‘Build it and they will come’: the hopes new life for former lido will revive Weston-super-Mare

The Tropicana has been leased to entertainment company Live Nation which plans to turn abandoned space into events venue The Tropicana in Weston-super-Mare was once a shimmering art deco lido, a premier coastal jewel where thousands flocked to bathe in the Somerset sun. But as the decades passed since its 1937 opening and an era of cheap air fares and Mediterranean holidays arrived, the lido’s lustre dimmed and it was closed in 2000. For 15 years, it sat as a hollowed-out shell, a sad monumen...

By Jamie Grierson