The Olympia Leisure Centre was a swimming pool in Dundee.

Olympia Leisure Centre
56°27′27.4″N 2°58′0.72″W
Opened	15 July 1974 (1974-07-15)
Closed	2013
Operated by	Dundee City Council, later Dundee Leisure
Former name(s)	Dundee Leisure Centre

History

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]

Facilities

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]

Incidents

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]

References