Sandford Parks Lido

Sandford Parks Lido

A lido built between 1934 and 1938 to designs by G. Gould Marsland for Cheltenham Borough Council. The contractors were A Jackaman and Son of Slough and S C Morris and Co.

The principal buildings are constructed of red brick with roughcast render and brick dressings. Metal-framed windows (some later replaced with uPVC) and roofs covered in Brosely tiles are standard throughout. The pool itself is reinforced concrete, strengthened and refurbished in the early 21st century with later piling. The fountain is constructed of reconstructed Portland stone. Low walling around the pool and raised sundecks uses drystone construction with Forest of Dean stone and composite concrete coping. Boundary walls are of brick with late-20th-century steel railings. Hard surfaces are mostly concrete paving with some stone slabs. The buildings retain 1930s cast-iron rainwater goods and fittings including turnstiles, panelled doors with original furniture and joinery.

The lido follows a geometric quatrefoil plan based on Beaux Arts principles combined with Arts and Crafts garden design. It is oriented north-west to south-east with the main axis running through the centre of the pool between the main entrance and the café pavilion. Curved walls of the ladies' changing area (to the east) and gents' changing area (to the west) follow semicircular arcs from either side of the main entrance building to shower blocks and former clothes stores at the south end of the pool. A children's pool lies to the east. The café pavilion stands at the north end with curved roofed terraces or loggias on each side. Lawns and informal planting form an integral part of the original design.

The principal buildings are single-storey in the Arts and Crafts style, relatively plain in detailing with brick dressings and plinths to roughcast rendered elevations and deep clay tile roofs with oversailing eaves.

The main entrance and ticket offices are arranged on an H-plan. The central block contains the ticket hall and vestibule with two Bailey turnstiles and one intact 1930s ticket booth featuring timber casements and architraves. The front elevations face south-east in three bays with a double round-arched entrance at the centre, set back from the flanking bays. The left and right bays project forward and contain uPVC four-light casements. The rear elevation facing the pool has uPVC doors, and to the left wall is a bronze plaque marking the pool's opening in 1935. Cross-wings at each end contain offices with entrances to the changing areas.

The curved wall enclosures leading east and west from the main vestibule connect to pavilion blocks with showers and toilets at either end. The outer walls were rebuilt in the late-20th century when current plywood cubicles and corrugated roof structures were installed. Rows of fitted 21st-century lockers line the changing areas. Passageways continue around the pavilions to sealed openings for clothing basket deposits, remnants of former operational procedures.

The pavilions follow an L-plan with tall hipped roofs and metal casements including large pool-facing windows with margin glazing. Timber panelled doors are part-glazed. Interiors have been reordered with late-20th-century fittings and partitions. Each pavilion has an enclosed forecourt shower area with brick walling, railings and stepped entrances with brick coped walls. Stone paving surrounds the pavilion areas.

The main pool measures 50.3 metres in length (originally constructed at 165 feet) and has been strengthened and refurbished in the early 21st century. Low walls to each side originally delineated areas for swimmers and non-swimmers. To the south is a circular pool with a two-tiered Portland stone fountain. Sundecks to the south of the fountain and east of the pool are bounded by low stone walling.

The children's pool to the east of the main pool and its surrounding surfaces were refurbished in 2001. A 1940s filter house to its south is square on plan with a pyramidal tiled roof, timber doors and a metal centrally-hinged casement. Filter equipment is modern.

The café pavilion with open-fronted loggias to each side stands in line with the centre of the pool, visually closing off the north end of the lido. It is the principal eye-catcher when viewed from the main entrance. Of double-depth, the building comprises one block facing south towards the pool and a wider block facing north towards the park. The central block facing south has three round-arched doors with fanlights and brick keystones beneath a rendered elevation with parapet and flanking bays set forward, all under a deep hipped roof. Four concrete steps with late-20th-century steel handrails lead up, with the word CAFE inscribed above the central door. Loggias extend to each side under lower-height flat roofs with steel balustrades and round concrete steps at the ends. The north walls of the loggias have replacement uPVC window units. The block facing the park has three central bays with broad flanks set forward to each side, all with margin glazing and brick cills to the rendered upper floor, and a semi-sunken brick basement below accessed by steps at the centre. Steps lead to the upper level with brick walling to the right of centre. The left (east) flank has steps leading to a café entrance from the park with a CAFE sign above. The interior has been reordered but retains 1930s joinery and cornices.

The plant house is a detached brick building to the south-east of the lido complex, rectangular on plan under a hipped roof with oversailing eaves and metal windows with hinged central panes. The main entrance is at the south-west end. Original plant from 1935 includes two cast-iron filter tanks, compressors and pumps in the filter room (south-west). Redundant machinery including electrical switchgear also remains. The north-east end contains the boiler room at a lower floor level with further plant and machinery, later adapted in the late-20th century. The exposed hipped roof structure has weatherboarding between the principals. An early-21st-century fitness centre to the north of the plant house is not of special interest.

The varied boundary treatment comprises 1930s brick walling, 20th-century railings to the north and east, and walling and fencing to the south and west.