Ilkley Lido (Including Cafe and Changing Rooms), Ilkley, Bradford

Description

This list entry was subject to a Minor Amendment on 23/08/2011

710/0/10025
30-NOV-09

ILKLEY
DENTON ROAD
(Off)
ILKLEY LIDO (INCLUDING CAFE AND CHANGING
ROOMS)

Lido. 1934-5 by Mr A Skinner, Ilkley Urban District Borough Surveyor. Concrete, brick, sandstone dressings, plywood, timber, and felt tiles.

PLAN: Pool set in rectangular enclosure with changing blocks on east and west sides (west block now truncated) and café with sun terrace on north side.

POOL: Concrete pool shaped to resemble the cross section of a mushroom with the narrower stalk forming the deep end to the north. 46m wide, northern end deep enough to play water polo. Concrete aerator of five circular tiers with a spout at the top at shallow, south end. Pool water is cleaned every 6 hours via a water filtration system housed in the former gentlemen's changing block and modern extension to the west. Water is passed through a large riveted vessel filled with sand and then sterilised with chlorine before being returned to the pool via the aerator.

CAFÉ: Built of brick with double hipped roof with octagonal felt tiles. Principle south elevation and east and west returns of south range have six metal concertina-style windows between brick piers that fold back to leave the walls open to a raised sun terrace. Interior has a depressed-arch opening between the public area and kitchen and store room to the north range. Either side is a wide doorway, that to the right retaining panelled and glazed double doors (painted white), glazing boarded over. Modern doorway to far left to store room, doorway to far right to lavatory, with panelled door (painted white), two cubicles and w.c. Metal roof trusses and boarded ceiling to both ranges. Parquet flooring. Sun terrace is lemon-shaped. Low brick retaining walls with sandstone coping, a wide flight of curved steps to the centre and a narrow flight to either side.

CHANGING ROOMS: The pool is flanked by a long single-storey changing room blocks, gentlemen to the west (truncated) and ladies to the east, built in a timber-framed vernacular style. Concrete plinth, walls of plywood, rendered, with horizontal timber planking to dado height and vertical and diagonal timbers to upper half of wall (wood painted green). Brick-built section at south end, timber framed to exterior in same manner as rest of block, which originally housed lavatories. Continuous row of windows just below the eaves, some top-opening casements. East block is hipped. Main west elevation has central gablet projecting through roof and wide canopy supported on timber posts with diagonal struts. Roof and canopy are covered by rectangular felt tiles. West block truncated mainly to north end, modern w.c. block attached to south end (not of special interest). Roof covered by roofing felt. Two bays of canopy to main east elevation have modern timber infill to provide storage shed. North gable wall of rendered breezeblock. Rebuilt flat-roofed plant room attached to rear. Interiors have common rafters and boarded ceilings. Concrete floors with gullies to outer edges. East block has plywood board partition walls (possibly later) with panelled doors, cupboard. Lavatory converted into ice-cream parlour. West block has doorway in brick wall at south end of main changing room with original 'LAVATORY' sign over. Lavatory contains three urinals and two w.c. cubicles. Rivetted water filtration tank and iron pipework relating to original filtration system in plant room.

Modern indoor pool to the north-west side of the enclosure and modern w.c. block attached to the south end of the west changing block are not of special interest.

HISTORY
Building work commenced on Ilkley lido in 1934, and it was officially opened in May 1935 as part of the Silver Jubilee celebrations of King George V. Celebration events included `ladies and gents graceful high dive' and there were three prizes for the `ladies neatest and smartest modern bathing costume'. The café to the north of the pool was opened in August 1935. It seated 100 people and Taylors of Harrogate ran the catering. In 1957 British Railways commissioned Frank Sherwin to paint the lido for a poster with the tagline 'Ilkley - Gateway to the Yorkshire Dales'. An indoor pool was built in the lido enclosure in 1974, at which time the water filtration system was slightly modified and the gentlemen's changing room block was truncated. Following the Health and Safety at Work Act of 1974 the standard 14' 6'' galvanised tubular steel diving stage and small baby chute at Ilkley lido were also dismantled. The entrance block to the south and a set of turnstiles to the south-west have also been removed since 1974.

REASONS FOR DESIGNATION
Ilkley Lido is designated at Grade II, for the following principal reasons:
* As a largely intact example of a 1930s lido built in an unusual timber-framed vernacular style in an upland rural location
* For the unusually shaped pool, designed for multiple use, which retains its water filtration system and original circular, tiered aerator, providing a focus to the shallow end
* For the design of the café with glazed concertina doors opening onto a raised sun terrace, representative of the 1930s enthusiasm for outdoor leisure and an important component of the lido

Reasons for Listing

Ilkley Lido is designated at Grade II, for the following principal reasons:
* As a largely intact example of a 1930s lido built in an unusual timber-framed vernacular style in an upland rural location
* For the unusually shaped pool, designed for multiple use, which retains its water filtration system and original circular, tiered aerator, providing a focus to the shallow end
* For the design of the café with glazed concertina doors opening onto a raised sun terrace, representative of the 1930s enthusiasm for outdoor leisure and an important component of the lido

External Links

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