A plea for the secret pool on the mountain

MONTREAL Many Montrealers and visitors have sorely missed the secret pool on the mountain this summer, and even as the season draws to a sunny close, a grassroots movement to get the popular pool reopened in time for next year is gathering momentum.

The Royal Victoria Hospital pool on the southern flank of Mount Royal had been growing in popularity for the last decade, as tourism blogs and Internet lists kept outing it as a hidden gem and one of the coolest places to swim in Montreal.

But last summer, the pool closed in mid-August after a man drowned there. Hospital administrators made the decision not to reopen it this summer because their resources were stretched dealing with the Royal Vics imminent move to the new superhospital site in Notre-Dame-de-Grce.

But when Olivier Lapierre, a regular pool user since 2007, learned of the closing this summer, he immediately began gathering evidence that there is strong public support for getting the pool back in the swim by next summer.

Lapierres Save Royal Victoria Pool Facebook page has 508 likes so far. Environmental and heritage organizations are voicing their support for its reopening, and the city councillor for the Peter McGill district where the pool is located is looking into the possibility of making it a municipal pool.

This pool on the slope of Mount Royal, with the trees all around and the exceptional view of downtown, away from the heavy city noise ... It was just perfect, said Lapierre, an urban planner, community and heritage activist, and a project manager with the Quebec Landscape Architects Association.

The McGill University Health Centre had been operating the pool on a break-even basis, by charging a $5 daily entrance fee to the general public and $60 for a seasons pass for employees.

In a letter to Lapierre, MUHC spokesperson Julie Paquet said the hospitals mission is to serve its patients, so it will not maintain the pool once it moves to its new site. But she said the MUHC is open to evaluating any serious offer if a community group or municipality wants to take it over.

Lapierre figures there are four possibilities to keep the pool from becoming another urban ghost left to decay: the city of Montreal could make it a municipal pool; McGill University could take it over if it succeeds in its bid to take over the former MUHC buildings; a non-profit community organization could take it over; or a public fundraising campaign could be launched to save it (like the +Pool project for which New Yorkers are being asked via Kickstarter to buy tiles to help build a floating, water filtering pool in the river.)

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A plea for the secret pool on the mountain