Michael Moynihan: Time for a Leeside lido

Open-air swimming enthusiasts are calling for a lido on the River Lee in Cork city

Open-air swimming is now so fashionable I wondered if a city version was viable. Picture: Danny Lawson/PA Wire

Is it really almost 35 years since the Lee Baths closed?

For the youngsters out there, this was an open-air swimming pool where the Kingsley Hotel now stands: it welcomed bathers for over 50 years until it closed in 1986, which means a couple of generations of Cork people have been deprived of the open-air swimming experience.

(I myself did not learn to swim in the Lee Baths but, like many of my contemporaries, picked up the basics in the short-lived North Mon swimming pool. Those were the days, my friend.)

Anyway, I raise the matter of the Lee Baths because open-air swimming is now so fashionable I wondered if a city version was viable.

This led me eventually to search out one Niall Kenny: his social media hashtag – #Lido Cork – was reason enough to find his phone number.

The world's largest Floating Swimming Pool opened in Antwerp in 2012, Environmentally filtered & heated river water.🏊‍♂️

How about we try for the second largest to compliment our status as the Second Largest Natural Harbour in the World! Let's bring our Vision to life.#LidoCork pic.twitter.com/8SVGhL60kY

— Niall Kenny ☘🏊‍♂️🏊‍♂️☘ (@niallkennycork) November 17, 2020

First things first. Lido is a term I associate with genteel Englishfolk taking a dip in the dawn air, usually while wearing knitted swimming caps, but what exactly is it?

A lido is a fancy name for an open water pool, be that in a river or the sea,” said Kenny.

“It uses the existing water supply, filters it, either naturally with plants and reeds upstream or mechanically, so that people can swim in it.”

Fair enough. But is that an option in our river?

“As with anything, you’ll always have people who may get stomach bugs and so on, but you must remember there are water events in the Lee every year and hundreds of people take part in them.

“The Lee Swim had 600 people lined up for this year, same last year, while the Rebel Plunge, which is part of the Cork Harbour Festival, has had up to 350 people signed up for it.

“The water is swimmable. There are people who are above at the Lee Fields who are swimming in the river, near the walkway there – the only drawback is that you have currents and tides.”

For those of us who’d be nervous about dipping our toes in the Lee, however - and by us I mean specifically your columnist, coming from the generation reared on Jaws – a lido would be an obvious boon.

For the general population, people who don’t have access to open water for swimming, a lido essentially cordons off an area where someone who may not be a strong swimmer doesn't have to worry about tides or currents.

“So it opens it up to more people. There’s been a huge resurgence in open water swimming anyway – just look at the coverage the TV documentary Vitamin Sea on RTÉ got last year – and I think this is the time to do this.

“If City Council is redeveloping the Marina and the Tivoli Docks, the general dockland area as everything is moved to Ringaskiddy, then we need to act. If we don’t voice our interest in having something done it’ll be bypassed and we’ll end up being told it’s too late.”

Kenny posted on his Facebook page about creating a lido in Cork and was gratified to get hundreds of shares and likes.

“There is an appetite for it. The water’s definitely clean enough. 

You wouldn’t have a seal swimming up as far as the Clayton Hotel at Lapp’s Quay if it was dirty.

A public, private partnership with a Cork based company to build a Lido for the city, could be a great way to cement their commitment to the city. #LidoCork
Examples:

The iCork Lido ( @Apple 40th anniversary )

The Clearstream Lido ( perfect name! )

The Dell Dipper Baths. pic.twitter.com/QSE6KoX4iR

— Niall Kenny ☘🏊‍♂️🏊‍♂️☘ (@niallkennycork) November 17, 2020

“That’s a very strong counter-argument to the naysayers, or to people who say they wouldn’t get in the river on those grounds.”

With this kind of idea, the default question is to ask for an example of somewhere that does this kind of project well, or somewhere that’s acknowledged as the gold standard for such developments.

When I ask Kenny if there’s anywhere in Europe which offers the lido experience, he tells me it’s available in “practically every other city in Europe which has access to water”.

The list of locations is impressive, and one that instantly flattens the ‘but it’s too cold’ argument.

“Helsinki, Venice, Berlin, Copenhagen, people in those cities all have access to a lido – all the Nordic countries, actually, have lidos. These are places where it is Baltic – literally – with the cold at the best times, and yet they swim daily in their lidos, in that water.

“There are hundreds of examples to be found all across Europe. You don’t need to go that far, even – in London there are four under consideration. The Peckham Lido is already open, there are plans to build the Thames Lido . . .

“There’s a conference next Sunday, actually, being held for those involved in the lidos in Britain and it’s being supported by Swim England. If we could get the same backing from Swim Ireland when it comes to this it would be great.”

Hello lido lovers. As well as taking questions from the virtual floor our #NationalLidoConference speakers will answer questions submitted in advance by those who couldn’t join us on the day. So HMU with your questions and who they’re for. Programme in pic https://t.co/Y1RLWCRCYN pic.twitter.com/fBIzMhG8n1

— Lido Guide (@LidoGuide) November 18, 2020

With Cork city turning towards the river – the development of the docklands and so on – then creating this kind of facility certainly makes sense. Particularly if the cost isn’t prohibitive.

“It’s not hugely expensive. Because of the variety of options you have, there’s a range of possible costs.

“For example, the Vienna floating swimming pool is essentially a 50m barge that’s been converted into a swimming pool and is at the quayside; there’s a bar and restaurant and viewing platform on a second barge right next to it, and it’s well worth seeing – and swimming in.

“If you’re talking about a basic swimming area right along the quayside then you’re talking about €2m – an area which filters the existing water into the pool. There’s one in Copenhagen (https://svoemkbh.kk.dk/islands-brygge) which I’ve used myself, and it’s just decking around a specific area, but it has a diving area, a kids’ pool, the whole lot, using the existing river network.

“You could go and spend up to €10m if you wanted but you could also include other facilities for other watersports: those could be added after the fact anyway, once you have the basic pontoon and platform in place.

Those other extras could be brought in later, such as a facility to water-taxi to Cobh or whatever.

“Once you have the land space allocated, it’s a no-brainer, really.”

I brought up the infamous Dublin white-water rafting proposal for the Liffey as a comparison with the common-sense notion of a lido, but I didn’t realise until Kenny told me that Dublin plans on having both.

“If you look at the Dublin white-water rafting proposal, a lot of people haven’t noticed that they’re looking at adding a lido to that project.

“The Clontarf baths have been opened – it’s a private operation but it’s open to the public if you pay to go in, and it’s a lovely development.

“So those are in Dublin, but we don’t have them here.”

Say no more. If anything is likely to bring a lido to Cork it’s the revelation that Dublin wants to get one first. Consider it built.