Parliament Hill Fields Lido

CAMDEN

TQ2885NW GORDON HOUSE ROAD 798-1/30/1866 (North West side) Parliament Hill Fields Lido

II

Open air swimming baths. 1937-8. By Harry Arnold Rowbotham. For the London County Council Parks Department. Patterned stock brick, flat roofs concealed behind parapets. Rectangular plan, with entrance to south flanked by changing rooms, filtration plant to east and offices to west, all in a single-storey U-shaped building. This form continued as walls shielding sun-bathing terraces to north, set either side of single-storey cafe with curved moderne-style front. In the centre is the pool, 60m by 27m, with fountains or aerators to either side. All buildings with small metal windows, except for the cafe which has large glazed panels with horizontal metal glazing bars continued across double doors at centre. HISTORICAL NOTE: included as the most sophisticated of the thirteen lidos constructed by the LCC between 1909 and 1939. No other British city attempted so comprehensive a programme, and Parliament Hill Fields is considered the best representative example of the rectangular pools enclosed by high walls found in urban locations. (The Twentieth Century Society: Farewell My Lido: London: -1990).

Listing NGR: TQ2826185793