Skip to content

Ipswich's Broomhill lido celebrated in photo exhibition

News imageDeborah Norwood This is looking across from the sun terrace to the former poolside entrance to the ladies changing room. The metal structure at the bottom of the image is the main pool, which is covered by scaffolding for health and safety.Deborah Norwood
University of Suffolk student Deborah Norwood, from Fakenham, Norfolk, originally planned to theme her pictures of fairytales at the site of a ruined building, but when when she visited Broomhill pool she "saw the beauty of it" and decided the make it the main subject of her photographic collection.
News imageDeborah Norwood This is of the training junior pool. The metal scaffolding on the right of the image is the main pool, that has been covered with scaffolding.Deborah Norwood
Deborah, 28, first got interested in photography while she was was unwell due to chronic fatigue syndrome. Her granddad bought her a digital camera on her 21st birthday. "He and my nan used to take me out when I was poorly and I would take photographs," she said. "It was something I could do that didn't make me feel even worse. I fell in love with photography."
News imageDeborah Norwood The men’s changing roomDeborah Norwood
The photographs of Broomhill, including the men's changing rooms, are part of her University of Suffolk course where she is in her third and final year.
News imageDeborah Norwood This is the old ladies rinse-shower as you come out of the changing rooms to the pool side, looking down from the stairs of the viewing terrace above.Deborah Norwood
She says: "I wanted to capture the bits of the building that you can't see on Google Earth, the bits that when you look at the images, you think you remember that. I want people to remember their childhood, and now that the pool has received their lottery funding and have the green light for their restoration, they can look at my images and visualise what it will become."
News imageDeborah Norwood This is the food court and terrace. On the wooden covering over the window you. On the wooden covering over the window you can see a burn mark where someone had set fire to playing cards.Deborah Norwood
Deborah says she has "learnt so much" from the course which has helped her "rebuild" her life.
News imageDeborah Norwood This is the rinse-showers as you come out of the changing rooms to the poolDeborah Norwood
Deborah hopes to continue taking pictures of Broomhill as it is renovated, following a £3.4m award from the Heritage Lottery Fund. It is due to reopen in 2020.
News imageDeborah Norwood Deborah says: "This is one of my favourite image of the whole series. It is of the old ladies changing room. It just looks like its stopped in time. "Deborah Norwood
Deborah says this is one of her favourite pictures: "It is of the old ladies changing room. It just looks like it has stopped in time."
News imageDeborah Norwood The food terrace, with the sun terrace on the left. The ladder is one of the original diving board ladders that someone had propped against the wall to get out after breaking in.Deborah Norwood
Her pictures will form part of an exhibition of photographs by 23 students from the university at the Waterfront Gallery in Ipswich. The students are raising money to exhibit their work at Candid Arts in London on 14 June.
News imageDeborah Norwood Playing cards that had been discarded after someone had tried to set to a board covering a window.Deborah Norwood
Her pictures show how the site was derelict, but it is set to rise from the ashes. More information can be found on Facebook, twitter and Instagram at @uosdegreeshow and Deborah Norwood has the Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/DebNwoodPhotos/ .