On Tuesday, I
continued my exploration of places in Sussex that I remember from my
childhood and teenage years when, living in south east London,
it was an area that we visited for holidays and later, when we had a
car, day trips. My very first holiday was in the late 1940s to
Saltdean. I remember parts of the holiday well as it was the first
time I had been in a car and, although probably only three and a half
at the time, I was allowed to go with my brother, 4 years older, to
play in the quarry near our holiday bungalow. When I asked at the
library the location Quarry Road, the lady said that there was no
such road. However, she looked it up in a history of Saltdean and
found it had been renamed Greenbank Avenue. I made her day she
said!!
My memory is obviously not as accurate for the Saltdean Lido as I thought I remembered visiting it on that holiday. However, it was only open for 3 summers from 1938 when building finished and I certainly wasn't around then.
My memory is obviously not as accurate for the Saltdean Lido as I thought I remembered visiting it on that holiday. However, it was only open for 3 summers from 1938 when building finished and I certainly wasn't around then.
The
lido was built to designs by the architect Richard
Jones, and was hailed as the most
innovative design of its type in Britain with its tea terrace, sun
deck, café, perched on the flat roof and distinctive curved wings at
either end, In the war it was
a Fire Service training station. The fire service left in
1945, but the lido remained closed for another 19 years. In 1962
Brighton Council bought it and drew up extensive refurbishment plans
including a library and community centre. In 1995 the lido closed
after falling attendances and the need for more repairs. It opened in
1998 after a £2 million restoration. It is now being restored once
more and hopes to reopen this summer
The
1938 image shows it at its zenith; the image from the 1990s is By
Simon Carey