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Anna: If you look ahead and to your right you will see the new Olympia swimming pool which was relocated from its riverside location in 2013 to make way for the V&A development. Although the the new Olympia was built from scratch they made sure to rebuild the iconic ‘cannonball’ flume which has a steep entry to an exhilarating 15m drop.
Kevy: Architect Jim Lyons was fired from his role during the project due to an error in his design of the Olympia. The main pool only measures 49 metres instead of the required 50 metres needed to be an Olympic sized pool and hold official swimming competitions. There have been several petitions to try and address the now inaccurate name for the building. You’ll also see here an example of a “nail building”, in the form of the petrol station, which had to be built around. A “Nail house” is a Chinese neologism for homes belonging to people who refuse to make room for construction or property development. The term refers to nails that are stuck in wood, and cannot be hammered down, or removed.