‘We need this kind of accessible leisure to be able to improve our health and bring us all together’
Deborah Aydon, the brain behind ‘The People’s Pool'(Image: Andrew Teebay/Liverpool Echo)
With high temperatures across Merseyside, the appeal of a cool, open-air swim is hard to ignore. But while cities like London and Bristol are reviving their historic lidos – or building new ones – the Liverpool City Region remains without a single public outdoor pool.
That wasn’t always the case. Once, there were 11 lidos across the region, from Southport to New Brighton. And in 2018, theatre producer and creative Deborah Aydon launched ‘The People’s Pool,’ a project that aimed to bring outdoor swimming back to Merseyside. The vision was bold, inclusive and community-focused – an accessible, year-round space that would promote public health, connection, and joy – not to mention cooling us all down in the heat.
With early support from Wirral Council and growing grassroots momentum, it looked like The People’s Pool might really happen. But then the pandemic struck. Local authority backing was lost and the idea lay dormant.
Deborah spoke to the ECHO about the story behind the project, the challenges it faced, and whether Merseysiders might ever swim again in a public lido of our own.
Describing the moment she came up with the idea for The People’s Pool, seven years ago, Deborah, who is the former executive director of Liverpool Everyman and Playhouse theatres, said: “I was very aware that we used to have a lot of outdoor pools on Merseyside – there were 11 back in the day. And we’d lost them all.
“Outdoor swimming was massively growing in popularity. Lots of lidos that had been closed in the late 20th century were being revived, and it felt like something that we needed here in Merseyside.
“I started by writing a few emails to people saying, ‘I’ve got an idea. I don’t know if it’s a mid-life crisis or a project. Have you got time for a coffee?’ So we had some coffees and everyone thought it was a good idea, and told me I should speak to this person, this person and this person – and I did.
“Very quickly, this huge network developed of people who wanted it to happen and were looking to help – whether they were local politicians, community groups, swimmers, or people I’d worked with through the Everyman.”
In March 2020, Wirral Council approved the award of an £80,000 sum to The People’s Pool’s team for feasibility studies. New Brighton, which had once boasted a lido, was the preferred location for the pool. Deborah explained: “Wirral Council came on board because New Brighton was one of the most spectacular pools that Merseyside had had – and the community had always wanted their lido back.
“It fitted with the council’s goals of reviving New Brighton as a resort.
The opening of The New Brighton Derby Lido in 1934(Image: Mirrorpix)
“By early 2020, I had a huge group of people who wanted to be part of it, a large and growing number of people who wanted to swim in it, lots of people who could help to make it happen – and Wirral Council, who were keen to have it on their patch. It was all really exciting.”
Deborah’s excitement would not last. By 2021, The People’s Pool had already been awarded £12,500 of the £80,000 approved a year earlier. However, due to money the council had lost during the coronavirus pandemic, further approval would be required for the remaining £67,500 of the grant.
The council voted not to award the rest of the money, effectively ending the prospects of a lido. Deborah said: “Without a local authority partner, there was really no way of moving it forward. It’s not something we could do without the council.”
She added: “This wasn’t a commercial venture, it was very much a social venture. It was about looking at how we could bring the benefits of outdoor swimming to the widest possible community across the city region.”
Explaining the benefits of public lidos, Deborah said: “They are such a huge growth sector in leisure, and new lidos are being created and revived all over the place. They’re hugely popular and they’re a very accessible form of activity for people.
“With the public health crisis we’ve got, the mental health crisis in children and young people, and all the economic difficulties we’re facing, we need this kind of accessible leisure to be able to improve our health and bring us all together, but also to give us joy. We’ve never needed it more.
When asked if she thought The People’s Pool was a missed opportunity, Deborah said: “I do, I really do. For a coastal region, where water safety is key, it’s so important that children learn to swim. A lot of children are leaving primary school unable to swim.
“There’s also the health benefits and, yes, in a heatwave we’d all be desperate to get in there and cool off – and as the climate keeps on warming, we’ll need that more and more – but the idea of The People’s Pool is that it would be a year-round facility.
“It wouldn’t just be something that we all flock to on three or four boiling days every year, or through the summer months.”
Will the Liverpool City Region ever get another lido? Deborah thinks so: “I think, at some point, Liverpool will get a lido because they are such a fantastic form of activity and such a brilliant community resource. Whether it’ll be in the form of The People’s Pool, who knows?
“It might be a commercial venture or another type of venture. I’ve certainly got a head full of knowledge on the subject and an address book full of contacts that I’d be happy to share if anyone else was developing a lido. But I just don’t have the ability to drive it myself anymore.”
Wirral Council declined to comment.
To see what happened to Merseyside’s lost lidos, and what became of them, take a look at this article.