This is the sad state of a former swimming pool in Newport nearly 20 years after it closed permanently. Maindee pools on Victoria Avenue opened in 1938 and was once the site where thousands of people learned how to swim.
Having once been the site of many gym class embarrassments and friendly (or not-so-friendly) competitions, the pool closed in December 2005 and was replaced by the new pool in Spytty. It has been left empty ever since and today the historic Art Deco building is a sorry site, having fallen into dereliction and disrepair and being the target of arson attacks on several occasions.
Now a video taken by a local has shown how far removed the pools are from their heyday, with the main pool a crumbled shadow of its former self and much of the paint peeled off the walls. There are some hints of its former glory though - if you look closely you can see the benches along the pool where many would sit and watch in trepidation for their turn to come, as well as the painted fish and trees which remain on the walls inside to this day.
Maindee Pools is not the only leisure facility to fall by the wayside in Newport - last year it was announced that the Newport Centre would close its long-standing swimming pool permanently. The pool had been deemed beyond repair by Newport City Council and plans have been approved to replace Newport Centre with a new state-of-the-art leisure centre. You can see the fantastic pictures from the abandoned pool here.
Plans to inject new life into Maindee pools have been rumoured on a number of occasions. The pools were sold back in May 2008 with an attached three-bedroom house for £76,000 by a 38-year-old father of one from Newport with ambitions to turn the former baths into a multi-cultural centre for community use.
However the following year the Grade-II listed baths themselves were put up for auction with a guide price of just £52,000. You can read more about that here.
Despite all these plans the building has never come back into use, although it was used for location shots in the BBC TV series Being Human. Given its historical significance and site of so many memories for people from Newport and beyond, it is hoped that the building will one day be brought back into use for the local community.
Want the latest Newport news sent straight to your inbox? Sign up for our weekly newsletter here.
