Purley

Case Study Extract from Liquid Assets - the lidos and open air pools of Britain by Janet Smith © English Heritage / Played in Britain. Not to be reproduced without permission Purley Way Lido, Croydon 1935–79

rive down the Purley Way Lindbergh land from America, But this was no ordinary D section of the A23 today and Amy Johnson take off for London lido. Hailed by the local and there seems little to arouse Australia. press as a ‘Masterpiece of Science the imagination. Just another Purley Way soon became and Skill’, it was quite different anonymous arterial route, leading Britain’s first main road to be lit by from its understated brick from Croydon’s curious cluster of newly developed sodium lighting, counterparts being built north of postwar high-rise office blocks to suspended on cables down the the River Wandle by the London the distant delights of Brighton centre of the highway. When the County Council. and the south coast. entire route was lit in 1936 the BBC Above all, dominating the Yet seventy years ago there was staged a special broadcast to mark parkland setting was its main 200 hardly a road in Britain to match it the occasion. foot long service building, a crisp for sheer excitement. Meanwhile modern factories Modernist block faced in white For Purley Way was a gateway to sprang up on nearby estates with concrete with extensive metal the world – and the modern world roads called Commerce Way, framed windows and skylights. at that. Progress Way and Trojan Way. In common with its hi-tech Completed as one of the They manufactured aircraft and neighbours, Purley Way Lido country’s earliest bypasses in 1925, car parts, electrical components, brimmed with innovation, soon the road’s major landmark was adding machines, and a sparkling becoming billed as ‘the electric Croydon Aerodrome, London’s new drink called Tizer. pool’. Architects CE Boast first airport, originally laid out To add to the airport terminal Lighting was installed all over; Cost £15,600 in 1920. In 1928 the airport’s and hotel, the Bowater corrugated under the water, amid the swaying Size 200' x 70' and 100' x 60' growing stature was confirmed by box company built on Purley palms planted in the shingle Water freshwater, 650,000g the construction of a substantial Way one of London’s most finely beach areas (see page 22), and Opened 20 July 1935 passenger terminal, backing onto articulated Art Deco factories. within the pool’s two stunning Closed 1979 Purley Way, where it was joined by Such was the hotbed of Art Deco fountains (see left), whose Of all the London area’s lidos on Waddon Way, and (left) its first On site now Garden centre the Aerodrome Hotel. modernity into which the Purley lights changed colour at regular built during the 1930s, Purley floor café area with stairs leading Here at the ‘Gateway to the Way Lido arrived, directly across intervals, creating a memorable Way came closest to the scale and up to the roof terrace. Continent’ gathered the privileged from the airport, in July 1935. tonal effect on its green ‘Cullamix’ grandeur found at such coastal Both the exterior and interior few for Imperial Airways flights As the Croydon Borough cast stone surfaces. resorts as Morecambe, New detailing showed distinct stylistic to Paris, Berlin and beyond. Council’s motto had it, ‘Sanitate Unusually, but predictably in Brighton and Weston. similarities with the Croydon Airport Here came the curious in their Crescamus’. By Health We the circumstances, the water was Photographed here in 1935 is terminal built across Purley Way thousands to see Charles Progress. heated, by an electric boiler. the lido’s two-storey main block seven years earlier.

Extract from Extract from Liquid Assets - the lidos and open air pools of Britain by Janet Smith Liquid Assets - the lidos and open air pools of Britain by Janet Smith © English Heritage / Played in Britain. Not to be reproduced without permission © English Heritage / Played in Britain. Not to be reproduced without permission

98 Liquid Assets Liquid Assets 99 Purley

It was purified, moreover, not with the usual chlorine, but with ozone, described at the time as Extract from Liquid Assets - the lidos and open air pools of Britain by Janet Smith ‘the most up-to-date method in © English Heritage / Played in Britain. Not to be reproduced without permission existence’. The ozone – a condensed form of oxygen – was created by Extract from Liquid Assets - the lidos and open air pools of Britain by Janet Smith subjecting dry air to electrical © English Heritage / Played in Britain. Not to be reproduced without permission stress. It was then introduced into the water through rows of jets ranged along the floor of the pool. Apart from recreating the smell and spray of seawater, one advantage was that, unlike chlorine, ozone did not sting bathers’ eyes. All these modern features, plus the lido’s generous 200 x 70 foot main pool area, convinced local councillors that Purley Way would soon be on the international swimming map. ‘Within five minutes of leaving their aeroplane,’ they pointed out, ‘members of a foreign water polo team could be in their dressing- There really is no other lido relic and shrubs of a typical suburban rooms, preparing to take part in a like it in Britain today. garden centre, the concrete diving contest in one of the best equipped Seventy years after two American stage, with its three, five and ten water pools in the country.’ Olympic gold medallists – Pete metre boards, now serves as an Their hopes were not realised. Desjardins (the ‘Little Bronze advertisement hoarding. Viewed here from the south, Set in the midst of a 4.5 acre on the south side, but in the event But at its peak before the Second Statue’) and Harold ‘Dutch’ Smith Closer inspection of the garden in 1969, Purley Way Lido was site offering ample room for the 200 foot long block on the World War, Purley Way was – put on a daredevil display from centre’s main block (above in the accessed from Waddon Way and sunbathing, the pool was cruciform north side proved sufficient. nonetheless considered one of the its heights ‘to stun and thrill the background) also provides a clear formed part of an extensive open in plan, with a 15 foot deep diving Croydon Airport (not shown) lay leading pools of its time, able to crowds’ at the lido’s opening, the idea of the lido’s former scale and space otherwise used as playing pit forming one end of the shorter a few hundred yards to the west, so cater for 3,000 bathers a day. diving stage of the Purley Way Lido sophistication. Indeed it is almost fields. Directly across Waddon axis, octagonal fountains at each that the drone of aircraft taking off But like the adjoining airport remains instantly recognisable on as if both surviving structures are Way can be seen the freestanding end and a children’s paddling pool. and coming in to land must have – eclipsed by Heathrow during the the local skyline. merely biding their time until a new Waddon Waterworks, which Architect CE Boast’s original been a regular accompaniment to 1950s – its star gradually waned. Yet how different its setting. outdoor pool is recreated in their presumably supplied the lido. plans provided for a separate café this otherwise parkland setting. The heating system was switched Stranded amid the potted plants midst. off. Chlorine replaced ozone when the latter was found to damage the skin. Extract from Liquid Assets - the lidos and open air pools of Britain by Janet Smith By 1979, the lido’s final season, Extract from Liquid Assets - the lidos and open air pools of Britain by Janet Smith © English Heritage / Played in Britain. Not to be reproduced without permission the total for the whole summer © English Heritage / Played in Britain. Not to be reproduced without permission had dropped to 28,000. Two years later the pool was no more. In its place, as at Mill Hill and Durnsford Road in north London, a garden centre opened. As seen opposite, however, not all was lost.

100 Liquid Assets Liquid Assets 101