Wonderland Gardens Swimming Pool

Wonderland Gardens Swimming Pool was a very large pool located near the Thames River. Wonderland Gardens was a facility that was formed in 1935 by the Jones family. It became one of London's major hot spots. The facility had a band shell, an enclosed dance hall, and then later on a swimming pool was built. There was also a restaurant formed there in around 1983 known as "The Riverview Restaurant."

Tragically the restaurant was destroyed by a fire in August 2005, and was never rebuilt. In 2003 the twenty year lease that Mr. Jones formed came to an end, and city officials decided to massively increase the rental fees, as they felt that the land was very valuable. As a result Mr. Jones called it quits and sold what was left of the facility at an auction. The swimming pool at Wonderland Gardens closed down in the early 1970s according to my friends grandparents.

The pool sat empty and unused for over thirty years. For many years people would go the pool and run around on the inside of it, and found it to be amazing. The sides of the pool were at a 45 degree angle and you could literally walk down into the deep end from outside the pool. They had some massive red waterslides as well. When I was a child, I went to see the abandoned pool myself, saw what it was like, and it was unlike any other swimming pool that I had ever seen before. It was sad seeing this pool in that state as it had grass growing in it and MASSIVE weeds. Tragically, in 2007 the city decided to completely change Wonderland Gardens, and this included filling in the pool. Although they claimed that the pool was filled in, it was actually only partially filled in, and you can see parts of it if you look in the right places.