Morecambe’s Super Swimming Stadium was one of the grandest of the 1930s modernist seaside lidos.

The enormous structure (measuring 396 by 110 feet, or 120.7 by 33.5 metres) was reputed to be the largest outdoor pool in Europe when it opened in 1936 at a cost of £185,000 (over £13 million today). It could accommodate 1200 bathers and 3000 spectators!

This beautiful silver model belongs to the Lancaster City Museums collection and was created to celebrate the opening of this most spectacular of lidos. The inscription reads: Presented to Councillor Francis Charles Fahy J.P. Chairman of the Old Harbour Committee of the Morecambe and Heysham Town Council on the occasion of the opening of the open-air bathing pool, 27th July 1936 by the contractors Messrs. Sir Lindsay Parkinson & Co. Ltd. of Blackpool. Architects Messrs. Cross and Sutton, 45 & 46 New Bond Street, London, W.1.

During the museums' centenary celebrations in 2023, this model won joint first place in a public vote to find the people's favourite object from our collection. You can see it in display right now at Lancaster Maritime Museum, or listen to our podcast episode for more details.

Generally, inter-war lidos were designed ‘in-house’ by council engineers, but the design for this one was selected by a competion. The winning entry was created by prominent architects Kenneth MB Cross and Cecil Sutton. It was styled to harmonise with the adjacent Midland Hotel.

The Super Swimming Stadium was intended to outdo Blackpool’s neo-classical South Shore Swimming Colosseum. It was built on the site of a shipbreaking yard – where holidaymakers used to pay 3d for tours of condemned ocean liners. The complex comprised a championship swimming course, water polo area, diving stage, artificial beach for sunbathing, three-deck promenade, two grandstands, a sun terrace, floodlights, a cafe and changing rooms. Only a few features from the original design were ultimately not included, such as the tennis courts shown in the foreground.

Described as the “ultimate architectural expression of early twentieth-century attitudes towards health and leisure”,  the super Swimming Stadium was opened by the governor of the Bank of England, Sir Josiah Stamp, on 27 July 1936 – just days before the Berlin Olympics. Stamp said, “bathing reduces rich and poor, high and low, to a common standard of enjoyment and health. When we get down to swimming, we get down to democracy”.

At its peak, the stadium is said to have had around 27,000 swimmers over two days, and following the end of the Second World War the building hosted national and international swimming and aquatic events as well as the Miss Great Britain and Miss World beauty contests.

Decline and Demolition

Although the Super Swimming Stadium was a success, it was not without shortcomings. The stadium tended to be extremely cold as it did not have a roof, and let’s face it, Morecambe can be pretty chilly, even in summer. There was a leak in the sea wall which caused seawater to flow in and out with the tide. After years of decline and increasing repair and maintenance costs the stadium was closed down in 1975 on grounds of structural problems, and it was demolished just a year later.

As well as our beautiful model we've got lots of other objects in our collection which are linked to the Super Swimming Stadium - from posters and leaflets to a woolen bathing costume, a number disc used in the Miss Great Britain contest and a branded Super Swimming Stadium towel. We also have a huge number of photos that were originally taken for the Morecambe Photographic Publicity Archive in the 1950s and 60s. Many of these show the Aqua Lovelies, Aqua Loonies and Aqua Cascades entertainment troupes, as well as ordinary swimmers and holidaymakers enjoying their time in Morecambe's magnificent lido. Here are just a few of these objects and photos.