A CAMPAIGNER’S STORY – TAKE ME BACK TO TINSIDE LIDO 

When we talk about storytelling, this is not just merely referring to writing tales or capturing attention, but was our vehicle in fighting a passionate community campaign to save Tinside Lido from demolition in the late 1990s.

And I know some people consider me an irritant and don’t like hearing about my past role in the Tinside Lido story and our ferocious 5-year battle to save the Art Deco masterpiece for the city.

But this is one of our proudest community campaigns, and especially my tribute to the Tinside Action Group volunteers, many of whom have now passed away, who joined me in that heroic fight against a ruling elite back then, wanting to close and demolish the iconic landmark forever.

In those dark days of the late 1990s the complex was out of vogue and desperately needed friends, and it was our emergency SOS call to arms on the top floor of the Tinside Lido, now a new cafe floor, to save the historic site.

Let’s imagine for a moment stepping back in time to April 1998 and our campaigners’ story that touched the hearts and minds of many, and our small group of volunteers that lived and breathed those battles until its final grand re-opening in 2003.

I have never put into words all these years our incredible journey, and now is the right time to write my personal blog, before our part in the history of this national treasure is forgotten and a footnote in the lido’s many chapters since 1935.

There was no social media, no online influencers, and no rule book on how to organise a community campaign against a political and business establishment that joined forces in promoting the narrative that the Art Deco lido’s heyday had long gone.

The traditional local media was used by the city council’s leadership to denigrate myself and our volunteer campaigners and push their agenda that ‘not a penny would be spent in restoring the outdoor pool’. (The beauty of keeping press cuttings from the time).

So our community call to arms was an urgent appeal for volunteers to change hearts and minds but, crucially, to motivate local public opinion.

I spent the night before our launch painting large SOS letters on a white bedsheet, and with a few close family members and friends getting rather exasperated blowing up balloons, to give our picture opportunity some extra potency by a derelict pool.

Looking back, it was a tough and brutal campaign, with many twists and turns, that had high points and low tides, when I was told to give up many times.

Yes, we harassed full council meetings and held demonstrations outside the Council House on a regular basis over 5 years to keep the lido in the city’s conscience.

Our small group of volunteers raised over 70,000 petitions in Old Town Street from June 1998 to early 1999 in all weathers that took us to London on a Tinside battle bus, decorated with banners and balloons for PR pictures outside of Buckingham Palace, and submitted them to the late Queen Elizabeth II.

It was my application on behalf of the Tinside Action Group that submitted the two Grade 2 listings for the Art Deco Lido and Colonnade, in 1998 and 2000 respectively, that was supported by the 20th Century Society and English Heritage.

Our listing applications were vehemently opposed by the Council leadership in 1998, and I will always be eternally grateful to the Labour Government at the time that ignored the advice of the city councillors and awarded the complex national listing status.

The icing on the cake was the 2000 local elections, where the local Conservatives won power on a ticket of restoration of the lido and its eventual grand reopening in 2003. 

In the realms of advocacy and storytelling, Tinside Lido was a very emotive issue, and it connected with local families, and especially mine, that spent our childhood memories there. 

I recently visited Tinside Lido to see the latest developments for myself and was very impressed at seeing the pool complex getting ready for another decade of its incredible life representing our city waterfront on the global stage.

Since 2003 the Lido has featured on a first-class Royal Mail postage stamp, BBC continuity presentation clips, and many other PR and marketing features about the renaissance of British lidos.

I hope one day the Tinside Action Group will have a plaque placed on the wall inside the lido commemorating one of the city’s finest community campaigns that I was proud to be a big part of, and where people power won over arrogant politicians that had other ideas.

And make no bones about it, without our community campaign and listing applications, we would not have our beautiful Art Deco lido today. 

I take pride in that I was awarded the Sheila McKechnie Foundation Award in 2015 at the House of Lords, a British Citizen Award for community campaigning in 2023, and a shared tribute with my TAG colleagues, many now long gone, but not forgotten. 

The TAG went on to campaign for Drake’s Reservoir, where we submitted amended listing applications for the landmark, together with Charles Church events and many other local campaigns.