Olympia Leisure Centre | |
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56°27′27.4″N 2°58′0.72″W / 56.457611°N 2.9668667°W | |
Opened | 15 July 1974 |
Closed | 2013 |
Operated by | Dundee City Council, later Dundee Leisure |
Former name(s) | Dundee Leisure Centre |
The Olympia Leisure Centre was a swimming pool in Dundee.
The facility was built on an infilled dock. [1]
The facility opened on 15 July 1974. [2] The facility reopened on 28 August 1991 as the Olympia. [3] [4] [5] Operation of the pool transferred from Dundee City Council to Dundee Leisure, a charitable trust, in 2006. [6]
The facility closed in 2013, having been replaced with the new Olympia Leisure Centre, and was subsequently demolished. [7] The V&A Dundee was built where the pool stood previously. In 2021, a mural was created by Cobalt Collective outside the V&A depicting the pool. [8]
Following the 1991 refurbishment, the Centre had four pools. The main pool area had a "beach" entrance where it gradually approached zero depth and also included wave machines, a rapid river, whirlpool, and a hot tub. There was also a diving pool, children's pool, and a 25-metre training pool. [4]
On 29 September 2007 shortly before closing time, a seven-year-old boy who could not swim drowned in the wave pool after becoming separated from the two older children he was playing with. [9] After being reported missing, his body was found half-an-hour later underneath the pool covers. [10] An investigation by the Health and Safety Executive found that the boy drowned in a blind spot and that lifeguards had not received adequate training on identifying blind spots and ensuring the pool was fully supervised. The operators of the pool, Dundee Leisure, were fined £40,000 following the investigation. [11] A temporary lifeguarding station was established until the wall that created the blind spot was knocked down. [6]
During the demolition of the building in January 2014, the roof partially collapsed on top of an excavator. The operator escaped unharmed. [12]