Otley Lido: Meet the community group working to restore an 100-year-old outdoor swimming baths in Leeds

Friends of Otley Lido has spent the last seven years working tirelessly to restore Otley’s outdoor swimming baths; a spot that first opened to the community back in 1924. Once a much-loved community hub and space to learn to swim, the site was closed in 1993 and has seldom been used since.

Speaking to the YEP, Leonie Sharp, member of Friends of Otley Lido, said: “I live three doors down and used to walk past [the lido] everyday thinking how fantastic it would be to restore it. When the expression of interest sign went up on the side of the building in 2015, it felt like it didn’t say expression of interest – it said ‘Leonie, you have to do this!’. So we had a small group of us approach the council and ask if they were interested in us creating a group to restore the lido.”

After receiving the nod of approval from both Leeds City Council and Otley Town Council, the group were met with their first hurdle: challenging the scepticism from Otley’s own community.

"I think they couldn't see the vision at first,” said Leonie. "But as a committee, we've always been very passionate and determined. The pandemic helped a lot because people started looking inwards at their own communities and saw there was a lack of, specifically health and wellbeing, venues. Outdoor swimming also started to see a resurgence during that time, so then it shifted and became a question of when [the restoration of the lido] was going to happen, not if it was going to happen.”

With the community rallying behind them, further help came in the form of donations from Sport England, which helped to fulfil the Friends of Otley Lido’s first Crowdfunder and pay for a comprehensive business plan for the outdoor swimming facility.

“The main thing for us is that [Otley Lido] is sustainable,” explained Ian Lawson, treasurer of Friends of Otley Lido. “Our ethos as a community interest company is to deliver what the community wants, so it's not driven by maximizing profit or anything like that. It's driven by delivering what the community wants and needs, and making sure that [the lido] remains financially sustainable with the support from the community as well.”

With Otley baths’ 100th anniversary right around the corner, both Leonie and Ian hope to have finished the lido by 2024; just in time to celebrate a full century of the outdoor baths serving the community.

Leonie said: "For us to be able to deliver to the community an outdoor swimming facility on the 100th year anniversary of [Otley baths] would just be so tremendous. It would be absolutely amazing and such a fantastic achievement – a jewel in Otley’s crown, definitely.”

Anyone wanting to get involved can find out more on Otley’s Lido’s website, with information, the history of Otley baths and donation links available on their social media pages.