Olympia Leisure Centre

A popular swimming complex at the junction of the Seagate and East Marketgait in Dundee, the Olympia Leisure Centre opened in 2013 at a cost of £33 million, replacing a centre of the same name which had been located on the city's waterfront. The centre features an Olympic-sized 50m swimming pool, a wave pool, a rapid river, a bubble-bed, an activity pool, a toddler's pool, dive pool and four flumes, including the cannonball with its 3.8-m / 12½ foot drop, as well as a fitness suite and a cafe. Adjacent is linked multi-storey car park, with spaces for 500 vehicles, and a 650 sq. m / 7000 sq. foot retail unit on the ground floor. It was built by Mansell Construction Services Ltd. of Perth and is run by Leisure and Culture Dundee, an arms-length charity which has operated services on behalf of Dundee City Council since 2011.

The original Olympia Leisure Centre comprised a large concrete edifice and opened on 15th July 1974 at a cost of £1.275 million. It included several different pools for different ages and abilities of swimmer, together with rapids, a wave machine and flumes that extended outside the building as enclosed multi-coloured tubes. This facility gained Dundee an international reputation for hosting swimming competitions but was demolished in 2013 to make way for a redevelopment of the waterfront including the new V&A Dundee building. The Olympia Centre had itself replaced the nearby Dundee Corporation Central Bath House which operated from 1896 until it was demolished in 1974. This facility had originally been proposed in th 1840s to promote cleanliness amongst the working classes rather than for leisure, but was eventually built with salt water swimming pools, Turkish baths, Aeratone therapeutic baths and plunge baths.


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