Bath's Cleveland Pools, Britain's oldest lido, may never reopen after a £9.3 million restoration project ended in disaster. The 200-year-old Georgian lido reopened in September 2023 following a 20-year campaign by the Cleveland Pools Trust, but was forced to shut within four months after the plant room flooded during a storm and the pool suffered structural damage.
Residents who opposed the project say they warned repeatedly that the site was prone to flooding, but were dismissed as NIMBYs. One local campaigner described the scheme as a 'vanity project' and a 'middle class Disneyland', adding: 'It was never thought through.' The trust's recent Companies House report admitted it 'might not be possible' to ever reopen the pool.
The restoration cost more than doubled from an initial £4.2 million to £9.3 million, with £6.7 million coming from the Heritage Lottery Fund. The lido, shaped like Bath's Royal Crescent, first opened as a river-fed pool in 1815 and closed in 1984. It was added to the English Heritage Buildings at Risk Register in 2003.
Five directors have resigned from the trust since the closure in January 2024. Chairman Paul Simons previously led the troubled Thermae Bath Spa project, which opened five years late and £30 million over budget. The lido's day-to-day operations were handed to Fusion Lifestyle, which manages 60 facilities across the UK.
Nearly two years on, the pool is filled with stagnant water and leaves. Locals have expressed fury over the 'scandalous waste of money', with one resident saying: 'How can you possibly build a swimming pool that fails when it fills with water? That defies belief.' The future of the historic lido remains uncertain.
