Save Jubilee Pool

For 85 years Jubilee Pool in Knowle, Bristol has been a vital leisure facility for its local community. 

Now the swimming pool is under serious threat from closure by Bristol City Council. 

However, there is hope. As a community we can save the pool. 

The Friends of Jubilee Pool group are a band of passionate, diverse and driven volunteers committed to saving the pool, by bringing it into community ownership and ensuring it remains a hub for locals to continue swimming, gyming, meeting and socialising for future generations to come.

Working together we are campaigning tirelessly to help Jubilee Pool survive, and thrive. 

• How can I get involved?
• Friends of Jubilee Pool - who we are
• Jubilee-athon raises over £27,000!

How do we plan to save the pool?

Since reopening in early 2021 after a prolonged period of closure due to COVID-19, Jubilee Pool has been more popular than ever and is a profitable enterprise. 

Despite this, Bristol City Council has proposed the pool - along with another local facility in Kingsdown - be closed under its Leisure Facilities Investment Strategy, which is currently under review. It cites the cost of necessary maintenance and improvement as its basis for Jubilee's perminent closure. 

Shutting down the pool would lead to a chronic failure to leisure participation needs in the local area. However, Marvin Rees, Mayor of Bristol has indicated that contrary to the Leisure Facilities Investment Strategy, Bristol City Council is keen to explore a transfer of Jubilee Pool to the community at zero cost.

Community Asset Transfer 

Friends of Jubilee Pool are forging ahead with a proposal to take on the pool's future ownership and operation via a Community Asset Transfer (CAT). To achieve this, the group are currently in the process of:

• Expressing interest to the council for future operation of the pool (by January 7th 2022). 
• In line with the CAT, building a viable business plan for future operation of the pool. 
• Building a viable fundraising plan to ensure vital maintance and improvement to the facility can be achieved under community ownership.  
• Speaking to a variety of local groups, education facilities and members of the public to ensure a future community-owned pool works better for both current users of the pool and prospective users in Knowle and all nearby Bristol wards.
• Working with prospective future leisure operators (such as current operator Parkwood) to establish the best route forwards for future day-to-day running and management of the facility. 

Right now, we are fundraising to cover the costs associated with the CAT bid. If we are success with this, from later in 2022 we will then start fundraising to repair and update the pool building and to improve the services it provides.

Friends of Jubilee Pool is a 100% voluntary group and needs support in this undertaking. If you think you can help, want to donate funds to help the cause or have a skillset that you think will help our continual fight, please contact savejubileepool@hotmail.com today. Together we can save the pool!

Follow our progress!