Scarborough North Bay Pool in photos from the 1970s

Visitors heading to Scarborough’s North Bay today will find a very different seafront from the one enjoyed by generations of families and holidaymakers.

Decades ago, summer days here meant swimming outdoors, sitting at the water’s edge and, when the Yorkshire weather played along, soaking up the sunshine beside a bustling open-air pool.

Readers may remember the queues to get into Scarborough North Bay Bathing Pool, pictured here in 1978.

These nostalgic photographs from the 1970s and early 1980s take us back to the North Bay Bathing Pool, before water slides and flumes transformed the attraction into something very different.

But Scarborough’s tradition of spectacular outdoor swimming pools had begun decades earlier.

The South Bay Pool, near the Spa, opened in July 1915. Measuring about 330feet by 165feet and featuring a 32feet-high diving board, it was once described as the largest outdoor swimming pool in Europe. Swimming competitions, diving exhibitions and aquatic displays helped make it one of the resort’s great attractions.

In the late 1930s attention turned to the other side of town.

The North Bay Bathing Pool, at Peasholm Gap, opened on July 4, 1938, having first served as a small motor-boat pool from 1935.

This was the scene at North Bay Bathing Pool a year later in 1973.

The sheltered location was deliberately chosen, with contemporary accounts describing it as one of the warmest and sunniest spots on Scarborough’s north side.

The pool was impressive in its own right. Around 230feet long and 60feet wide, it held about 400,000 gallons of seawater that had been filtered and chlorinated, and heated to 68 degrees Fahrenheit. It was divided by a long island into a shallow children's bathing area and a main swimming pool.

Press readers who ventured to the coast may well remember it had a certain Mediterranean glamour about it with its white marble terrazzo walls, underwater lighting, rooftop sunbathing terrace, seating for spectators, and separate dressing boxes.

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By the time these photographs were taken in the 1970s, the pool had already been part of Scarborough summers for more than 30 years.

For youngsters it offered the excitement of an outdoor swim. For parents there was the chance to sit poolside and soak up the sunshine. For holidaymakers it formed part of a North Bay that was becoming increasingly associated with family entertainment.

But the familiar pool seen in these pictures was approaching a dramatic transformation.

In 1984, the traditional North Bay Bathing Pool was redeveloped in a £500,000 project and reopened as Waterscene. Its star - a spectacular water chute - was said to be the longest in the world at the time.

The traditional North Bay Bathing Pool was redeveloped in a £500,000 project and reopened in 1984 as Waterscene, pictured here a year later in 1985.

The redevelopment reflected changing tastes in seaside entertainment. The simple outdoor swimming pool was becoming a water park, complete with slides and attractions designed to tempt a new generation.

Even the name would continue to change.

The pool, pictured here in 1989, had become Water Splash World, a name likely to bring back plenty of memories for children who visited Scarborough during the late 1980s and early 1990s.

In 1987, Waterscene became Water Splash World, a name likely to bring back plenty of memories for children who visited Scarborough during the late 1980s and early 1990s. The site was subsequently taken back by Scarborough Council in 1992 and was renamed Atlantis in 1995 before permanently closing in 2007.

Meanwhile, the town's other great outdoor swimming attraction was nearing the end of its life. The South Bay Pool closed in 1988 and remained derelict for a number of years before finally being demolished in 2003.

The former North Bay pool survived longer as a water attraction. Atlantis eventually closed in 2007, bringing to an end almost seven decades of swimming and water-based entertainment on the site.

These photographs therefore capture something that disappeared not just physically but culturally: the era of the traditional British seaside outdoor swimming pool.

Before the giant slides and colourful water attractions arrived, there was simply the pool, the diving boards, the changing rooms, rows of spectators and, when the weather behaved itself, the prospect of spending an entire summer's day beside the water.

If you lived in Scarborough, or went there for days out or holidays, what do you remember about swimming at the North Bay Pool?