This pool was very close to a much larger and fancier pool at New Brighton, just over 1.5 miles as the crow flies. The Derby Pool was intended for the use of locals whereas New Brighton was for the tourists.
A bathing station had been set up in Harrison Drive in 1927 for the use of sea bathers. There was also a row of bathing huts that could be rented from the council.
There was a large ball in the middle of the pool. Not sure what it did but it was removed after somone was caught under it and drowned.
Despite its popularity the pool was damaged several times by storm damaged and was eventually shut down due to lack of funds to repair the building in the 1980’s.
Apparently some of the buildings still stand and have been converted to the Derby Pool Harvester, but comparing the maps of the period with current satellite images, the restaurant buildings are not shown as part of the pool complex and don’t appear at all on the 1957 map. The pool buildings in photographs have a more Spanish style with arches, not the art deco style of the restaurant. Wirral Council sold the site to Whitbread in 1997 and they apparently built the deco-style restaurant where the old bathing station was.
| Name | Derby Pool Harrison Drive, Wallasey, Wirral, Merseyside, CH45 3QS |
| Built / opened | June 1932 by Lord Derby |
| Cost | £35,000 |
| Dimensions | 330′ x 75′ |
| Capacity | |
| Water type | Filtered sea water |
| Depth(s) | |
| Diving boards | 5-level fixed board platform. No data found but photographs look like 1m intervals with 5m the highest. Flanked by two 1m springboards. |
| Changing facilities | |
| Second pool | N/A |
| Spectator seating | |
| Designer | Mr L St G Wilkinson |
| Date closed | 1980 |
| Status | Final buildings cleared in 1984 |
| On site now | Grass |
| Links | 1930’s New Brighton Bathing Pool & Derby Pool, Wallasey, Wirral |
| Last updated | 11th June 2025 |
Baths and Bath Engineering July 1936
Wallasey
Describing the bathing pools, in an address, Mr. L. St. G. Wilkinson. MSc. M.Inst.C.E., borough engineer and surveyor, remarked that a special feature of the Derby pool’s filtration and circulating plant was that the materinls of construction were almost non-corrodible. Iron had been practically eliminated thus preventing any possibility of a rusty discoloration affecting the pure green colour of the sea water.
