lido – Broomhill Pool Trust

IPSWICH STAR: Plans to restore 1930s Broomhill Lido in Ipswich approved.

FULL STORY AT: https://www.ipswichstar.co.uk/news/24793310.plans-restore-1930s-broomhill-lido-ipswich-approved/

Plans have been approved to restore Ipswich’s Broomhill Lido and bring the historic pool back to public use.

Leisure and sports management company Fusion Lifestyle has now received approval for the plans it submitted to Ipswich Borough Council in February for the site in Sherrington Road, off Norwich Road.

The planning officer has set some conditions for the development – including for work on protected tree orders, and ensuring that everything is done in accordance with the local planning authority.

Architect’s impression of Broomhill Lido, which should reopen in early 2026.
An architect’s impression of Broomhill Lido, which should reopen in early 2026 (Image: Fusion Lifestyle/KLH Architects)
The plans include the restoration of the entrance kiosk.

There will also be an outdoor café, repurposed from the previous buffet building, with a re-fitted kitchen serving snacks, ice creams, teas and coffees.

The proposal also contains a new health and wellbeing centre, providing a gym, fitness studio, changing rooms and accessible changing spaces rooms, refreshment area with vending machines and first aid space.

The pool will keep its iconic 1930s look. It will be designed in a similar style to the 1930s original building, but will “remain identifiable as a new element”, according to planning documents.

The pool will be repaired, existing changing rooms demolished to make way for the fitness suite building, and the kiosk, below-ground changing areas, grandstand and buffet building will be restored.

The plans do not vary from the planning application that was previously approved in 2019. The project was due to start in 2020, but the Covid pandemic resulted in the shelving of the scheme and planning permission expired as lockdowns meant progress on the revamp project was brought to a halt.

Broomhill Lido was built in the 1930s and opened in April 1938. The building was listed Grade II in 2001, but has remained derelict and in a state of disrepair since closing in 2002.

The pool is expected to open again to swimmers in the summer of 2026, it had previously been announced.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-suffolk-68304290

A planning application for the restoration of “one of Britain’s finest lidos” has been resubmitted.

The Grade II-listed Broomhill Pool in Ipswich closed in 2002. Plans to renovate it have repeatedly stalled due to lack of funding.

In January, Ipswich Borough Council, the National Lottery Heritage Fund and Fusion Lifestyle agreed a deal to save the 1938-built lido.

The council approved an initial planning application in 2017.

The £7.25m restoration scheme was due to start in 2020, but was paused due to the pandemic.

Plans for the site, which is owned by the council, include a gym and studio, as well as renovation of the baby pool, as first reported by the Ipswich Star.

Once complete, the pool will be run by sports and leisure management organisation Fusion Lifestyle and is expected to open to swimmers in the summer of 2026.

Previously, John Cook, a Labour member of Ipswich Borough Council responsible for communities and sport, said the new project would restore the lido to “its former glory”.

The Broomhill Pool Trust, a charity which has campaigned for the lido’s restoration for more than 20 years, described the funding deal as “news to lift the spirits of the whole town”.