Coate Water Diving Platform
The Coate Water Diving Platform is a Grade II listed diving platform in Coate Water Country Park in Swindon in South West England . The building, which has been listed as a Listed Building Grade II since November 2013, was built in 1935 in the Art Deco style and is one of four diving towers still in existence in England from the interwar period .
Building history
The diving tower was designed by the then Borough Surveyor Swindons, JBL Thompson. The city opened it on June 22, 1935. The city of Swindon acquired the lake around 1900 and has since expanded it as a recreational area for the city's population. In 1921 the first wooden diving platform was built. At the beginning of the 1930s, Art Deco-style bathing facilities were built to which the new diving platform was supposed to adapt.
Unlike most other diving platforms of the time, it was not built in a swimming pool, but in a reservoir. A company originally built the Coate Water reservoir in the early 1820s to use the tributaries of the Dorcan to regulate the water level of an adjacent canal. After the loss of importance of the British canals in the early 20th century, the Swindon Borough Council acquired the area and redesigned it for the recreational use of its citizens. At that time, concrete was only just beginning to establish itself as a material for diving platforms. Older towers were mostly made of wood. The reinforced concrete construction enabled a more expansive and therefore much safer construction for the jumpers than would have been possible with wood.
At the opening, the jumper Cicely Cousins gave a demonstration of "fancy diving". Later that year she became a national diving champion.
Up until the 1950s, both local and national diving competitions were held on the diving platform. Bathing in the lake has been forbidden since 1958, and the diving platform has been out of service ever since. In order to prevent vandalism, the entrances to the platform have meanwhile been bricked up. The diving platform is still largely intact. Only the railings are now missing.
It was accepted as a Listed Building in 2013. The reason for this was also a campaign by Swindon resident Sophie Hart, who started it on Facebook , among other places .
construction
The diving tower was made of reinforced concrete. It has both fixed diving platforms and flexible diving boards . The forward-sloping tower contains a central ladder from which the five diving platforms are accessible. The top platform is, depending on the water level, about ten meters above the water level. The platforms are made in different shapes and thicknesses to accommodate different types of water jumping. There is a flagpole on the top platform. The originally simple railings that enclosed each platform have now disappeared. Entry was at the foot of the tower through two side arches, which are now closed with concrete blocks. The lowest platform was also given a concrete parapet.
During the construction, Thompson followed the security requirements of the Fédération Internationale de Natation (FINA), which at the time corresponded to the highest possible security standards. The individual springboards are laterally offset so that there is sufficient headroom above each individual board. The different heights of the diving boards ensure that jumping was possible at any time, even with the changing water levels within the lake.
Historic England describes the building in its justification for monument protection as an "elegant, self-supporting design, constructed with the help of the latest technical innovations to ensure optimal jumping."
Web links
Remarks
- ↑ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Historic England: Coate Water Diving Platform, Non Civil Parish - 1417099. Retrieved January 6, 2018 .
- ↑ swindon1: A high water mark for diving board in Swindon reservoir | Swindon Link. In: Swindon Link. April 7, 2015. Retrieved January 6, 2018 (UK English).
Coordinates: 51 ° 32 ′ 31.2 " N , 1 ° 44 ′ 46.5" W.