(Main entrance and a look at the diving platform from the locked main entrance)
Is there such a swimming pool?? Does it exist??
I think more of you will ask me this question when you look at the title. For me, I personally have not been to this swimming pool before. I only got to know about this abandoned swimming pool from 1 of my colleagues, ZW who is staying near the pool and has shown me the way there after 1 of our lunch breaks.
This swimming pool was officially opened on 29 Dec 1952 and was named after a Cantonese Dentist (trained in HK), Mr Look Yan Kit who came to Singapore in 1877. The swimming pool is sandwiched between Yan Kit Road, close to the nearly completed 50 storey high “The Pinnacle @ Duxton” and the Tanjong Pagar Plaza.
The pool is one of the oldest public swimming pool in Singapore having 14,859 m2 plot of land and it has 3 pools in total. The first pool near the main entrance is for water polo and diving, the middle pool is the normal pool from 4 to 6 feet high with slides, while the last pool at the end is the wading pool where there are some nice wall paintings of sea creatures outside the changing room which I supposed is correct.
The pool was closed in 2001 due to low usage and expensive maintenance which the Singapore Sports Council (SSC) has estimated that S$400,000 would be needed to maintain and operate the complex annually and S$4 million to upgrade the entire complex. Since then the pool was forgotten by many after its closure.
SSC has then announced in 2005 that the complex can be used for possible development by private developers, but there is no indication of any taker yet.
For more detail of the pool, read the articles below:
Another blog which talks about this pool also
Below are some photos of the pool that I took near the main extrance and from the carpark area at Block 3 of Tanjong Pagar Plaza.
Signs at the main entrance
Diving and water polo pool
Middle Pool with slide
Wading Pool with nice wall painting
Other photos
online National Archives of Singapore
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