Britain is beginning to protect its 1970s leisure centres
Nothing makes your correspondent feel older
“You need to use your imagination,” says Otto Saumarez Smith, an architectural historian. The Oasis swimming pool and leisure centre in Swindon closed in 2020 and is now drawing graffiti taggers and weeds. But when it opened, in 1976, it was a steamy tropical paradise with trees and slides under a bravura 45m-wide glazed dome.
This article appeared in the Britain section of the print edition under the headline “In the good times”
Britain January 28th 2023
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