Roundhay Park Open-Air Pool

blackprince · Post by **blackprince** » Thu 21 May, 2009 12:52 am

Chrism wrote: Are you sure it not just a council key fob, so they knew which keys were for where? They definitely issued a small metal token on a wrist band so you could reclaim your clothes. The token was about the size of a sixpence with a number on it ( I think) but I can't remember if it was brass, or aluminium or whether it was hexagonal like the one Brandy has unearthed.

blackprince · Post by **blackprince** » Thu 21 May, 2009 1:15 am

I found this extract about the "lido" on the Roundhay Park website:"In June 1907 an open air swimming pool 'lido' opened, at a cost of just over £1,600, it was built mainly by unemployed citizens. During the 1950's and 1960's about 100,000 people a year visited the 'swimming baths'".So the equivalent of 20% of the city's population visited this unheated open air pool in a year ( but in reality only during the summer season). By god we were hardy folk back then or maybe the summers really were warmer.

Cardiarms · Post by **Cardiarms** » Thu 21 May, 2009 9:20 am

Opportunities for excitement were limited.

mike-p · Post by **mike-p** » Thu 21 May, 2009 10:29 am

I remember my parents taking me and my brother to the open-air pool, I think in the early sixties. It was torture. I seem to remember the water was blue, I suppose from the tiles, but I used to think the water was blue because it was so cold.

stutterdog · Post by **stutterdog** » Thu 18 Jun, 2009 12:52 pm

Troll wrote: Hi, I remember going to the baths and freezing me bits off. But I seem to recall that it was always sunny and warm, until you got into the water then you could never get warm again!I think the name for an outside pool is "lido" but I never remember the baths at Roundhay being called this. The water from the lake cascaded down to the pool so it probably was filled in this way.

LS1 · Post by **LS1** » Thu 18 Jun, 2009 1:35 pm

I beleive it was, one of the huts there supposedly house a filtration system to get all the rubbish out of the water before it went to the pool

Elaine · Post by **Elaine** » Wed 22 Jul, 2009 2:42 pm

I was down at the park today and saw the overflow from Waterloo lake (as per photo above). I was quite sad to see that 2 very small ducklings had fallen over the top of the overflow. The couldn't get back up to the lake or out of the overflow. I had a look to see if I could get down to save them but the only access was locked. Eventually they got tired and washed down into the tunnel. Their mum eventually followed them. Does anybody know if they will be just washed down into the beck I have read about in this thread? Or if they will have come up against any obstacle? Filtering etc? Thanks.

Post by **chameleon** » Wed 22 Jul, 2009 3:41 pm

Elaine wrote: I was down at the park today and saw the overflow from Waterloo lake (as per photo above). I was quite sad to see that 2 very small ducklings had fallen over the top of the overflow. The couldn't get back up to the lake or out of the overflow. I had a look to see if I could get down to save them but the only access was locked. Eventually they got tired and washed down into the tunnel. Their mum eventually followed them. Does anybody know if they will be just washed down into the beck I have read about in this thread? Or if they will have come up against any obstacle? Filtering etc? Thanks. They'll go into the beck and you never know, with a little motherly duckerly help, might just make the long trek back over the road and up the hill....

blackprince · Post by **blackprince** » Sat 08 Aug, 2009 7:47 pm

The slideshow on another thread - roundhay 1900-1950 contains a few shots of the Lido in 1953, exactly as I remember it from my first visit in 1956 (aged . Also an aerial shot of the pool from 1938.See http://www.roundhaytoday.co.uk/news/Sli ... 5435196.jp

Leodian · Post by **Leodian** » Mon 14 Jun, 2010 9:12 pm

As a child in the very late 1940's to early 1950's I used to go to the Roundhay Park swimming pool. I recall it being as mentioned by other posters. Warm until you got in the water! The men and boys changing and showering was done in a building on the left (looking from Wetherby Road). I have a vague feeling (probably wrong) that there were also changing cubicles along the side of the pool. There was (I think) a paddling pool between the main pool and the dam.