Highfields Lido - I miss you!

Boo Hoo...This is where I learned to swim at the grand, old age of 5 years old. Ain't it lovely? But sadly it's now gone! Made way for the 'middle classes' past time of the 'arts' and all things visual...anyway back to swimming..

My Dad literally 'chucked' me in and said

"Come on then, you can do it, you can swim"

And swim I did for the life of me!! Charming way to learn to swim!! Saying that, I'm a keen swimmer and love being in cold water, so in a way, maybe my Dad helped my love of the water. Anyway, I've been doing a bit of history research about my favourite Lido and came across this.

The Lido first opened in August 1924. Spending an afternoon at an outdoor swimming pool an attractive prospect on a summer's day. On those hot sweltering afternoons, the Lido is a veritable magnet to all the youth of the area. But some years the sun is sadly missing and then the Lido holds far less of an appeal (as can he seen from the bar graph). Although the Lidos in Nottingham are open from mid May to mid September, the crowds only really come during those very hot spells, which are few in all but the best of summers. But those hot spells tend to move about the calendar and this makes hitting the right staffing levels all the more difficult. In one week back in June 1970, over ten and a half thousand people squeezed into Highfields Lido. In the following year the corresponding week yielded a mere 28 brave souls.

Since the commissioning of Carrington and Bulwell Lidos, the City has confined itself to building indoor swimming pools. Given the capital outlay, these make far more sense than outdoor pools, which as mentioned earlier are popular for only short spells each year. In view of constraints on purse strings, recreation departments all over the country have been closing down their outdoor pools. Initially Nottingham resisted this trend, but after four extremely poor years, the Leisure Services Committee decided to recommend that one of the Lidos should be closed. After considering factors such as age and attendant problems of maintenance, general overheads and location within the city, they decided not to reopen Highfields for the 1981 season. There was a proviso in their decision that the committee should review the situation at the end of the season. They wanted to be sure that Carrington and Bulwell were going to be sufficient for the needs of Nottingham's outdoor bathers. But another poor summer in 1981 didn't really give them a chance to test the market for the two remaining Lidos. They decided, nevertheless, to stick by their decision and so the Highfields Lido was put on the market.

End of my lovely memories of Highfields lido!