One last dip into Margate’s Lido

Margate’s Lido has been derelict for decades. What is left before the diggers move in?

Driving through past the Turner Contemporary and up the hill towards Cliftonville, you can’t help but catch sight of the old Margate’s Lido tower with its distinctive and bold Art Deco style lettering and bulbous top. Very accidental Wes Anderson.

The “Lido Beacon” disguises the 19^th century chimney behind its cladding and in a way disrupts the usual story of this being just another abandoned British lido. The fashionable name might belong to the 1930s, but this lido was already a modern leisure complex in 1926 on top of a bathing establishment dating back to the 1820s.

It is hard to imagine it now from what remains, but Cliftonville Lido in Margate was a substantial seafront leisure complex whose history stretches back almost two centuries. Although the 1920s Lido has been disused for many years, much of its distinctive character survives, including bright red tiled roofs, porthole windows and the prominent four-sided “Lido” beacon. Its development spans two important periods in the history of British seaside recreation: the Georgian enthusiasm for sea bathing and the twentieth-century fashion for open-air swimming pools and lidos.

The word “lido” derives from the Lido di Venezia in Venice and came into widespread use in Britain during the great expansion of British lidos during the 1930s. Outdoor swimming became extremely popular and local authorities constructed large numbers of recreational pools with around 169 built across the country. Many later closed as changing leisure habits and increasingly affordable foreign holidays during the 1960s and 70s contributed to the decline of the traditional British seaside resort.

But Margate’s complex is different because its origins are much earlier than the lido boom. If you’re interested in more of the history, please explore the later sections of the blog. But for now, here’s a walk around what is still there.

What survives today

From the upper promenade the most obvious remnants are the cream-painted buildings, red tiled roofs, circular porthole windows and the tall four-sided beacon. The buildings step down the cliff in a series of levels and terraces towards the sea, preserving something of the appearance of the 1926 leisure complex. Contemporary accounts frequently describe the buildings as Art Deco, although Historic England more precisely describes the 1920s development as Neo-Classical with Mediterranean influences.

On the seaward side, the great open-air swimming pool has not functioned for almost half a century. It closed in 1977–78 and was subsequently filled with sand; its broad footprint nevertheless remains clearly legible, enclosed by the surviving concrete structures and sea walls. The former terraces, promenades and lower-level accommodation also remain in varying states of dereliction. The seaward elevations have for years been characterised by boarded openings, weathered concrete and extensive graffiti. Some parts of the complex, notably the Cliff Bar and snooker rooms, have continued in separate use, while much of the remainder has been inaccessible.

Another conspicuous survival is the “Lido Sands” mosaic, associated with the period after the swimming pool had been filled in. In September 2025 it was covered with blue paint during council graffiti-removal work, prompting a strong local reaction. Residents removed the paint the following day and exposed the mosaic again.

Much less obvious from outside is the extraordinary amount of the Georgian Clifton Baths that still survives underneath the twentieth-century buildings. The listed remains include the large circular chamber once used for turning and storing bathing machines, its eight arched alcoves, the approximately 100-foot bathing-machine tunnel leading towards the beach, a separate staircase tunnel, the horse-pump tunnel and the vaulted lower reservoir or plunge bath excavated from the chalk. The original dome above the circular chamber was truncated when the lido was built, and the beach end of the bathing-machine tunnel is now blocked. Historic England notes that further elements of the early baths may survive beneath later structures.

The condition of the visible twentieth-century fabric has become increasingly significant. A large collapse appeared in the pavement/car-park area in 2021, when local reporting also recorded the demolition of a deteriorated pergola on safety grounds. Photographs taken inside the complex at that time showed extensive decay in the lower levels. That deterioration began directly affecting the public seafront route in February 2026. On 6 February the owners closed the lower promenade on the seaward side of the Lido at Cliff Terrace after a structural report identified problems with the steelwork supporting the promenade above the former changing rooms. Temporary Heras fencing was initially installed and pedestrians walking between Margate and Cliftonville were diverted onto the upper promenade, with both stepped and accessible alternative routes.

By May 2026 the temporary fencing had been replaced by much more substantial heavy-duty barriers, effectively preventing pedestrians from passing along this section of the lower promenade. Thanet District Council said the underlying steel structure had seriously deteriorated and that the owners would be required to make the structure safe; at that point no timescale for repairs had been given. Local councillors described the concern as a risk that the promenade itself could collapse over the former changing rooms.

