Portobello Bathing Pool

Category

Library Item

Item no

5687

Title

Portobello Bathing Pool

Description

Two chutes at the outdoor swimming pool in Portobello, Edinburgh, with stairs leading to the top of the slides. The water below them is at the deep end as indicated by a sign. The building and its component elements are built in an Art Deco style.

Artist / maker

Rushbrook, A. H.

Date

1937

Size

40.7 x 58.2 cm

Type

Photograph

Location

Edinburgh and Scottish Collection

Portobello's outdoor swimming pool was opened in 1936. It was equipped with diving boards and a wave machine, and was open between May and September. The pool's proximity to a power station gave it access to heated water, but also meant that it had to be covered for the duration of World War II to prevent it being used as a marker by German bombers. The actor Sean Connery served as a Portobello lifeguard in the post war period. The pool was closed in 1979, not long after the power station, and the area is now used for five-a-side football.

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Related subjects

Architecture > Architectural features > Stairways

Places > Edinburgh areas > Portobello

Places > Scotland > Edinburgh

Sport and leisure > Sports and recreation facilities > Chutes

Sport and leisure > Sports and recreation facilities > Swimming pools

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