We were driving along through Croydon to get to another Urbex location and we passed a building that caught my eye because it looked abandoned. We stopped and took a look and found that there were several ways into this property and only upon leaving and doing some research we find out that this was a famous Ozone Baths which means that it was meant to simulate warmer climates and beach enviroments and was "supposed" to be healthy.
Located off the Purley Way playing fields the diving board is the only object remaining to show this was once a highly popular outdoor lido swimming pool. In use from 20th July 1935, the official opening included a diving display from USA diving champion Pete Desjardins. He had won gold medals at the 1928 Olympics in the 3 meter springboard and 10 meter platform.
The outdoor heated pool was hugely popular and during the pre-war period up to three thousand people would visit each day. The diving board had three, five and ten metre platforms and was built from reinforced concrete a material that had recently been discovered. Architects were keen to show how this material could be sculpted to form a fluted design in the art deco style.
After the war numbers using the pool declined as people could travel to warmer climates. The heating was switched off and the ozone system that was found to irritate the skin and be harmful to health was replaced by chlorination. From personal experience I can confirm that the water was very cold and not favourable to fair weather swimmers. The pool finally closed its doors in 1979.
In September 2014 English Heritage marked a grade 2 listing to the art decor diving board. At the end of 2018 the Wyevale garden centre closed and all vestiges of its trading activities have been removed and the ground cleared. The land has been earmarked for possible housing, but the diving board remains defiant as a testimony to a bygone age.
This became the Wyevale Garden Centre which became derelict and sold to a property developer but no nows on its fate.
some extra info can be found here: www.lostlidos....
My Instagram: / mattswilli
Facebook: / 1228424283971624
email me at me@thematthewwilliams.com or truthsee@gotadsl.co.uk
Also present on this explore were
Jordan - / @befacecomputing
Equipment used:
Sony A7s ii with Samyang 14mm full frame lens
Dji Pocket 2 camera
Insta 360x R
Adobe Premiere Pro 2020
Ryzen 3950X
65GB Ram
Windows 10 (No Apple shiz here)
Nvidia RTX 3090 GFX
7 сен 2024
