News / Eastville Park
Eastville Lido ‘could open in four years’
An outdoor swimming pool could open in four years as a campaign has ramped back up.
Campaigners want to open a lido in Eastville Park on the site of an old bowling green but are facing hurdles such as raising money and convincing City Hall chiefs and some locals too.
The idea for the Eastville Lido was first sparked six years ago, and the campaign has quietly run in the background since then.
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Then last month, almost 100 people wrote to Bristol City Council’s public health and communities policy committee, urging councillors to get behind the lido plans.
Sarah Moore, one of the directors of the Eastville Park Lido community interest company, gave an update on the campaign in an interview with the Local Democracy Reporting Service.
She said the next steps are rewriting a business plan, with a hope of opening the pool in four years.
The old swimming pool in Eastville Park – photo: Alex Seabrook
She said: “We came together as a steering group in January and decided we had to push forward this year, or just leave it.
“We’ve been working on it since 2019 and we’ve had quite a few lumps and bumps along the way, not to mention Covid.
“But then also with the election and the changes to the council, the council has basically just been frozen.
“So we haven’t been able to get anyone’s attention at the council. But now everyone is settled and so we’ve been really focused this year.”
The lido would be run by the community, with much cheaper costs for swimming than the Clifton Lido for example.
A survey was recently sent out and flyers printed. More than 2,000 responses were received, the majority of which backed the idea of putting a pool in the park.
Almost a fifth of the responses were from black and ethnic minority communities.
These responses were used as evidence for the strength of support from people who live near the park, alongside architectural plans, and were sent to local councillors and MPs.
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Read more: Petition launched to make vision for lido in park a reality
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Some councillors have given the lido “strong support”, but not all.
The idea of building a pool in a park is controversial, given the need to protect green spaces.
The lido would be built on the site of an old bowling green at the top of Eastville Park, near the basketball court and tennis courts.
“It’s a very large park,” Moore said, “we all live on the edges of the park and we all really love our local park and care about it.
But the proposed location is on the second unused bowling green, which is behind high hedges, a fence and a locked gate.
It’s just an old, very flat lawn, which isn’t currently really being used.
“The basketball courts, tennis courts and the fields used for football are mainly taken up by men.
“The responses to the survey were about 70 per cent women, so it’s clearly something that has a wide appeal.
“We totally hear the concerns that it is a green space and we’re going to have to dig a hole there and put concrete in. But we’re keen to make it as green and friendly as possible.”
The plans include maintaining as much of the lawn as possible, keeping the hedges and trees, and making the site “nature-rich”.
“Giving people the opportunity to swim outdoors in such an environment could also give them a new-found appreciation for nature, Moore added.
There used to be an outdoor swimming pool in Eastville Park, the remnants of which can still be seen.
This was built in 1905 but closed several decades ago. The area is no longer accessible to the public, but has previously been used for outdoor theatre productions.
The campaigners initially considered trying to reopen this pool, but faced a few problems.
Badgers live in a sett close to the site, half of the pool was filled in, and the location is further away from the road, bus stops and cycle parking, as well as electricity and water supplies.
While there are several indoor swimming pools nearby, swimmers have few options for taking a dip outdoors in Bristol.
Getting a membership at Henleaze Swimming Club is notoriously hard, the Clifton Lido is prohibitively expensive, and Conham River Park is sometimes hit by sewage.
But a growing body of research highlights the benefit of swimming in cold water and outdoors.
These include boosting mental health, connecting with nature and keeping hearts healthy.
The lido plans also feature saunas, linking in with Hammam culture and Turkish-style baths.
Moore said: “Anything that gets you outdoors is good for you, and there’s quite a large body of evidence showing that cold-water swimming is really good for your mental health.
“Doctors are actually prescribing people to do cold-water swimming to help with mental health issues.”
Lingering questions are how much the lido will cost to build and run, and who would pay for it.
The campaigners are refreshing their business plan, so exact estimates haven’t been worked out yet.
But they hope for a mix of grant funding and donations from the local community — acknowledging the council probably won’t be able to help given the poor state of their finances.
Discussions about the site with the council are ongoing, and getting a deal to take over the old bowling green is far from certain.
After the business plan has been refreshed, details about the costs will become more clear, Moore said, but nobody will be swimming there any time soon.
She added: “This is a long project, even if it wasn’t being run by a group of volunteers. If we could be jumping into a swimming pool in four years time, I think that would feel like it was a real success.”
Some local opposition to the project has come from the Friends of Eastville Park group, due to concerns about building in the park and the lido costing too much for some local people to swim in.
A banner was recently put up on the old bowling green, saying “save this green space”. But the campaigners are hoping to open up a dialogue with the group.
Moore said: “We understand their concerns and we’re also open to engaging them and talking about it.
“We would love to work together with the Friends of Eastville Park because we think they do really important and brilliant work, and they have done for many years.
“We’re hopeful there might be a way for us to at least talk to them.”
Main photo: Alex Seabrook
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