Repulse Bay Lido Remembered
Posted: May 10th, 2011 | 2 Comments »Although I’d read about it a lot in memoirs and novels I’d never actually seen a picture of the old Repulse Bay Lido before. Of course I should have expected something special – lidos usually are. I’ve never quite worked out how property developers and local politicians came to so hate lidos everywhere from Hong Kong to North London (the great London lidos of my youthful summers are pretty much all gone – and all were beautiful 1930s art-deco structures)?
Anyway, there’s a lovely postcard of Repulse Bay Lido just added to Tony Banham’s Hong Kong War Diary blog (here) and I found a few other shots around the web
The Gwulo: Old Hong Kong blog has some nice shots and ephemera from the 1935 built lido – here
The lido closed in 1951 I believe for reasons I’m not sure about but probably to do with property development knowing Hong Kong. News of the loss of the popular adjacent Lido Cafe is here.
Here’s the front of the lido – sadly now completely erased
It was still there in a ruined state until about 10 years ago — I remember wandering inside it once — but as far as I know the site has been hidden behind hoardings since then. I share your memories of North London lidos… there must have been quite a building spree in the 1930s.
The Lido was very much around in August of 1955, it’s where my grandfather refugee Shsnghailander P G Calcina (who had a part of the Repulse Bay Hotel) held my mother’s 21st birthday party on August 4 of that year.