Located on the North Somerset coastline overlooking the Bristol Channel, Portishead Open Air Pool & Café Lido is one of the South West’s best-loved outdoor swimming destinations. Originally opened in 1962, the community-run lido combines heated outdoor swimming, sea views and a relaxed café atmosphere, welcoming thousands of visitors every year.
Alongside the 33m heated pool, the site also features sun terraces, a toddler pool, changing facilities and the popular Café Lido, serving barista coffee, homemade cakes, paninis, ice creams and light lunches overlooking the water.
As part of ongoing improvements across the venue, the lido now includes a fully equipped Changing Places toilet to support disabled visitors and their carers.
Accessibility Across The Site
Accessibility continues to play an important role across Portishead Open Air Pool, helping ensure more people can confidently enjoy the facilities available.
The venue already offers accessible changing areas, showers and dedicated quieter swimming sessions, including SEN Splash sessions designed for children and adults with additional needs.
The addition of a Changing Places toilet further strengthens the site’s commitment to inclusive leisure and recreation, allowing visitors with complex disabilities to comfortably spend longer at the pool, café and wider facilities.
What’s Inside: Our Specification
Within the Changing Places toilet at Portishead Open Air Pool, we installed:
The facility also includes a peninsular WC, grab rails, emergency alarm system and sufficient circulation space to support safe and dignified assisted use.
The inclusion of a shower trolley within the facility helps provide additional flexibility and practicality for visitors requiring more specialist hygiene support during longer visits to the site.
Supporting Accessible Leisure Facilities
For many disabled people and their carers, access to suitable hygiene facilities can directly affect whether leisure destinations are accessible at all.
By investing in a fully compliant Changing Places facility, Portishead Open Air Pool has helped create a more inclusive environment where visitors with complex disabilities can comfortably enjoy everything the venue has to offer, from swimming sessions and community events to relaxing at Café Lido overlooking the coast.
Accessibility Within Community Leisure Spaces
Community-run leisure venues and older outdoor facilities can often present unique accessibility challenges, particularly when adapting existing spaces.
This installation demonstrates how specialist equipment and thoughtful planning can successfully support accessibility within busy leisure environments, helping ensure more people can confidently access and enjoy the facilities available.
Get In Touch
If you’re planning an accessibility project within a leisure venue, visitor attraction or public environment, our team can support you from early consultation through to installation.
We work with councils, trusts, architects and organisations across the UK to deliver practical, compliant Changing Places facilities designed around real user needs.
