A few years ago, residents of the swanky Embassy Gardens development in London South Bank were too excited to flaunt the world’s first transparent sky pool. Today,the same people are hopping mad with the futility of the pool paradise as it is too cold to swim and also to maintain. The sky pool made news a few years back as it stands across two residential blocks 115ft above London and is enclosed within a capsule of 8 feet thick glass. Swimmers were spoilt for choice whether to gaze across the city skyline (views include Houses of Parliament, the London Eye)or look down and let their heartbeat drop or feel lucky for having the opportunity to enjoy this novel and luxurious amenity.
The pool is accompanied by a rooftop spa, summer bar, an orangery and is painfully costing residents a staggering $220,500 a year and nearly $650 a day to heat. That’s a price too unreasonable even for people who proudly live in $6 million apartments in Nine Elms. A couple that resides in the posh address shared with The Sun, “It is too cold to be used at the moment, so it seems mad that we’re still having to pay to heat it. If it’s £450 ($650) a day and, at most, five people are using it, that’s £90 per swim. That hardly seems like value for money.”
Another resident cried, “We’re livid. The outside temperature has dropped, but the Sky Pool is still open to residents and currently uncovered. We’re basically heating the sky.” Apparently, this 85ft acrylic pool that holds almost 400 tonnes of water at 115ft above ground level comes with a cover designed to keep the pool warm during the winter but is unfortunately broken. The showpiece swimming pool was marketed as a round-the-year perk, but residents seem determined to get rid of it, at least for days when they can’t even think of soaking their feet in.
