Merseyside was once home to a selection of traditional lidos and open-air swimming pools which are sadly no longer around today.
The region still boasts of beautiful beaches from Crosby, Formby and Southport to across the Wirral Peninsula, but in the early 20th century, the region was also home to many open-air bathing pools.
Outdoor pools began in Bath in the early 19th century and soon resorts across the country were building lavish, classically-inspired outdoor baths.
A national poster campaign in 1932 extolled the joys of outdoor bathing with Merseyside – and Southport in particular – praised for its spectacular open air pools.
At their height of popularity, there were more than 300 lidos and open-air pools in Britain.
However, trends changed over time and crowds dwindled as package holidays made going abroad more accessible to ordinary working families.
At first outdoor pools were objects of great civic pride but by the late 1970s they were looked down on as bottomless pits, their ageing structures soaking up council cash resources.
Some pools suffered from a lack of investment and when storms damaged New Brighton Baths in 1990, it was soon demolished.
To reminisce over the outdoor pools we have loved and lost over the years and what stands in their place today, we took a look back at Merseyside's best-loved lidos.
New Brighton Baths
New Brighton Baths was opened by Lord Leverhulme in 1934 and became the largest lido in Britain.
It was so impressive there was once talk of holding the Olympic Games there.
Over the years, it played host to wrestling competitions, midnight bathing, dances and the Miss New Brighton contest.
In 1984, ITV staged a spectacular outdoor concert at the pool called New Brighton Rock.
The concert starred Nik Kershaw, Frankie Goes to Hollywood, Spandau Ballet, the Weather Girls and the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra in a four-day musical extravaganza.
By the 1980s, with the ferry link from Liverpool gone, attendances were down to 30,000 from their 1970s peak of 80,000.
It was demolished after a storm in 1990 damaged its structure and council bosses said it was too expensive to repair.
In 2011, the shopping and leisure complex Marine Point opened its doors on the site of the former lido.
The development which cost around £65 million, included a casino, a Morrisons supermarket and a cinema.
The following year, work began on building the kids entertainment centre Bubbles' World of Play in the former Lido building which still remains there today.
Ainsdale Lido
Ainsdale's lido, which opened in 1933 at a cost of £30,000, was initially known as Ainsdale Bathing Centre.
During the Second World War, the lido and much of the seafront area were turned into a naval base.
Although there were attempts to revive the lido, it failed to replicate its earlier success.
The lido was used as a cafe and licensed premises and dance nights were held there in the 1980s.
It was sadly demolished in 2007.
The site of the former Lido is located close by to Toad Hall, a popular nightclub which has been left crumbling after decades of lying empty.
Hoylake Baths
Hoylake's lido on the promenade opened in June 1913 and was refurbished in the late 1920s at a cost of £25,000, re-opening in 1931.
In 1976 the council closed Hoylake Baths after the site suffered storm damage but it was reopened by Hoylake Pool Trust.
A run of bad weather and a lack of funding saw the baths closed down six years later, and they were demolished in 1984.
Derby Pool, Wallasey
Crowds flocked to the Derby Bathing Pool on Harrison Drive in Wallasey when it opened in 1932 at a cost of £50,000.
The ECHO reported at the time: "Wallasey’s £50,000 new bathing pool is certainly drawing the crowds and the shore is invaded on sunny Sundays by thousands who come by ferry, bus, tram and train.
"The popularity of the new pool is amazing – policemen are needed to control the queues."
Smaller than New Brighton Baths, it was hugely popular for decades but eventually closed in the 1980s because of declining visitor numbers and repeated storm damage.
Today, the site of Derby Bathing Pool is home to a Harvester pub and restaurant called the Derby Pool.
Parkgate Pool
Parkgate's outdoor pool was built by
Mostyn HouseSchool in 1923.
It was constructed as a facility for the school, but it was also open to the paying public. It became a big attraction, but with the silting of the River Dee, the water supply it needed disappeared.
The cost of pumping the water into the pool increased as the water level fell and the baths closed in 1942.
It reopened in 1947 due to popular demand, but the fees for piping and pumping the water was too much and it closed for good in 1950.
The site of Parkgate pool is now a car park for Wirral Country Park.
Southport Sea Bathing Lake
Southport's first bathing pool first opened in 1914 and a new and improved design on Princes Park was opened by the Earl of Derby on May 17 1928.
It was 330ft long and 212ft wide, cost £70,000 to build and could seat more than 2,500 spectators.
The shape resembled a Roman amphitheatre, with a cafe covered by a glazed dome roof. A 230ft by 12ft covered arcade ran around the sea-facing side of the lake.
It was filled with filtered seawater by a pumping system, which was upgraded in the 1960s at a cost of £35,000.
In 1969 Black Sabbath, headed by Ozzy Osbourne, played to huge crowds from a platform in the middle of the pool.
By the early 1980s, Sefton Council was losing around £40,000 a year on the pool and it was leased out to a private operator for the next four years. Other ventures on the site failed and it closed in 1989, fell into dereliction and was demolished in 1993.
The site of the original 1914 bathing pool was redeveloped as Peter Pan’s Playground and Pool and later became Ocean Plaza.
The Ocean Plaza development transformed Southport's iconic Seafront when it opened in 2002.
Today, retail and leisure facilities on the site include a Vue cinema and poplar restaurants like Pizza Express and Nando's.
New Ferry Outdoor Baths
No photos of this swimming pool exist in the ECHO archives, but its site by Shorefields is now a housing estate.
It was hugely popular with local children in the summer months and was known for its high diving board.
Port Sunlight Open Air Swimming Pool
Port Sunlight village once had its own open air swimming pool next to where the garden centre now is.
It was open to the public in the summer months and had dedicated sessions for employees from the Lever factory. The pool closed in the 1970s.
This photo from the summer of 1953 shows staff from Levers enjoying a dip.
Rivacre Baths
Rivacre Valley country park and nature reserve in Ellesmere Port was once the site of a massive outdoor swimming pool which attracted visitors from all over Merseyside, Cheshire and North Wales.
The baths opened in 1934 and were a huge hit but gradually fell into decline as visitor numbers dwindled.
They closed in 1981 and were demolished in 1985.
