The Lido in the city of

Peterborough Peterborough () is a cathedral city in Cambridgeshire, east of England. It is the largest part of the City of Peterborough unitary authority district (which covers a larger area than Peterborough itself). It was part of Northamptonshire until ...

Cambridgeshire Cambridgeshire (abbreviated Cambs.) is a county in the East of England, bordering Lincolnshire to the north, Norfolk to the north-east, Suffolk to the east, Essex and Hertfordshire to the south, and Bedfordshire and Northamptonshire to the ...

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 Europe, off the north-western coast of the European mainland, continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...

. A striking building with elements of

art deco Art Deco, short for the French ''Arts Décoratifs'', and sometimes just called Deco, is a style of visual arts, architecture, and product design, that first appeared in France in the 1910s (just before World War I), and flourished in the Unite ...

design, the

Lido Lido may refer to: Geography Africa * Lido, a district in the city of Fez, Morocco Asia * Lido, an area in Chaoyang District, Beijing * Lido, a cinema theater in Siam Square shopping area in Bangkok * Lido City, a resort in West Java owned by MN ...

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

River Nene The River Nene ( or : see below) is a river in the east of England that rises from three sources in Northamptonshire.OS Explorer Map sheet 223, Northampton & Market Harborough, Brixworth & Pitsford Water. The river is about long, about of w ...

, 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 authorized to determine the distribution of revenues of the Chu ...

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 or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern Irel ...

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