Now And Then: Diving Into A Piece Of History

Deciphering the subtle transformation of Sundhöll Reykjavíkur

Having opened to the public in 1937, Sundhöll Reykjavíkur is Reykjavík’s oldest swimming pool. Like so many of Iceland’s iconic buildings from the first half of the 20th century, it was designed by state architect Guðjón Samúelsson, but the project was initiated by Progressive Party MP Jónas frá Hriflu. If anything or any place can be pointed to as the origins of Iceland’s swimming pool culture — something that finally got Iceland on the UNESCO heritage list last year — it is this particular pool.

In the early 20th century, Icelanders built swimming pools all over the country — at least, anywhere that ample supplies of hot water could be procured. And then they built swimming pools where supplies of naturally hot water were not to be found. The result of this is that almost every single suburb of Reykjavík and every single small town outside of Reykjavík, has a swimming pool. This begs the question: why?

Well, as may now be obvious, the fact that Iceland has incredible amounts of hot water is not the exclusive reason for the pools, though that is helpful. The real reason is that very few Icelanders knew how to swim in the 1920s. That’s not a good thing for a country that counts fishing among its major industries. This meant that every year, very many people drowned, often in situations where simply knowing the basics of swimming would have been life-saving.

Hence, in 1927 the Icelandic parliament passed a law making swimming lessons mandatory for all schoolchildren. Given the climate in Iceland, it thus became urgent to build warm water pools in which to hold lessons, lest every Icelandic kid would catch pneumonia.

The sudden abundance of soothingly warm swimming pools in an otherwise harsh climate resulted in the only places falling within the scholarly definition of “The Public Sphere” in Iceland being the pools. It is there that people debate politics, where they meet, catch up, whatever you call it. It was also in the pools — or the change areas before entering the pools — that they got clean, which was something we had a far more difficult time doing prior to the 1930s. Out of this emerged our distinct pool culture.

Sundhöll Reykjavíkur remained open, and unchanged, until 2013, when construction of an outdoor pool and hot tubs began. They finally opened in 2017. The old pool and the building’s neo-classical interior has remained unaltered. It remains (on the inside at least) one of the most visually pleasing buildings in Reykjavík.

Speaking of pool culture, before getting into an Icelandic pool, you must take off all your clothes. Go naked into the shower. Wash thoroughly with soap. And only then can you put on your swimwear. If you don’t do this, you are not only contaminating the water for everybody else, you are now disrespecting our culture.

In the words of one Grapevine OG: Wash your fucking crack!