Waltzing Waters

I was interested to read at reference 1 about an expensive water feature installed in LaGuardia airport, one of a number of things pushing up the cost to airlines of using the place. But I was not much impressed by the video at reference 2: about on a par with the wicker art at Hampton Court Palace and Wisley Gardens.

I then remembered about the 'Waltzing Waters' we once visited at the Isle of Wight - and not being much impressed there either. Sitting for getting on for an hour on concrete benches watching coloured water bob up and down to music. I also remember there being some pink flamingos nearby - the sort with legs and wings, not something to drink.

I then tried to run it down - and soon ran into difficulty, ending up in a complete muddle. With the help of Gemini, I had decided that I had visited - with BH, FIL and MIL - in the days when it was in or near Bembridge Harbour. The attraction doing about 10 years there before moving to Westridge, south of Ryde, in the early 2000s. Doing another ten years there before closing in 2017 - as reported at references 3 and 4.

I also remembered it existing on various maps, although it is not on today's online OS map, on which I have marked the approximate Westridge location with the now usual orange spot. Just to the right of what is now the large Tesco's which we use when we stay at Brading, visible bottom centre.

BH came to the rescue with her stash of stuff about the Isle of Wight, which included two maps where 'Waltzing Waters' was present and marked as such and a printed OS map where it was more demurely labelled as 'Aqua Theatre'. She thought that it was the Ryde version that we had visited and that it was more or less indoors, rather than the outdoors which I remembered. 

Not convinced, so the search for the Bembridge location continued, without success. Scottish National Libraries do not do maps for England after 1975 or so. The Royal Geographical Society, said to be a repository of OS maps, was no help at all, at least, not online. OS itself was no help at all either: wrong sort of heritage. And Google was no help on the search keys that I tried. While Gemini thought that you might have a job finding the place on the ground, the site having been repurposed for various harbour related activities.

Eventually I decided that it must have been the Ryde version that I had visited. Maybe the sort of roof you get in grandstands, rather than fully enclosed?

To find in Street View that the building is still there, snapped at the head of this post, despite the building as a whole having been repurposed for the council.

I then turned my attention to the comparable attraction in Benson, Missouri which Gemini had mentioned. Gmaps tells me that it has closed, although the area concerned remains full of visitor attractions of one sort or another - and the Faith Life Church. I was a bit puzzled by the computer game appearance of the approach road and car park.

Gemini explains that the Faith Life people, having bought the Waltzing Waters site, did a serious makeover on the building and work hard to keep the car park and approaches immaculate - compared with the rather tacky, seaside feel of some of their neighbours. Added to which, Street View has recently started to use AI to enhance - to tidy up - the images they get from their camera cars in order to make them a bit easier to 'read'. Which sometimes results in this computer game appearance.

Hmmm. Although to be fair,I had already noticed Satellite View doing something similar with roads.

PS 1: earlier today, I had been amused to come across the top ten items on Abebooks for 2025 at reference 5. Fancy a letter from Leibniz pipping Tolkien at the post.

PS 2: towards the end of our last visit to Hampton Court, we had been puzzled by various stroppy notices fixed to what had been the IstanBLU Restaurant, occupying the ground floor of what looked like a fairly new building. One of them, snapped above, talked of demolition, which seemed a bit drastic. Another talked of action by Wilson & Roe, Authorised High Court Enforcement Oficers and Certified Enforcement Agents.

Then we read in today's Comet, our local freebie, that the application has been granted, subject to conditions about not selling hot food and drink late evenings.

Looking at it again today, maybe the building was extensively remodelled when its original business of providing hospitality for the day trippers from London who used to swarm about the place had shrunk below the point of viability. So rather older than might at first appear.

Also not clear whether the curious junk shop off snap to the left is involved. While the café we use for snacks is off snap to the right. We shall see if Tesco's manage to move things along any faster than the people who have stalled on the much larger site across the road, noticed in these pages from time to time, most recently at reference 6. While enforcement is to be had from reference 7.

Moving onto Gemini, he had plenty to say and I am satisfied as to how the planning notice came to talk of demolition, even though the body of the building and its facade will be largely preserved.

On the other hand, there was some confusion with the 'Jolly Boatman' site across the road, already mentioned, and it took some supplementaries to get to a good story there. From where I sit, it is if he only digs so deep in the first instance, but then digs a bit deeper if pushed, perhaps in particular places. And he told a good story about why Tesco's might want to move into both sites.

And along the way, I learn that the mouth of the River Mole was moved 100m or so to the south in the 1930s. Probably all to do with getting the right layout for what is now Hampton Court Way. And why we now have a Creek Road as well as a Bridge Road.

And in the margins, I learn that I can upgrade if I pay a good deal more than I am paying now. An upgrade which, perhaps, would only be justified if I were doing real work, rather than playing about. And at least some of the upgrade seems to be about video creation and program development - which I am not interested in. To be thought about.

References

Reference 1: Why an airport water-art display may spark US airline consolidation: JetBlue’s viability as standalone entity hinges on plethora of factors it has little control over - Opinion Lex, Financial Times - 2026.

Reference 2: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W3gIWJu07Rw.

Reference 3: https://www.islandecho.co.uk/waltzing-waters-close-doors-westridge/.

Reference 4: https://www.countypress.co.uk/news/16105830.end-of-an-era-as-waltzing-waters-closes-its-doors/.

Reference 5: https://www.abebooks.co.uk/books/rarebooks/most-expensive-sales-2025.

Reference 6: https://psmv6.blogspot.com/2026/03/wilderness.html.

Reference 7: https://www.wilsonandroe.com/.

Group search key: aisk.