Portobello Open Air Pool

Portobello Open Air Pool was opened in Portobello, Edinburgh on Saturday 30 May 1936 at a cost of £90,000.

1. Origins

Plans for an open air pool had previously been mooted by Edinburgh Town Council in 1928, 1930 and 1933, but were discounted - the main obstacles being seen as the Scottish weather and cost. The objections on the grounds of cost were silenced when it became clear that hot water could be provided for the pool by the coal-fired Portobello Power Station nearby. It was claimed that the water would be maintained at an average temperature of 68 °F (20 °C) but at times it could be freezing.

1. Pre-World War Two popularity

The pool could accommodate 1,300 bathers and 6,000 spectators. One of its main attractions was the wave-making machine which, at a cost of £7,000, was the first to be installed in an outdoor pool in the UK and could generate waves up to three feet high. In its first season, 290,000 bathers and almost 500,000 spectators used the pool, bringing in receipts of £15,000. The pool was open from May until September every year until the outbreak of World War 2 in 1939. During the war, the pool was camouflaged to look like a field to prevent it being used as a marker for enemy bombers to target the nearby power station.

1. Post war period and closure

It reopened on 1 June 1946. As well as being popular with swimmers and bathers, it was also regarded as one of the places to be seen, posing on the terrace. Sean Connery was a lifeguard there in the 1950s. By the late 1970s the pool's popularity was on the slide. Suggestions were made on how to bring in more customers from the pool-users' association:

Heat the pool, solar heating, with water jacket or polythene blanket overnight for heat retention. Install trampolines. Convert the grass area to a putting green, tennis court or for car parking. Install slot machines. Stage open air concerts, folk singing, pipes and drum talent contests. Develop the pool into a Scottish Aquatic Centre. Open a souvenir shop Improve the reception area by creating a coffee lounge. Build a sun lounge with a directional revolving area Create an all the year round gymnasium Encourage novelty swimming - such as aquatic bingo The advent of cheap package holidays abroad played a pivotal role in its decline and its fortunes worsened in 1978 with the closure of Portobello power station. What little heat the water had harvested before had now disappeared altogether. The 1979 season turned out to be the last and demolition was approved in 1988.

1. References

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Portobello Power Station

Portobello Power Station was a coal-fired power station in Portobello, Edinburgh which was built in 1923 by the Edinburgh Corporation in order to cope with the increasing demand for electricity in the city.

Industrial Landmark

Portobello Police Station

Portobello Police Station, also known as the Old Town Hall, is a former municipal building on Portobello High Street in Portobello, Scotland. The building, which was previously the meeting place of the burgh council but now serves as a police station, is a Category B listed building.

Landmark Police

346 m

Portobello Toddler Hut

Portobello Toddler Hut is an early pioneer nursery school in Portobello, Edinburgh, Scotland, founded in 1929, and opened on Saturday, 14 November 1931 by Harriet, Lady Findlay, on "an appallingly wet day". When opened it catered for 40 children from 2 to 5 years of age. Starting at 10am, the older children returned home at midday and the younger ones stayed and had a meal and an afternoon sleep. It was run by a committee of ladies on a voluntary basis. The Education Committee of Edinburgh gave a grant to cover about a third of the costs, with the remaining money subscribed "so that bread-winning mothers may be relieved of the care of their children during the busy part of the day". Montessori methods were used to prepare the toddlers for more formal education. As well as a nursery the Hut was used for many years as a shelter for children lost on the beach during the summer holidays. The Toddler Hut is still operating in Beach Lane Portobello, the oldest community run, self funded childcare facility in the UK. During the COVID-19 crisis, the Hut was saved from closure thanks to a fundraising campaign.

School

Portobello Library, Edinburgh

Portobello Library is a public library in Portobello, Edinburgh, Scotland. The current building in Rosefield Place cost £37,500 and was opened on 11 October 1963 by Lord Provost Duncan M. Weatherstone with a stock of 26,000 books and eight staff. The previous accommodation in the Old Town Hall, now Portobello Police Station, was considered unfit for purpose and was criticized for being dirty, dark and overcrowded. Opened in 1897, the year after Portobello was formally incorporated into the City of Edinburgh, the library service is the joint-second oldest in Edinburgh (after Central Library (1890) and joint with Western (Dundee Street) Library (1897). In 1997, Portobello Library celebrated its centenary through a programme of talks. In June 2017, the Edinburgh Tool Library opened a lending service out of Portobello Library. Portobello Library is one of the main venues for events at Portobello's annual book festival in October.

Library