The pool fell into disrepair after its closure.
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The 100 lucky swimmers — who had all entered a competition to be there — braved the unheated water under the last rays of the summer sunshine, enjoying the 25-meter (82-foot), crescent-shaped main pool, and a smaller, shallower splash pool.
Built in 1815 according to the designs of architect John Pinch, Cleveland Pools is the UK’s oldest public outdoor swimming pool and originally drew its water directly from the Avon.
Its earliest swimmers, according to a local-history research paper, paid a yearly subscription fee and included an Arctic explorer, clockmakers, surgeons, architects, bankers and a lawmaker.
But faced with competition from indoor, heated pools, Cleveland’s popularity dwindled in the late 1970s.
It shut in 1978 and, despite short-lived attempts to revive it, closed permanently to swimming in 1984. For a time, the pool was used as a trout farm before it fell into disrepair and was put up for sale by the local council in 2003.
A group of local people formed the Cleveland Pools Trust shortly afterward to protect the site and they raised the funds needed to refurbish the pools from various sources, including the National Lottery and the government.
Construction eventually began in May 2021, and it proved complicated — all materials had to be transported to the site via the river on a barge.
Starting next year, the pools will be heated for the peak summer months using heat pump technology that converts energy from the Avon.
