The recent history of Broomhill Pool is one of betrayal by the very Council that so proudly built it back in 1938.

The Twentieth Century Society succeeded in getting the lido 'spot listed' in August 2001 as a Grade II Listed building. Undeterred, Ipswich Borough Council proceeded to inform central government that the pool was closed, so that when the DCMS ( Dept of Culture, Media and Sport ) published a list of closed Listed Swimming Pools and Pool Buildings in January 2002, the Broomhill Lido was included.

This would have been news to the swimmers who were trustfully using the pool in the summer of 2002; they had no idea that they were swimming up and down during the pool's very last season. In the autumn of 2002 the gates shut quietly: no consultation, no warning, no publicity. Rumours started to circulate though and in February 2003 the local Evening Star printed its "Broomhill is Doomhill" story and the campaign to save it began in earnest.