So we’re left with a gentle visual irony. The beacon stands today as an historic symbol of optimism and affordable leisure. Defiant and proud. Whilst at ground level the decay has now reached the point where part of the public seafront itself has had to be closed off. Before the diggers become a semi-permanent feature and the site changes for ever, now is probably the last opportunity to capture a unique part of our cultural heritage as it is today.

More history of the Margate Lido

Clifton Baths

Beneath the twentieth-century lido are the remains of Clifton Baths, constructed between 1824 and 1828 and now Grade II listed. Historic England describes the site as one of the earliest surviving seawater bathing establishments in the country.

The baths date from a period when sea bathing was becoming both fashionable and increasingly commercialised. They were built into the chalk cliff and included seawater bathing facilities, plunge baths, tunnels and infrastructure associated with bathing machines.

The surviving remains are particularly unusual. They include what is thought to be some of the earliest surviving seawater plunge-bath accommodation in Britain, while Clifton Baths is believed to be the only surviving bathing establishment of its type excavated directly into the cliffs.

Originally there was also a large circular chamber topped by a dome. Bathing machines used to carry bathers into the sea could be brought up from the beach and stored there. The circular chamber survives, although the dome and other elements of the Georgian complex disappeared during later redevelopment.

The 1920s transformation

From 1926 the site was radically transformed by the entrepreneur John Henry Iles, who was also responsible for the development of Margate’s celebrated Dreamland amusement park.

Iles created a modern seaside leisure complex above and around the earlier Clifton Baths. It included terraces for sunbathers, cafés and restaurants together with a large outdoor swimming pool projecting towards the sea. Electricity was also installed in the existing ozone baths.

Architecturally, the development had the confident recreational character associated with the emerging interwar seaside resort: extensive terraces, nautical details such as porthole windows, bright tiled roofs and, eventually, the conspicuous four-sided Lido sign or beacon in 1938.

Popularity and later decline

The lido became an important part of Margate’s twentieth-century seaside culture and for many years was a popular visitor attraction.

It suffered significant storm damage in February 1953 but continued in use afterwards. Parts of the complex subsequently developed other entertainment uses and during the 1970s it was used as a disco.

The swimming pool survived into the later twentieth century and is remembered fondly. Margate-born artist Tracey Emin is reputed to have learnt to swim there and she wrote a foreword to Janet Smith’s 1995 book “Liquid Assets: The Lidos and Open Air Swimming of Britain”.

The complex finally ceased operating as a swimming venue during the late 1970s. Its decline formed part of the much wider deterioration of Britain’s lido and traditional seaside culture during the post-war decades. With dwindling uptake the cost of maintaining large outdoor swimming complexes was too high. Many, as with Cliftonville fell into disrepair or were demolished.

Redevelopment proposals and attempts to save the lido

The subsequent future of the lido has been complicated both by its physical condition and ownership. The buildings and land have been privately owned, while the swimming pool itself has been owned by Thanet District Council.

The current private owner is Waterfront Holdings. Before its acquisition, the site had spent seven years deteriorating while the previous ownership was caught up in liquidation. A feasibility study carried out by Lee Evans Architecture in 2018 considered substantial redevelopment. Proposals included a 100-bedroom boutique spa hotel together with approximately 90 one- and two-bedroom apartments incorporated into the cliffside. The site was put up for sale via Knight Frank in 2025. The Lido Pool & Snooker Club and The Cliff Bar are under separate options agreements and are excluded from the plots currently being sold.

There have also been efforts to pursue a future more closely connected with the site’s historic recreational use. In 2019 a local group seeking to save the lido and return it to use as a swimming and leisure complex began clearing parts of the site. The work took place with the permission of the owners and in cooperation with Thanet District Council and Historic England.

The council used funding from the Government’s Coastal Revival Fund to support the project. Clearing the site allowed a much more comprehensive inspection of the complex and generated a considerable amount of new information about its physical condition, construction and history.

The intention was to present these findings to the local community, the wider public and interested organisations, providing the basis for discussion about how the lido might be brought back into use. The Covid-19 lockdown interrupted that process before the planned public engagement could take place. In his highly likely that the future of the site will involve private redevelopment.