth Town () is a district of south London, within the London Borough of Wandsworth southwest of Charing Cross. The area is identified in the London Plan as one of 35 major centres in Greater London. Toponymy Wandsworth takes its name ...

, a borough of southwest London. It is suspended above the ground and forms a bridge between two tall apartment buildings. Unveiled in May 2021, the pool was criticized as emblematic of economic inequalities in London.

Location

The pool is situated in the

development in the

region of

. It was built by EcoWorld Ballymore. The pool is the world's first "floating" swimming pool, and bridges a gap between two high-rise apartment buildings in the development. It is suspended above the ground. The pool is situated on the Sky Deck of the development and is only accessible to members of the EG:le Club for residents at Embassy Gardens. The Sky Deck also features a spa,

orangery An orangery or orangerie is a room or dedicated building, historically where orange and other fruit trees are protected during the winter, as a large form of greenhouse or conservatory. In the modern day an orangery could refer to either ...

, and bar. The pool is not accessible to shared-ownership residents of Embassy Gardens.

Design

Extending between the two Legacy buildings of the Embassy Gardens development, the pool is heated and is in length; it is the middle section of the pool that is suspended. The roof area was not large enough to accommodate a pool, and so the concept of the "floating pool" was developed. The suspended design of the pool is considered essential to preserve its large size without losing any additional floor space on the roof of the building. Steps into the pool and filtration systems are situated at either end of the pool. ''

Architectural Digest ''Architectural Digest'' (stylized in all caps) is an American monthly magazine founded in 1920. Its principal subjects are interior design and landscaping, rather than pure external architecture. The magazine is published by Condé Nast ...

'' wrote that the pool is believed to be the "world's largest single piece of load-bearing acrylic". The

acrylic Acrylic may refer to: Chemicals and materials * Acrylic acid, the simplest acrylic compound * Acrylate polymer, a group of polymers (plastics) noted for transparency and elasticity * Acrylic resin, a group of related thermoplastic or thermosettin ...

frame weighs ; it is thick with a thick base and is nearly in depth, resting on an invisible steel frame. The structure that forms the pool was fabricated in the United States, in Colorado, by acrylic engineers Reynolds Polymer, Inc., and shipped from Texas in a three-week journey. It was designed by the structural engineers Eckersley O’Callaghan and HAL Architects.

Reception

The pool opened to residents of Embassy Gardens on 19 May 2021. The opening ceremony was hosted by broadcaster

Roman Kemp Roman Kemp (born 28 January 1993), is an American-born British podcast host, television personality and former radio host. From 2017 to 2024, he presented the national radio network Capital FM breakfast show. Kemp presents ''The One Show'' on B ...

and featured a performance by Aquabatix, a

synchronised swimming Synchronized swimming (in British English, synchronised swimming), also known as artistic swimming, is a sport where swimmers perform a synchronized choreographed routine, accompanied by music. The sport is governed internationally by World A ...

team. A short clip taken by a

BBC News BBC News is an operational business division of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) responsible for the gathering and broadcasting of news and current affairs in the UK and around the world. The department is the world's largest broad ...

helicopter of people in the pool was viewed 10 million times. The architecture critic

Oliver Wainwright Oliver Wainwright (born July 1984) is a British architecture and design critic. He has written for the British newspapers ''The Guardian'' and ''The Times'' and is the Features Editor for the industry magazine ''Building Design''. He trained an ...

, writing in ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...

'', described the pool as a "miraculous world first" and a "liquid blue block suspended against the sky" that had the "gravity-defying quality" of a painting by

René Magritte René François Ghislain Magritte (; 21 November 1898 – 15 August 1967) was a Belgium, Belgian surrealist artist known for his depictions of familiar objects in unfamiliar, unexpected contexts, which often provoked questions about the nature ...

. Jessica Cherner, writing in ''

'', felt that the transparency of the pool "mak sit appear like a rectangular glass box floating in mid-air".

Sociological critiques

Wainwright critiqued the pool as "a fantastical aquarium of captive high net worth individuals for the rest of us to gawp at from far below". Writing for ''

Bloomberg News Bloomberg News (originally Bloomberg Business News) is an international news agency headquartered in New York City and a division of Bloomberg L.P. Content produced by Bloomberg News is disseminated through Bloomberg Terminals, Bloomberg T ...

'', in an article entitled "This Swimming Pool in the Sky Is the Ultimate Symbol of London's Affordability Crisis", Kriston Capps felt that the pool "secures an ultra-elite experience at the cost of casually insulting a city in the grips of an affordable-housing crisis" and that "there is a risk that comes with giving profligate wealth physical form and insisting on its transparency. It’s easy to imagine an excessively, aggressively exclusionary amenity becoming a focal point for anger over London’s extreme income inequality and affordable housing, at a time when activism on these topics is growing more intense". Capps described the pool as an "impossibly wondrous amenity" and a "jewel in plain sight of all but out of reach to almost everyone" and the developers have " angleda potent symbol of inequality over all of London's heads". Writing for the ''

New Statesman ''The New Statesman'' (known from 1931 to 1964 as the ''New Statesman and Nation'') is a British political and cultural news magazine published in London. Founded as a weekly review of politics and literature on 12 April 1913, it was at first c ...

'', Anoosh Chakelian felt the pool was a "compelling visible symbol of the housing inequality and uneven housebuilding rampant in the capital". The urban studies academic Rowland Atkinson described the pool as a "cyclopean wet lens" in his 2021 book, ''Alpha City'', and felt that the rooftop garden of Embassy Gardens "emphatically express dthe occupation of the city by a global, free-floating capitalist class".

References

External links

'Sky Pool: World's first 'floating' pool between tower blocks' – Video from BBC NewsBallymore Group – EG:le Club amenities brochure
{{coords, 51.4820, -0.1310, display=title 2021 establishments in England 2021 in London 21st-century architecture in the United Kingdom Buildings and structures in the London Borough of Wandsworth Nine Elms Plastics applications Swimming venues in London