Grange Over Sands Lido

Summary

A seaside salt-water lido constructed in 1932 to designs by the Council Surveyor Bernard Smith. It is complete with all key ancillary buildings including an entrance block with upper viewing gallery and attached sun decks, detached changing wings, terraces, pump house, paddling pool and stepped diving stage. The slide and diving boards have been removed. The lido closed in c. 1993.

Reasons for Designation

Grange over Sands Lido constructed in 1932 is listed at Grade II for the following principal reasons:

* Completeness: as a complete example of a 1930s lido with the survival of all key ancillary buildings and structures

* Pool: for the unusually shaped pool, designed for multiple uses and which retains its original stepped diving stage.

* Historic: as an evocative reminder of the former popularity of sea-side towns such as Grange over Sands and the inter-war cult of fresh air, fitness and mass leisure

History

The arrival of the railway in 1857, transformed Grange over Sands from a small fishing village to a popular seaside resort lying on the north side of Morecambe Bay, with the promenade developed just after the turn of the C20. The lido, accessed off the promenade, was constructed in 1932 to a design by Mr Bernard Smith, Grange over Sands Urban District Council Surveyor. Inter-war lidos characterise the period in their combination of design flair, outdoor leisure and devotion to the cult of sea, sun and fresh air. The pool was unheated and filled with filtered water taken from the sea at high tide. Photographs taken of the lido in the 1930s and 1960s demonstrate its popularity for both swimmers and spectators alike, and depict the original slide and diving boards which were removed in the second half of the C20. The lido closed in 1993. Since the lido was built, shifting tidal currents have moved the sea a significant distance to the east and it is now separated from the lido by a broad area of marshland, which covers the former beach.

Details

Lido. 1932 by Bernard Smith, Grange over Sands Urban District Council Surveyor

MATERIALS: Concrete with brick ancillary buildings with concrete dressings; slate roof coverings

PLAN: Pool set in a roughly semi-circular enclosure with splayed sides, with an entrance building in the centre of the landward side, flanked by sunbathing terraces with separate men’s and ladies’ changing room blocks at either end. A small pool, probably a children’s paddling pool is set to the north side with a pump room and a diving stage at the centre of the east side, flanked by stepped terraces.

POOLS: The focal point of the lido is the bathing pool, shaped to resemble the cross section of a mushroom, sloping down to the east with the narrower stalk forming the deep end. Adjacent to the deep end there is a single-storey rectangular shaped pump house, with an attached arched, 5-level diving stage (diving boards removed). Steps flanked by iron railings lead up from the poolside to the flat roof of the pump house where access was formerly gained to the diving boards. Either side of the diving stage, stepped seating curves around the south-east and north-east sides of the pool. A small children's paddling pool is situated immediately east of the ladies’ changing rooms.

ENTRANCE BUILDING: This is accessed through a large, wide entrance from the promenade and comprises a 2-storey 5 bay pavilion with a pitched roof over the 3 bay central section and hipped roofs over the slightly projecting end bays. The building has overhanging eaves and an eaves cornice. The ground floor has five sets of paired windows, separated by piers, and each return has an opening giving access to raised sun terraces attached to either side of the building. The ground-floor piers rise to support the upper floor in the form of narrower piers each flanked by slender Doric columns. The upper floor houses a viewing gallery with five openings overlooking the bathing pool to the east and single openings to each return. Limited inspection of the ground floor revealed that this has undergone some remodelling, but that original openings remain providing access to the external sundecks and changing blocks, as do stairs accessing the upper viewing gallery. The blocked windows of the main elevation are fitted with 6-paned wooden frames.

CHANGING ROOMS: To either side of the entrance building and sun terraces are the separate single and two-storey ladies’ (north) and gentlemen's (south) changing blocks; these have plain elevations with openings to all sides. There are hipped roofs to the two-storey parts and flat roofs to the single-storey parts, the latter extending along part of the north and south sides of the pool. The flat roofs were used as sunbathing areas, accessed from the adjacent sun decks by steps bounded by metal railings. Limited inspection of the ground floor revealed three plain rooms with brick and painted brick walls.

SUBSIDIARY FEATURES: The lido is enclosed on its seaward side by a curvilinear brick wall erected on top of a buttressed concrete sea defence wall and on the landward side by a brick wall with large gated entrances between piers at its north and south ends.

Sources

Books and journals
Smith, J, Liquid Assets: the Lidos and Open Air Swimming Pools of Britain, (2005)
Williams, P, The English Seaside, (2005)
Brodie, A, Winter, G, England’s Seaside Resorts, (2007)

End of official list entry

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