Explore #8 of the 3 Eurovirgins and a Europro tour
Explore number 5 of Day Two of our Belgian weekender, and it wasn’t even our last of the day! Next up: this abandoned swimming pool with a beautiful twin staircase, located in a busy urban location. I had no idea about access to this place, and had heard reports of more than one group being busted by the owners, so I wasn’t entirely confident that this was going to be a winner. But by this time our gang was working as a well-oiled urbexing machine, and we were soon inside. After the industrial vastness of Powerplant IM and Cooling Towers IM and Petite Maison this was a really nice change in pace and style. I loved the ornate staircases and mosaic tiling, and would really love to revisit this place to get some better detail shots.
History
This pool / restaurant / theatre was built in 1937 originally for the exclusive use and entertainment of workers in a nearby factory. However it soon opened its doors to many schools in the region, and local sports clubs. It is thought that tens of thousands of local children would have learned to swim here over more than five decades. The style of the building incorporated cubism and industrialism popular at the time.
The building was sold to a local university in 1994, which soon struggled with the costs of maintaining the building. The swimming pool closed in 1998, but the theatre and café were still used until around 2004 when the building was abandoned.
Around 2005 the building came into ownership of a muslim community which intended to use it as a mosque – hence the beautiful ornate tiling on the staircases. However, this too seems to have fallen by the wayside, and the building lies empty and falling into disrepair.
On with the photos…
[Click on a photo to VIEW LARGE]
And I’ll leave with with a group photo – happy days! 🙂
Thanks as always for looking. Please sign up to following this blog if you haven’t done so already… trust me you’ll DEFINITELY want to see the next one – it’s EPIC! 🙂
Cheers
Adam X