La Piscine
La Piscine
23 rue de l’Espérance
59100 Roubaix
Tel: 00 33 (0)3 20 69 23 60
Web: www.roubaix-lapiscine.com
Open:
Tuesday to Thursday 11:00 am – 6:00 pm, Friday 11:00 am – 8:00 pm, Saturday & Sunday 1:00 pm – 6:00 pm.
Closed: Monday, January 1, May 1, Ascension Day, July 14, August 15, November 1 and December 25.
Entry:
Permanent Collections – full fare: 4, 50 € / reduced fare: 3, 50 €
Temporary Exhibition – full fare: 4,50 € / reduced fare: 3, 50 €
Get there:
By train: Roubaix Train Station.
By subway : Line 2, station Grand’Place or Gare/Jean-Lebas
By bus : line 25, stop at Musée Art et Industrie or Gare/Jean-Lebas
By car : from Paris Motorway A1 direction Lille, then follow Roubaix centre. From Calais motorway A16 direction Dunkerque, then motorway A25 direction Lille, then follow Roubaix centre.
This renovated swimming pool is today beautifully crafted art deco edifice created by the Lilloise architect Albert Baert and is worth the short detour from the charms of Lille to see it.
La Piscine Museum of Art and Industry (as it is formally known) was established on the site of the former municipal swimming pool in 2001. It was built as a swimming pool in 1932 by the then mayor, Jean Baptiste Lebas in a working class area whose brief to Albert Baert was to create the ‘most beautiful swimming pool in France’. Art Deco, Byzantine and Moorish designs were weaved together to produce a beautiful pool, baths, showers, hairdressing salon steam baths and even a laundy room.
It fell into disrepair and was closed in 1985. It has now been renovated into this gorgeous museum in a pool by Jean-Paul Philippon and reopened in 2001 to take its rightful place n the 20th century’s architectural heritage of the region.
There are two huge half moon windows that are styled in the rays of the sun and the reflection of this in the pool’s water is simply awesome. Around the pool is a beautiful ensemble of sculptures and artworks by Claudel, Ingres, Fantin-Latour, Lempicka and local artists such as Cogghe and Weerts.
In the former changing rooms are displays of ceramics by Picasso and several thousand textile sample books from French textile factories that made Roubaix the textile capital of France during 1835 to 1940.
A tour of this museum is both calming and enriching and should not be missed.