{"id":561121,"date":"2025-11-10T09:35:11","date_gmt":"2025-11-10T09:35:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/561121\/"},"modified":"2025-11-10T09:35:11","modified_gmt":"2025-11-10T09:35:11","slug":"the-oldest-lido-in-britain-could-be-forced-to-shut-forever","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/561121\/","title":{"rendered":"The Oldest Lido in Britain Could Be forced to Shut Forever"},"content":{"rendered":"

At the grand age of 207, Cleveland Pools in Bath<\/a>\u00a0is the oldest public swimming pool<\/a> in the UK and the country\u2019s only surviving Georgian lido. Over more than two centuries, it\u2019s gone through its fair share of hardships, and just two years after the pool was brought back to life<\/a> it\u2019s been revealed that it may have to say goodbye for good.\u00a0<\/p>\n

First, a small history lesson. Cleveland Pools\u00a0was built on the banks of the River Avon in 1815 and was used by bathers until 1984 when public funds were redirected to a local sports centre. It was out of action (besides a brief stint as a trout farm) for the next 40 years. Then, a trust was formed to rescue the pool in 2004 and a \u00a39.3m was raised for an enormous renovation project.\u00a0The pool finally reopened in September 2023, but its return turned out to be short lived.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Just four months later,\u00a0flooding caused substantial damage to the plantroom (the room\u00a0containing all the\u00a0pumps, filtration systems and chemical dosing equipment\u00a0need to run the pool), and the\u00a0Cleveland Pools was forced to close again. It hasn\u2019t been able to reopen since.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Now, a\u00a0new\u00a0financial report on Companies House\u00a0has warned\u00a0that repair and permanent reopening of the beloved Cleveland Pools may not be possible.<\/p>\n

The report said\u00a0that trustees went back to the National Lottery Heritage Funding asking for more money to \u2018carry out investigations to assess the cause and extent of the damage\u2019. It stated: \u2018The risk that the cost to repair the pools and the plantroom will be substantial and beyond the resources available to the trust. There is therefore a risk that the pools cannot be repaired and reopened.\u2019<\/p>\n

\u2018To mitigate against this risk the trust is exploring all potential avenues that would allow the pools to be repaired and reopened, including but not limited to legal recourse and external funding.\u2019<\/p>\n

A spokesperson for the National Lottery Heritage Fund told the\u00a0Independent<\/a>:\u00a0\u2018We recognise the commitment of Cleveland Pools Trust to address the ongoing impact of the flooding. As part of our responsibility to ensure accountability, effectiveness, and efficient use of public funds we are continuing to monitor the situation, and the National Lottery Heritage Fund is meeting regularly with the Cleveland Pools Trust as they work toward a solution.\u2019<\/p>\n

The report states that the next steps for trustees will be to\u00a0finalise the investigation works and costs of repairs and then work with the council and National Lottery Fund to secure funding.\u00a0<\/p>\n

ICYMI:\u00a0The UK\u2019s second longest pier is set to reopen after a \u00a320 million makeover<\/a>.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

Plus:\u00a0<\/strong>This\u00a0historic railway tunnel has been given a new lease of life with a thrilling new ride<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Stay in the loop:\u00a0sign up to our\u00a0free Time Out UK newsletter<\/a>\u00a0for the latest UK news and the best stuff happening across the country.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"At the grand age of 207, Cleveland Pools in Bath\u00a0is the oldest public swimming pool in the UK…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":561122,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,4],"tags":[748,6419,393,4884,6420,1144,712,6417,16,15,1764],"class_list":{"0":"post-561121","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-uk","8":"category-united-kingdom","9":"tag-britain","10":"tag-categories-things-to-do","11":"tag-england","12":"tag-great-britain","13":"tag-news-city-life","14":"tag-northern-ireland","15":"tag-scotland","16":"tag-things-to-do","17":"tag-uk","18":"tag-united-kingdom","19":"tag-wales"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115524725969092252","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/561121","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=561121"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/561121\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/561122"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=561121"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=561121"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=561121"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}