Portstone Lido, since 1935
Five entries from the log of a saltwater lido cut into the cliff at Portstone, kept since 1994 by the people who swim in it.
1935
Eleven months of blasting, and a seawater intake at the north end that still fills the pool twice a week. It opened on a Whit Monday to four thousand swimmers and a brass band.
1961
The ten-metre stage was taken off the deep end over a single weekend. Its concrete footings are still down there, and the divers moved indoors to Hallam Street.
1979
The council emptied the pool that October and did not fill it again for eleven years. Gulls nested on the terrace and the changing huts were boarded from the inside.
1994
Six hundred and forty people put in fifty pounds each at a meeting in the Baptist hall. The trust that came out of that evening still holds the lease.
2023
A heat pump on the plant room roof holds the water at eighteen degrees right through the winter. Two hundred people now swim here before eight most mornings.