The Royal Commonwealth Pool is a category-A-listed building in St Leonard's,

Edinburgh Edinburgh ( ; gd, Dùn Èideann ) is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. Historically part of the county of Midlothian (interchangeably Edinburghshire before 1921), it is located in Lothian ...

, Scotland that houses one of Scotland's main swimming pools. It is usually referred to simply as the Commonwealth Pool and known colloquially as the 'Commie'.

History

The pool was commissioned by the Council under a plan by the then Lord Provost, Sir Herbert Archbold Brechin in 1966 as part of a wider project to bring the

Commonwealth Games The Commonwealth Games, often referred to as the Friendly Games or simply the Comm Games, are a quadrennial international multi-sport event among athletes from the Commonwealth of Nations. The event was first held in 1930, and, with the exce ...

to Edinburgh. This, with the help of other committee members such as Sir

John Inch Sir John Ritchie Inch CVO CBE QPM (14 May 1911 – 22 November 1993) was a police officer who was successively Chief Constable of three Scottish police forces. Inch was born in Lesmahagow, Lanarkshire, Scotland. At the age of eleven he was ...

, came to fruition in October 1969. Construction began in 1967 and was completed in October 1969. The architecture was by

Robert Matthew Johnson Marshall RMJM (Robert Matthew Johnson Marshall) is one of the largest architecture and design networks in the world. Services include architecture, development management, engineering, interior design, landscape design, lead consultancy, master planning, ...

with structural input from

Ove Arup & Partners Arup (officially Arup Group Limited) is a British multinational professional services firm headquartered in London which provides design, engineering, architecture, planning, and advisory services across every aspect of the built environment ...

. The pool was used for elite diving events hosted in Edinburgh, also being used for the

2014 Commonwealth Games The 2014 Commonwealth Games ( gd, Geamannan a' Cho-fhlaitheis 2014), officially known as the XX Commonwealth Games and commonly known as Glasgow 2014, ( sco, Glesca 2014 or Glesga 2014; gd, Glaschu 2014), was an international multi-sport ev ...

and the inaugural

2018 European Championships The 2018 European Championships were the first edition of the European Championships. It was a multi-sport event which took place in Berlin, Germany, and Glasgow, Scotland, United Kingdom (with Edinburgh hosting the diving events and Gleneagles ...

, both hosted in Glasgow. The pool was closed 2009 to 2012 for major internal remodelling.

Architectural award nominations

In 1993 it was selected by the international conservation organisation

DoCoMoMo Docomomo International (sometimes written as DoCoMoMo or simply Docomomo) is a non-profit organization whose full title is: International Committee for Documentation and Conservation of Buildings, Sites and Neighbourhoods of the Modern Movement. ...

as one of sixty key Scottish monuments of the

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period.

It was also nominated in 2002 by the Architecture Heritage Society of Scotland as one of the most significant modern contributions to Scottish heritage. These sentiments were echoed in

Prospect 100 best modern Scottish buildings In 2005, the Scottish architecture magazine ''Prospect'' published a list of the 100 best modern Scottish buildings, as voted for by its readers. See also * DoCoMoMo Key Scottish Monuments DoCoMoMo Key Scottish Monuments is a list of 60 notabl ...

, published in 2005. S&P Architects were the architects and lead consultants for the 2012 refurbishment and were awarded the Scottish Design Award in 2012 for the best reuse of a listed building.

Refurbishment

In June 2009, the pool was closed to the public to begin refurbishment. The project, led by Frank and Charlie of S&P Architects (now Space&Place Architects) began in August 2009, costing approximately £37 million, and included new diving and teaching pools as well as improvements to the changing rooms, café, reception, and the dive gym. It was originally expected to be finished by mid-2011 but did not reopen until March 2012.(20 March 2012
Commonwealth Pool in Edinburgh officially reopens
BBC News, Retrieved 28 February 2013

References

External links

Edinburgh LeisureS&P Architects
{{Culture and leisure facilities in Edinburgh Sports venues completed in 1970 1970 establishments in Scotland Category A listed buildings in Edinburgh Listed sports venues in Scotland Sports venues in Edinburgh Swimming venues in Scotland 1970 British Commonwealth Games venues 1986 Commonwealth Games venues 2014 Commonwealth Games venues Commonwealth Games swimming venues 2018 European Aquatics Championships