when we first moved from Cambridge to Weston-super-Mare when I was sixteen, the town was not nearly as extensive as it is now and was a typical English seaside town. it was rather sleepy and old-fashioned, and my sister and Ii found it very boring after Cambridge. We met some lovely friends, and in fact after having moved away and spent many years in the north, we are now back.
One of the great things about Weston is the long promenade beside the sea; along this sea front there was what used to be an island but is now joined to the land and on it there was an indoor swimming pool, Turkish baths and other facilities… I believe there was a theatre there too. There was a marine lake, so the water would be trapped at the very low tide we have here and be available for swimmers whatever time it was; there was the pier and there was The Pool
The Pool was an outside swimming pool, a lido, built in 1937, which was popular with residents and visitors alike. It had an amazing art deco diving board, the highest in Europe at the time, and the largest pool. The diving board was given national recognition as a work of significance and listed. Everyone knew and loved the Pool. I guess it was maybe old-fashioned and the facilities needed modernizing, but it was so popular and well used… in the summer. In the winter of course it stood closed and empty. In the 1960’s more people were able to go abroad for holidays, cheap flights and packages meant ordinary folk could travel to the sun instead of sitting shivering on English beaches.
The Pool became the Tropicana, and the magnificent diving board was pulled down in 1982… I don’t understand how that could have happened as it was listed, but that was only the beginning of the sorry saga. The Trop closed in 200 and since then it has stood derelict much to the horror, dismay and outrage of the Weston towns people – and no doubt the visitors too! North Somerset Council owns the land and there have been various schemes and plans for redeveloping the site – some of them utterly mad such as the one which had an underground carppark (Weston is built on shifting and when the tide comes in comes in beneath the surface of the ground…) Businesses, individuals, local groups, concerned local entrepreneurs, all have submitted their ideas. Some have been accepted, some have been turned down, money has gone backwards and forwards… All we want is a decent pool… with modern building materials surely it is not beyond the wit and skill to make a pool with a closable roof which could be used year round?
As it is, this frightful blot sits on the seafront; visible from far away like a nasty carbuncle, it is a shame and a disgrace.Local youths break in, homeless people try to shelter there, the weather does its worst, and the whole thing is gradually falling to pieces which I guess is what the council want.
A shame and disgrace!
http://www.tropicanawestonsupermare.co.uk/
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-somerset-24638633
Lois Elsden 