9 minute read
Tide turners
Chris Romer-Lee
It’s been ten years since a CGI image of Studio Octopi’s first iteration of Thames Baths was featured in the pages of the Evening Standard What followed was a surprising wave of enthusiasm for the idea from Londoners and beyond.
The project seemed to put its finger on the disconnect between Londoners and the river, but also nature and the river. As well as capturing the tidal waters of the Thames for safe bathing, the evocative CGI seemed to capture a stillness that is so rare along the river. Amongst the bathers, verdant reeds, rushes and aquatic habitats emerged from the gabion cages that formed the pool perimeters. The lower pool was designed to float: rising and falling with the six-metre tide. The upper pool was a tidal pool. Set just below the high tide, twice a day the brackish river water would refresh the pool, providing six hours of fresh water for bathers. Since the generously supported crowdfunding campaign, we’ve battled with authority naysayers and developer capitulations.
Thames Baths hasn’t been built despite a few near misses, but what did emerge was a niche obsession with tidal pools, leading to the Sea Pools book, published in August 2023. Memories of family holidays in Cornwall and more recent times in the chilly chalk waters of Walpole Bay Tidal Pool all fed the need to explore and record these remarkable structures that pepper our intertidal zones from Shoeburyness to Wick, Saltcoats to Westward Ho!
Focusing solely on the UK would miss a wealth of examples. Sydney alone has over 30 tidal pools, New South Wales at least 60 – a similar number of lidos that London had mid-century. South Africa has over 90 with further hotspots on Europe’s Atlantic coastline, the Far East and the US. At this point, it’s important to clarify the qualifying criteria that led to inclusion in Sea Pools. A tidal pool, or ocean pool as they’re called in Australia, is a seawater-fed pool that naturally overtops twice a day on the high tide. I have avoided entirely pumped pools (e.g. Jubilee Pool, Penzance) although there are a few included that are supported by a pump. Each pool must have an element that is manmade. Some are wholly new; others have delicate appendages that hold the water back from exiting a natural rock pool. Their position within the intertidal area, a liminal zone where nature and the manmade meet, provides much fascination. The vulnerability of the structures to nature is unrelenting. The fragility of the smooth concrete additions exemplified by their cyclical exfoliation by nature, then hurried repair by humans.
The earliest tidal pools emerged around the late 18th century. Lady Basset’s Baths at Portreath were built in 1782 and are a good example of early tidal pools. Carved by the family’s stonemason straight out of the granite, seven of the eight pools are located a different height in the intertidal area so as to always provide a fresh body of water. Each is the size of a large bathtub and some have steps in and out, which are also carved from the rock. Over the 200 years of swells, the pool’s edges have become softened and rounded. They have a fleshy quality to them that simply doesn’t exist when you shutter concrete onto rock.
Dr Richard Russell, a prominent physician in the 18th century, recommended immersion in (and consumption of!) the nutrient-rich seawater as a cure for all ailments. The transition from inland spa establishments such as Bath, built in the belief that natural waters could treat skin disorders and other medical conditions, to the rugged coastline had begun. British seaside towns such as Scarborough, Brighton and Margate boomed, predominantly from wealthy aristocracy looking to indulge in seawater therapy. However, travel outside of the established cities was an arduous task and it wasn’t until the rapid expansion of the railway in the 19th century that seaside towns across Britain became accessible to everyone.
In Australia and South Africa, the arrival of colonists coincided with the fashion to ‘take the waters’. McIver’s Ladies Baths in Sydney is situated on a site that, prior to colonisation, had been reserved for Aboriginal women as a safe place for bathing and birthing. The female colonists arriving in the 1830s adopted the site for swimming and within 40 years the pool was formally recognised as a women-only site. Although it’s been legally challenged twice since then, McIver’s remains a place for those who identify as women and Sydney is a richer place because of it.
So many of the pools featured in Sea Pools were established by a community and remain run by the community. Although often navigating a chequered history, the significance of these pools to the community they serve cannot be overlooked. However, these pools didn’t simply appear in an ad hoc manner; they were carefully considered. From the research undertaken, tidal pools were built where one or more of the following occur:
– A considerable tidal range (Kent and Brittany are good examples)
– Access to the water is challenging due to a rocky foreshore
– Where there are nasties in the water that might want to eat or sting you.
