Swimming with the tide
Sea pools, sauna days, lava flows and rotating water slides
Hello Bathers,
It’s the time of year for top book picks. Okay, so it’s cheating a bit (it’s actually from 2023), but we couldn’t resist featuring Sea Pools by our friend Chris Romer-Lee who has extensively researched these majestic but forgotten sanctuaries for swimmers. Below is a brief interview with Chris and some spectacular photography. Enjoy the escapism.
Speaking of escape, take a break from scrolling and catch the short film Sauna Day by Anna Hints, director of award-winning doc Smoke Sauna Sisterhood. This time Hints captures the secret world of the men’s sauna in Estonia in fascinating detail.
Elena, Jane and Robbie
Reviving the forgotten world of saltwater sanctuaries
Call them sea pools, rock pools, tidal pools or mermaid pools, tidal saltwater swimming pools are a much-loved feature of the seaside, offering the wide horizons and salty excitement of sea swimming without the rollicking waves and perils of the open water. In Sea Pools - 66 saltwater sanctuaries from around the world, published by Batsford ($35.00), architect and keen bather Chris Romer-Lee of Studio Octopi reflects on the design, history and social significance of sea pools.
Encouraged by the medical profession, sea bathing became popular in the mid-18th century, and coastal towns vied to build sea pools as a means to attract leisure bathers. With the current resurgence in wild swimming and awareness of the need to conserve and regenerate the coastline, sea pools are on the agenda again and several that had slid into ruin are being restored.
CULTURE OF BATHING: How did you first discover sea pools? What made you want to write about them?
CHRIS ROMER-LEE: I had previously plunged into the medicinally cold waters of Walpole Bay Tidal Pool in Margate and knew of a few in Cornwall but hadn’t really stopped to think about why they were there. It was answering the ‘why’ that revealed the rich anecdotes and historical significance of these pools in the UK and across the world. There isn’t enough acknowledgement of their heritage and position within the history of bathing and I continue to raise their profile through talks and articles. The book seemed an appropriate way to start this.
CoB: Do you have favorites?
CHRIS: Too many! In Sea Pools, Langstrand Tidal Pool in Namibia consumed months researching its origins. At one point, I had a local cafe owner sourcing stories and a Cessna pilot volunteering to take aerial photos in a desperate attempt to understand the pool. Closer to home, I visited Bon Secours in Saint-Malo where the 4m deep pool and its 3m high diving board are consumed by the area’s outrageous tidal range. The pool will feature in my next book on diving boards.
CoB: There are some wonderful stories behind these sea pools and the entrepreneurs who built them. Do you have a favorite anecdote?
CHRIS: Lady Basset’s Baths in Portreath, Cornwall are unique. Eight baths were carved from the rock by the Basset Estate’s stone mason. Each is placed at a different height across the beach so that at least one bath (and they were all the size of a large domestic bath) had fresh seawater in it. Lady Basset would have bathed fully clothed in the waters when the belief was bathing in and consumption of seawater cured most ailments.
CoB: Can you tell us about your work on the restoration of the pools at Saltcoats and Tarlair?
CHRIS: The refurbishment of Tarlair’s Art Deco pavilion was completed in mid-November and Studio Octopi are now working on the restoration of the seawater pools. Saltcoats is fundraising for a planning application in 2025. Both are small Scottish towns with a rich heritage of holidaying and leisure and epitomise the significance of these tidal and seawater pools that pop up along the UK coastline. These projects stem from my work in co-founding Future Lidos, a network of existing lidos and campaigners. In April, Future Lidos launched a free-to-access Lido Toolkit funded by the NLHF but this now needs more funding to keep the network’s information sharing and advocacy work going. A Go Fund Me campaign is running and is critical to the future stability of this thriving network.
Sauna Day
A sequel to Estonian filmmaker Anna Hints’ 2023 documentary Smoke Sauna Sisterhood, here Hints shifts focus to men in the sauna. This fictional short co- directed with Tushar Prakash follows four Estonian men on their sauna journey. Hints uses the ritualistic space of the smoke sauna as a stage for an exploration of masculinity and vulnerability. In the penumbral gloom, glistening limbs recall Caravaggio’s compositions, and the psychological charge of the confessional is palpable. At the end, as two men float in a sea of green, Hints captures the intimacy of shared experience.
Watch an interview with the directors here, and look out for upcoming screenings.
In the news
“The Blue Lagoon was forced to close as the resort’s parking lot was engulfed in lava." Peta Pixel features press photographer Vilhelm Gunnarsson’s images of lava destroying parts of Iceland’s most famous thermal baths.
“My sister and I are lying on slabs like flounders in a fishmonger’s. Instead of a bed of ice, though, we’re stretched out on heated marble.” The Guardian reports on the reopening of Newcastle’s Turkish Baths and the revival of baths in the UK.
“Casio Japan unveils a sauna watch with a springy band” Designboom presents the watch but with a recommended time limit of 15 minutes and max temperature of 100°C, we don’t think it will suit bathing diehards.
One last thing
We’d love to try this insane rotating water slide at Meryal Waterpark, Doha. Opened a year ago, at 76m it’s the world’s tallest and has 12 slides from a single tower.
We’d love to hear your feedback - please send a DM, or email hello@cultureofbathing.com
Thanks for this, Elena, Jane and Robbie. Keep up the great work on bathing!