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A grand municipal health facility opens in August 1938 at a cost to London’s rate-payers of £34,000 |
St Pancras’s inner-city health resort
Dan Carrier tells the story of the
Parliament Hill Lido, opened 70 years ago next week, as a boon for the hard-pressed poor
FOR the boys leaping off the top board at the Parliament Hill Lido, the opening of a new swimming pool in the summer of 1938 gave them a new place to hang out and have fun. But the people who built the Lido, which celebrates its 70th birthday next week, had a higher cause in mind: to improve the health of the people living in the boroughs of St Pancras and Hampstead.
It was a unique period for public works: the tale end of the Great Depression was still lingering and war was on the horizon. Swimming pools were seen as a weapon in the armoury of local government to improve the health of the working classes. It sparked the London County Council into a massive public swimming pool building spree.
The Lido, opened on August 20, 1938 by the chairman of the Football Association, Sir Stanley Rous, was the third in a city-wide series of pools.
The LCC hoped it would provide keep-fit facilities and encourage cleanliness among the grimy lower orders. It was part of a keep-fit craze that had swept across Europe which ranged from rambling (a parliamentary act had thrown open swathes of previously inaccessible areas of countryside) to the inner-city boxing and athletic clubs.
On the opening day, hundreds clicked through the turnstiles of the pool – and, according to contemporary reports, were left “astonished” by its design. It cost £34,000 to build and had a tank that held 650,000 gallons of water.
A local newspaper report described the scene: “The sun sent bright, lively beams across the unbroken surface of the almost unbelievably blue water, and the efficient-looking diving boards at the deep end of the pool wore the air of steady workers resting and preparing for years of sterling service. The fine sweep of the frontage is an excellent architectural welcome, and the spotlessness and orderly appearance of the ‘lido’ in general is painstaking and praiseworthy.”
St Pancras councillor Harry Smith told guests at the opening: “I consider it to be a valuable addition to the already valuable amenities which this neighbourhood already has. It is so close to the borough of Hampstead it could almost be looked upon as a Hampstead possession, but it is a special boon to the people of St Pancras.” He added he hoped the poor of the borough would particularly benefit from the chance of using a facility that would promote cleanliness and health.
With a roll of drums, Flying Officer CD Tomillo of the Highgate Diving Club and Miss J Dixon of the Mermaid Swimming Club dived gracefully from the top board into the pool to declare the place officially open.
The first day – which, after the divers, saw a 15-year-old boy from Gospel Oak swim the first length, had been delayed: the opening was scheduled for July 30 but a strike by glaziers meant no windows had been fitted. Panes of glass were on site but the LCC were warned by other workers if they got non-unionised labourers in they would down tools.
Now, 70 years on, the Lido has faced falling numbers over the years as outdoor swimming fell out of vogue and the pool began to show its age. However, pool guardians the City of London are taking care of their elderly charge. A restoration plan has seen a new steel liner to stem leaks and revamped changing rooms. Part two of the project will see vital work on the foundations completed – sitting at the foot of Parliament Hill has made the ground beneath the Lido shift as 70 years worth of rain water has flown down the slopes – and could include facilities such as a sauna and gym put in.
Happy birthday, Lido!
It helped to put Mike in the movies
THE opening of the Lido was a boon to youngsters, recalls Mike Martin. Mr Martin, 86, has swum in the pool since it first opened and it was the visits to the ponds and the Lido as a young man that were to shape his career as a film stuntman.
Mike lived in Brecknock Road, Kentish Town, and the Lido’s boards were a new place to practise.
He recalled: “I went as soon as it opened. I’d grown up in the Highgate ponds, and first swam there when I was six. They had a 10-metre diving board there – the only one of its kind in the south of England.”
A professional diving team, “The Three L’Aquatics,” would come on a Sunday and crowds would gather on the banks to watch them. One, a man called Ron Hearn, took young Mike under his wing and began teaching him the art of comic diving – until his training was interrupted by the war.
“When I got back from the war, I was lying in the sun by the ponds and a bloke came up to me and said ‘you can dive – come and have a go and show me what you can do’.”
He was a professional diver and Mike joined him on a diving-act circuit which saw him wow crowds with double somersaults and included a bicycle being ridden off the top board of pools in seaside resorts. Mike became a stunt man and among his jobs he doubled for Sophia Loren, and had to dive off an 80-foot board at Pinewood Studios into a tank which was just 7-foot deep.
‘We’d go for a dip in our lunch break’
WALLY May has been swimming in the Lido since he was 12 years old. Aged 82, he recalls the day it opened – and still looks forward to his daily dip.
He grew up in Kentish Town and he remembers the excitement building among his peers before the grand day. “All the gangs of boys around were looking forward to seeing what it was going to be like,” he recalls.
He had learnt to swim in the Prince of Wales pools and spent time at the Men’s Pond – “it was like a second home to us” – but the new Lido was particularly exciting.
“We’d heard about the high boards, spring boards and slides and could not wait to use them,” he said.
And as war broke out, Wally still managed to get a daily swim in.
“There was a factory called Walcox, Evans and Fletcher on Gordon House Road, overlooking the Lido,” he recalls. It produced parts for aircraft. Long since demolished, the site now has flats which is part of the Lissenden Gardens estate.
“I worked there and at lunch times we’d all go for a swim,” he said. Wally still lives just a five-minute walk from the Lido.
“It has played a really important part of my life,” he said. “They look after us so well at the pool and I have made some very good friends through going regularly to the Lido.” |
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