Piscine des Amiraux, Art Deco indoor swimming pool in Clignancourt, Paris, France
Piscine des Amiraux is a public indoor pool housed inside a seven-storey, 78-unit apartment block built in reinforced concrete by Henri Sauvage. Its white faience tiles, bought from Boulenger in Choisy-le-Roi, cover the stepped facades; the 33 × 10 m basin occupies the central courtyard, ringed by changing cabins on the first and second floors.
Architect Henri Sauvage designed and built the structure between 1922 and 1927 as a mixed-use project combining public facilities with housing. The pool emerged during an era when public swimming centers were seen as essential infrastructure for community health and public welfare.
The pool's changing rooms are numbered cabins on the first and second floors around the basin, with no lockers: bathers leave their things in the cabin where they changed and slam the door to lock it, then ask an employee to open it after swimming. The same system operates at the Piscine Pontoise. The pool also appears in Jean-Pierre Jeunet's film Le Fabuleux Destin d'Amélie Poulain.
The facility operates with a numbered cabin system rather than standard lockers, providing secure storage for personal belongings while swimming. This setup works smoothly for visitors, as it was designed specifically for bathers.
The pool hall replaced the central courtyard Sauvage had planned as a cinema; the City of Paris chose a swimming pool instead, inaugurated in 1930. Bathers change in numbered cabins on the first and second floors around the basin and must ask an employee to unlock the cabin afterwards, a system also used at the Piscine Pontoise.
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