The Lido

[Cheryl]

I know it is off topic, but I notice Sandy Ezekiel mentioned redevelopment of The Lido. Does anyone know what will be happening there? It would be lovely to see the pool reopened, I remember splashing about in there as a child. My parents often talk of the wild west bar called the Golden Garter, which they loved when they were young.

I hope it will be kept for leisure purposes and not for housing. The area has been forgotton and needs The Lido redeveloped to bring tourists back to Cliftonville again.

[porf]

I believe Paigle Properties own it, the same people who recently did the development on the old Sea Bathing Hospital.

Following is taken from the web :

Jane De Bliek

Owner Paigle Properties

Jane De Bliek bought her first property aged 21 for £3,750 and sold it a year later for twice that – since then she has refurbished one or two properties a year.

Due to her strong determination and entrepreneurial flair she is now the founder and owner of Paigle Properties, based in Margate.

Jane focuses her attention on the development of the former Royal Sea Bathing Hospital in Westbrook, whilst planning the future development of the Cliftonville Lido which the company has recently bought.

She is passionate about Margate and determined that Paigle Properties will play a positive part in the area’s regeneration.

[Cheryl]

Thanks Porf, sounds positive then. Hope the passion is not just for housing though!

[Vince, Charlie and Sam]

As mentioned, the Royal Sea Bathing Hospital has been rebuilt as flats, but retaining the facade and I personally think it looks fantastic. I doubt that the Lido would be rebuilt as anything other than housing but if it is done to the same standard, retaining the exterior appearance then that to me would be better than losing it.

[EAS]

The Royal Sea Bathing Hospital (and its chapel and mortuary) is listed Grade II.

I don't think the Lido is...


This is also listed:


IoE number: 468664
Location: URINAL, PARK ROAD (north side)
MARGATE, THANET, KENT
Photographer: N/A
Date Photographed: N/A
Date listed: 06 May 1997
Date of last amendment: 06 May 1997
Grade II


TR 3670 MARGATE PARK ROAD (North West side) 878/7/10015 Urinal II Urinal. Late C19, manufactured by Dalton Engineering of London and Paris with roof added subsequently. Built of patented pre-fabricated cast-iron panels with later glazed roof. 6 panels length wise and 2 panels width wise with ventilation panel at the top, central panel with 6-pointed star, central floral emblem and scrolls and lower panel with floral motifs. INTERIOR: bears maker's name and has the original glazed stoneware urinal slabs. There was a similar urinal at Ellington Park Ramsgate but this no longer exists.

[Vince, Charlie and Sam]

The Royal Sea Bathing Hospital (and its chapel and mortuary) is listed Grade II.

I don't think the Lido is... .

I think not, but the developer, who is local, does seem to have a good track record so far in developing property in the Margate area sympathetically.

Personally, I think the Lido is too far towards Cliftonville to ever be profitable as a swimming pool again. On a hot day in the school holidays it would be packed. But on a rainy Wednesday in April?

This is also listed:


IoE number: 468664
Location: URINAL, PARK ROAD (north side)
MARGATE, THANET, KENT
Photographer: N/A
Date Photographed: N/A
Date listed: 06 May 1997
Date of last amendment: 06 May 1997
Grade II


TR 3670 MARGATE PARK ROAD (North West side) 878/7/10015 Urinal II Urinal. Late C19, manufactured by Dalton Engineering of London and Paris with roof added subsequently. Built of patented pre-fabricated cast-iron panels with later glazed roof. 6 panels length wise and 2 panels width wise with ventilation panel at the top, central panel with 6-pointed star, central floral emblem and scrolls and lower panel with floral motifs. INTERIOR: bears maker's name and has the original glazed stoneware urinal slabs. There was a similar urinal at Ellington Park Ramsgate but this no longer exists.

I know it, it's beautiful and frankly wasted where it is. When the heritage park opens, I shall pop down to Park Rd in the middle of the night with a crane lorry and nick it- it would look just the part at the new Park!

[EAS]

I think it would mean instant delisting though!

Maybe we could find another...

[Vince, Charlie and Sam]

Me and the kids are off to East Anglia tomorrow for a few days- Great Yarmouth Pleasure Beach, Pleasurewood Hills etc but when I get back I'll take some photos of the Royal Sea Bathing Hospital (RSBH), the Lido and the Park Road urinal ('tho God knows how I'll explain the last one away if the Fuzz spot me there with my camera)

There are some interesting photographs of the RSBH HERE although, rather frustratingly, there isn't a view of the facade as it was in its days of abandonment.

[EAS]

There are pics on the Images of England site of the RSBH.

www.imagesofengland.org.uk

Putting Margate in the search should bring up a not too long list.

If not I can possibly post a link but it's not simple.

http://www.imagesofengland.org.uk/searc ... &id=356499

See if that works - Margate second page of search results. Other pics too, ignore page one which has several not very relevant hits.

There may be other pics on urban exploration sites, 28 days later is often useful...

[EAS]

Lido plans:

http://www.express.co.uk/printer/view/7349

RSBH:

http://www.royalseabathing.com/



You can see why Waterbridge wants to build all over Dreamland...

[Vince, Charlie and Sam]

RSBH:

http://www.royalseabathing.com/



You can see why Waterbridge wants to build all over Dreamland...

I'll reproduce the photo here.



And I will repeat that I personally consider this to be a beautiful example of sympathetic development.

It was never going to be a hospital again, and given that the only other alternative was continued dereliction and eventual demolition. I have no problem at all with the way the RSBH has been converted.

[EAS]

Actually - no, demolition wasn't an option.

It's listed.

Before that happened it would have to be put up for sale on the open market (and a developer would have been found... as has happened... ) or offered to any charity or community group willing to take it on.

PPG 15.

Not sure if it was on the SAVE Buildings at Risk Register - should have been, will check.

Sadly, the NHS is rotten at looking after its historic buildings.

[Vince, Charlie and Sam]

Actually - no, demolition wasn't an option.

It's listed.

(snip for brevity)

Sadly, the NHS is rotten at looking after its historic buildings.

I agree.

But nobody can force the NHS to operate a particular building in a particular way. And nature doesn't respect a preservation order. The RSBH has looked dreadful for decades and looks wonderful now. I have never seen it looking as good as it does now.

I don't oppose all and any redevelopment. The world has changed in the last fifty, or a hundred, or two hundred years and this change has particularly affected Margate.


If this is a typical example of how a certain developer works, then I'm on that developer's side. Would that Jane De Bliek could take an interest in Dreamland!

[EAS]

There are plenty of developers who work sympathetically with historic buildings and sites, to find new uses for redundant historic buildings.

And as a listed building then if it was becoming in a really bad way the local authority could have stepped in and forced repair, and even forced a sale.

Listing also means that sympathetic repair and development has to happen.

So Waterbridge won't have it all its own way at Dreamland.

There will have to be all manner of conservation plans, heritage assessment of the site, and all planning and listed building apps will have to go out to wider consultation - including heritage bodies.


More about the RSBH:

http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/picren ... obtype=pdf

[Cheryl]

I agree that the Sea Bathing Hospital looks wonderful. I don't see why the Lido has to be for housing though. The pool could become an 'all year rounder' if something like a glass dome was put around it. It may be in Cliftonville, but tourists certainly find their way to The Grotto and some imaginative regeneration of the Lido could pull tourists in again. I'm sick and tired of everything becoming housing and we just accepting it on the back of this so called lack of housing. There are properties in an around Margate I know were up for sale this time last year and are still not sold. Similarly houses in Birmingham are not being 'snapped up' either, often taking many months to be sold. Lack of housing .....