House › Tide Pool
Tide Pool
A rectangle of the sea, held in cut rock below the seaward ramp, emptied and refilled by the tide twice a day and heated by nothing but the morning.
What it actually is
The pool was cut in 1933 as a bathing station for the house above it: twenty-two metres long, one metre deep at the shallow end and just over two at the seaward wall, with steps at three corners and a rail the whole way round. It is saltwater and only saltwater. When the tide comes in it spills over the seaward lip and exchanges itself; when it goes out, the pool holds what it caught. There is no chlorine, no filtration plant and no heating, so the water is whatever the sea decided that week — roughly fourteen degrees in spring, nineteen at the end of summer, and honest about it.
Around the pool there is a terrazzo deck with the original stepped balustrade, eight steamer chairs, a rack of striped towels, and a warm rinse room with three showers, a bench and a hot tap that genuinely runs hot. Above the rinse room is a small drying terrace where the house hangs its linen when the wind is off the land.
Opening hours
- Daily from 08:00 until dusk, weather and swell permitting
- Cleaned Tuesdays 14:00–15:30; deck stays open
- Swim group Saturdays at 08:15, no charge, no obligation
- Closed when the red board is out at the ramp head
- Never open after dark; there are no pool lights
Safety, plainly
- There is no lifeguard. Swimming is at your own risk.
- Under-sixteens must have an adult with them at the poolside.
- Cold water hits fast: enter by the steps, not by jumping.
- Do not swim alone before eight or after the deck empties.
- Do not swim after drinking. Staff will say so if needed.
Tides and temperature
The pool is at its clearest in the two hours after a high tide, when the exchange has just happened and the sand has not been stirred. Low water in the middle of a hot afternoon is the worst of it — warmer, cloudier, and busier. The desk chalks the day's high and low water on the board by the ramp door each morning, along with the sea temperature taken at seven and the swell height, which is the number that decides whether the red board goes out.
Slots at busy times
On summer weekends the deck fills, so afternoon slots are written up at the desk in ninety-minute blocks. Residents can take one a day at no charge; it exists to stop eight chairs being held by four towels since seven in the morning. Outside those hours nothing is booked, and outside July and August nothing is booked at all.
The morning after a late night
Guests who have been out along the parade often come straight down at eight. That is fine, and the swim group will make room. But if the night ran very late, sit on the deck with coffee instead and swim in the afternoon. Cold saltwater is not a cure for anything, and the rail at the seaward wall is slippery until the sun reaches it.