November 4, 2019 - Definitive closure
Aqualud’s final season and the closure that became permanent
From the final day in November 2019 to the April 2020 reopening that never happened.
On 4 November 2019, Aqualud closes at the end of an ordinary season. Its next opening is scheduled for 4 April 2020, but the health crisis breaks that timetable. Against a background of financial weakness and negotiations over the site, a temporary closure stretches on and becomes the permanent end of a water park that had occupied the seafront since 1985.
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A season ends without a farewell
When Aqualud closes on 4 November 2019, the day does not resemble a farewell ceremony. The park is following its seasonal rhythm and expects to welcome the public again the following spring. After more than three decades, the glass pyramid, wave pool and large slides still belong to Le Touquet’s familiar landscape. Yet the date later becomes the final one: no new season follows 2019, and the attractions remain frozen in place after the last visitors leave.
The missed reopening of April 2020
The reopening is scheduled for 4 April 2020. Measures introduced in response to Covid-19 prevent that return, just as they temporarily close many leisure venues. For Aqualud, however, the interruption comes when its finances are already fragile. Months pass without a new operating calendar. The health crisis explains why the spring date is missed, but it does not tell the whole later story: the continuing closure soon becomes entangled with negotiations between the operator, the municipality that owns the land and the developer of a hotel proposal.
From a pause to a permanent ending
In July 2021, the municipal council authorises the park to remain closed for the summer and presents the proposed redevelopment of the land. Aqualud is no longer waiting for another season; it is now at the centre of a change of use. The attractions are not dismantled immediately. They remain inside the buildings and across the outdoor areas, which deteriorate over the following years. The permanent closure is therefore not a single dramatic instant. It begins with an almost ordinary final day and is confirmed by the abandonment of any return to operations and by a different future for the site.
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