The one thread that links all tidal pools is the problem they solve. Unlike indoor and outdoor treated water pools, that are plonked anywhere, tidal pools are problem solvers. They were built to provide safe access to natural water and work hand-in-hand with nature. A nature-based solution. Some pools are shallow, like those along the Thames Estuary, or Mousehole Rock Pool, while others are considerably deeper, such as Walpole Bay Tidal Pool; but they all ensure that there is access to that vitamin-rich seawater at all states of the tide and regardless of the coastline topography.
The rich marine habitat that these pools facilitate was recently highlighted in Cape Town. Environmental campaigner Lisa Beasley managed to get the city authorities to stop painting the pools with white zinc paint and chemically treating the pool surfaces. The results were instantly noticeably, as the pools became havens for kelp and technicoloured nudibranch (sea slugs), amongst others. With a wealth of sheltering marine life, this opened the pools up to being places to learn from – laboratories on the beach. Kids are brought down to the pool for their lessons, donning snorkels and wetsuits, and the pools help them become that much closer to nature.
Lisa’s story inspired Studio Octopi to look beyond tidal pools as only a place for swimming and socialising. Earlier this year, Swim the Wight CIC, a charity dedicated to making the sea around the Isle of Wight swimmable for all, commissioned Studio Octopi to look at options for a new tidal pool on Yaverland beach. Our team involves the eco-engineers Artecology, also based in Yaverland, who will be working with us to craft regenerative ecological environments through the pool structures. These ‘intentional habitat’ products are designed specifically for building biodiversity and bio-abundance in a world where climate change, sea level rise, habitat loss and biodiversity collapse are all too common. The Isle of Wight’s sea defences are also being reviewed. Inspired by work done in Australia by Nicole Larkin, the hope is that the Environment Agency, Natural England and the local council will see the benefits of including a tidal pool within the upgrading of the island’s sea defences. Working closely with Southampton University’s National Oceanography Centre and coastal engineer Professor Robin McInnes, the pool’s design will not only look to bring a laboratory to the beach, but also benefit the community and visitors with an asset that helps protect them from sea level rises.
On the land there is a major pool crisis unfolding. Swim England recently launched its Don’t Put a Cap On It campaign¹ which presented the shocking status of the current situation. A thousand swimming pools have closed since 2010 and a further 1,500 more are 40-plus years old and at the end of their operational lifespan. It’s worth also noting that older pools can contribute as much as 40% of a council’s direct carbon emissions. What’s perhaps most shocking about the findings is that three times more public pools have been lost in the most deprived areas of the country, compared with the richest. But this isn’t only a problem for England. In France the energy crisis has hit pools hard and in Australia, 40% of the public pools will have reached the end of their lifespan by 2030: the cost to replace them is estimated at AU$8 billion.
However, Australia has already begun to consider the future. In 2020, Sydney’s School of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of New South Wales, suggested that it would cost AU$3–8 million to install an ocean pool with around AU$100,000 running costs, attracting up to 150k visitors a year. The analysis also found that health and economic benefits would be between AU$6 and 10 million per year: about AU$40 per visit per person. These figures can’t be ignored, and Studio Octopi hope to be able to undertake similar research in the UK shortly.
There are no new tidal pools in the UK, yet Studio Octopi are refurbishing two 1930s pools in Scotland. In Europe, a few have been built, not all successfully. The most interesting is Sjøbadet Myklebust in Norway, which was built as part of a new development in 2015. The connection between low maintenance and the now proven health benefits of sea bathing are fully acknowledged in Scandinavia, and this is evidence of just that.
On the land there is a major pool crisis unfolding. Swim England recently launched its Don’t Put a Cap On It campaign¹ which presented the shocking status of the current situation.
In the shadow of a brutal economic climate for pools, new tidal pools should be considered along the UK coastline as a way to keep the nation swimming. But it shouldn’t be forgotten that there is so much more to be offered by these pieces of coastal infrastructure. Access to blue spaces is critical to our wellbeing but can also be part of the nation’s fight against the loss of habitats by engaging in broader educational and research-based learning along our coasts.
Chris Romer-Lee is co-founder of architects Studio Octopi & Future Lidos Group.
