A Pool on the Beach

I’d often wondered about this dilapidated pool on Tynemouth beach.

Pre the bout of research that I am just about to divulge, I assumed it was some ancient relic that had been used by conservative Victorian ladies in even more conservative attire.

Turns out it was in use as late as the seventies. If I am not mistaken 1976 was something of a heatwave. Check out the fabulous first film below of the pool in full use that year. The beach looks more like Spain than the UK. And look at those crowds.

Did we just get soft after we discovered holidays abroad? I can’t comprehend swimming in the north sea now but I spent most of my school holidays, up the coast at Hauxley. I don’t even remember it being particularly cold.

Or was the ‘76 heatwave enough to transform Tynemouth into Tenereife for one season only?

Now? Well apparently in 1996 some genius had the idea of filling it with rocks and making it into a rock pool. I can only assume that it had already fallen into disrepair and no cash was available to keep it open for swimming. Either way it seems like an extraordinarily bad idea.

Anyway, enjoy the films below plus this gem of a link from the year I was born, which has it all (glamour, kitsch and Malcolm Macdonald).

And here’s an even earlier film from the sixties. It’s all making me feel quite nostalgic.