Daily photo: 8/04/2011
Void (n): An unfilled space or gap.
The annual draining of Hitchin’s lido ready for summer opening – a fascinating subject in this outdoor swimming-obsessed household, so here’s another picture. Note that, as soon as it ceases to be a pool and becomes a bloody great hole in the ground, it requires fencing off. There are still a few feet of water in the deep end, which drops to around 9ft, but at this point more than half the pool is dry. The figure standing in what would be five or six feet of water with the pool full (I can’t touch bottom past the central steps) is a lifeguard armed with a pressure washer.
Google seems to have done its fly-over at a point when the pool was empty – here are the results. You can see the sun terraces and period buildings to the north and west, and the modern gym and indoor pool (which is actually built quite sympathetically) to the south. Of course, they could redo this at any time so, if you look at this and see blue water, that’s why. Interesting to note that nearby Letchworth open-air pool is also empty, must be the time of year…
And here’s Letchworth: