Significant progress being made at Hilsea Lido as part of multi-million pound project

Portsmouth City Council is redeveloping the dilapidated outdoor pool as part of the Hilsea Lines project in the north of the city using government funding from its Levelling Up fund. The council has described the project as a ‘complex’ one and it is due to take a year for the work to be completed. The pool has been drained and the base will be stabilised. The team are currently working on clearing the plant room in order to install a modern filtration system which will be used for years to come. The previous filtration system used huge steel cylinders full of salt, but over the years that the lido has been in use, the salt has significantly hardened making it difficult for the salt to be broken down.

The Hilsea Lido was originally opened up in 1935 by the Portsmouth City Council as part of a wider leisure complex. The council’s aim is to have the new, regenerated pool up and running in time for its 100th anniversary.

As part of the project, the construction team have removed some of the fountain parts at the west end of the site. Pipework under the fountain needed to be removed so a replica is being created by stonemason Darren Somerville and it will be restored in its place in the middle of the site when the project is complete.

Once the first stage of the project is completed, the team will move onto the second phase which will see work being completed to create new changing units and new pipework will be installed in deep trenches.

For more information about the Hilsea Lido project, click here.