Where did all our lidos go? And can we get them back?

Dear readers — no prizes for guessing what sparked today's piece. Along with great swathes of Britain, the West Midlands has been experiencing scorching temperatures over the past few weeks. The mercury is supposedly hitting 33C again tomorrow. This is new. Between 1961 and 1990, only London and Hampshire recorded six days or more with temperatures breaking the 28C barrier. But the Met Office says the number of "very hot" days of at least 30C have trebled across all of England and Wales since 2014. Sky News has even made a helpful map to illustrate the change, as you can see above.

This heat means we're all desperately seeking ways of cooling down. But in Birmingham and the West Midlands, there's almost no outdoor swimming pools or ponds to do so. The two that do exist cost a pretty penny.

It didn't used to be this way. Our region once boasted multiple fantastic council-run lidos, from Solihull to Sutton Park. So where did they go? And what's stopping them coming back? Olivia takes a dip into the memory pool in today's read.

But first, your Brum in Brief.

It’s the icy water Dale Clark remembers best, that and the sparrows. Even now, hearing the birdsong outside his house on a bright day can unexpectedly transport him back across the English Channel to his hometown, Solihull, and summer days idled away at a pool long filled in and grown over.

Oh it was heaven, says Clark, now 65 years-old, from his home in west-central France. His Brummie burr is still strong. “A kid’s dream”. 

“Absolute bliss,” chirps his wife Elizabeth, when he passes her the phone. 

The way Dale Clark describes Malvern Park Lido in the 60s and 70s sounds more like a film scene than anything I’ve seen in the West Midlands. The young Clark would spend hours melting on concrete slabs surrounding the pool. Kids his age who were bored of lying still would hang off the rails underneath a water slide, while older teens and adults sunbathed on the grass; Clark recalls “mature” girls gossiping and laughing with one another. Next to the lawn area was a tuckshop selling crisps, chocolate and orange-flavoured ice triangles. And then there was that pool; bright blue water and cold as anything. When he was cooked enough, Clark would amble over for a dip, submerging his body inch by inch in the pool until there was no turning back. 

“It was so magical to be there,” he marvels. “It had a feeling of like a Butlins holiday camp.”

Clark is one of literally hundreds to harbour fond memories of Malvern Park Lido, an open-air pool situated at the end of a quiet tree-lined avenue in what used to be the grounds of a stately home. When I go looking for former lido attendees in a Solihull Facebook group, over 200 people drop their recollections in the comment section. “Ahh, the summer of ‘76 at the lido!!,” reads one typical contribution. “A levels done and a hedonistic summer at the pool. What memories”. Everyone mentions two things: the icy water, and having an absolutely marvelous time. 

Those joyous summers poolside were relatively short-lived, in the grand scheme of things. The council-run lido was open for just 28 years between 1954 and 1982. Still, Malvern Park Lido was one of five lidos in Birmingham and the West Midlands that had survived frequent culls during the 20th century. A bunch were lost in the late 1930s, like Small Heath Lido, Shirley Lido and Cannon Hill Park Bathing Pool, the first open-air swimming spot to be opened in Birmingham. A few stragglers like Malvern Park and Bournville Lidos held out until the 1980s. The last lido was located by Keepers Pool in Sutton Park — it closed its doors in March 2002. 

Now, access to public open-air or wild swimming in Birmingham and the surrounding areas is virtually non-existent. In less heated circumstances, this state of affairs went somewhat under the radar. But ‘extreme’ hot weather is becoming all too common and suddenly, the lack of cool-off spots is a pressing issue. How can the three million people we’re writing about not have access to outdoor swimming? And is anyone doing anything to change that?