Marine Terrace Tidal Pool

The Marine Terrace Tidal Pool is a tidal sea bathing pool built in 1937, designed by E A Borg, the Borough Engineer, and constructed with modifications by his successor W L Armstrong using direct labour.

The pool is made of interlocking concrete blocks, with old iron tram rails embedded at intervals of about 3.6 meters. It has a rectangular shape with rounded corners at the seaward end, measuring approximately 100 meters on the sides and 76 meters at the landward and seaward ends.

The walls of the pool consist of interlocking concrete blocks, with concealed iron tram rails extending about 1.5 meters deep into the solid chalk foundation and reaching up to within 0.3 meters of the top of each wall. The blocks are three courses high at the shallow, landward end and feature stepped walls on the inside that slightly splay out on the outside to create a batter. The top course of blocks has chamfered edges. The walls rise about 0.8 meters above beach level at the landward end, increasing to 1.6 meters at the seaward end. The side and seaward walls are approximately 2 meters wide, while the landward wall is around 1.4 meters wide. A centrally positioned concrete ramp on the landward wall provides access to the shallow end of the pool.

At the seaward end, the top course of blocks includes six built-in overflow sluices covered with iron sheets, with an additional two at the seaward end of each side wall. These overflows are 60 centimeters wide and are designed to maintain the waterline just below the top of the wall when the pool is filled. A stepped groyne of concrete blocks projects towards the sea at the north-east corner, while on the west side, there is a pair of low concrete groynes forming a right angle, which may be periodically buried or exposed depending on the sand level on the beach. The four metal access ladders around the deep end of the pool are later replacements for the original steps.