Newcastle Road Swimming Baths

Newcastle Road Swimming Baths, Sunderland. This 25m pool opened in June 1936 and closed in 2008. The opening of a new Olympic sized swimming pool at the Sunderland Aquatic Centre was the primary reason for this and Crowtree Leisure Centre Pool being closed.

I was fortunate to be allowed a couple of hours taking photographs shortly after the closure. As you can see, the pool and building was still in quite pristine condition at this point, not yet succumbing to the trashing that it inevitably would do, before being demolished completely in 2011. I’ve always had a bit of a fascination with abandoned swimming pools and must admit it was quite surreal standing in the pool, which was completely empty, save for a couple of inches of water at the ‘deep’ end.

An interesting thing to mention was the existence of a small caretaker’s apartment in the building which incorporated a small, walled off  roof garden.

As of June 2013, the site of the former baths still stands empty.