Saltdean Lido is to reopen next summer after the project was awarded a £440,000 grant.
The pool will be open initially at weekends from June and during the school summer holidays, with a pop-up café in the grounds.
Once the season is over the Lido will close again. Then the team behind its revival will continue working to secure the millions of pounds needed to restore the listed art deco building and bring the whole site back up to scratch.
The Saltdean Lido Community Interest Company (CIC) said that the grant from the government’s Social Investment Business (SIB) would help give people a taster of what’s to come.
Rebecca Crook, who chairs the CIC, said: “Thanks to funding we have secured from the SIB, we have submitted a planning application for works to the external grounds, the swimming pool and the creation of a new plant room.
“This is a significant milestone in achieving our longer-term vision of restoring the iconic Grade II* listed site.
“After four long years of campaigning, our hard work is paying off and we can’t wait to get the pool open for local residents to enjoy.”
She added: “This is really just phase one but it’s very much a taster of what’s to come.
“We had hoped we could do everything all in one go. Then this funding became available. It’s the smallest part of the project really.
“It’ll just be good for people to use the pool but we’ll have a pop-up café and events in the grounds so if you’re not into swimming you can still enjoy it.
“We opened the grounds up once this year and we had 5,000 people come along.
“It may sometimes seem like nothing’s happening but we’re working incredibly hard behind the scenes.
“If we get the money we want, we will have to close completely at the end of the summer so we can start work on the main building.
“We still need to raise £9 million.”
Ms Crook said that the CIC was trying for £4.9 million from the Heritage Lottery Fund.
It’s partly dependent on the inclusion of the Lido in Brighton and Hove City Council’s tourism plan although this extends only as far east as Rottingdean at the moment.
The revival of the Lido may give the council a spur to extend its vision to the city limits.
The CIC has also submitted a planning application for the pool and grounds to the council. It wants to remove a divider to make it one pool again, add a paddling pool and build a plant room.
A verdict on the application is due in early December.
Ms Crook added: “With this money we’ve got, we’ll be able to build a new plant room. But we won’t be able to have heated water next year so the water will still be cold.
“Let’s hope we have a heatwave!”
