La Piscine Museum

La Piscine (French for "the swimming pool") is a museum of art and industry, located in the city of Roubaix in northern France.

It is more formally known as La Piscine-Musée d'Art et d'Industrie André Diligent or Le musée d'Art et d'Industrie de la ville de Roubaix, but its common name derives from the fact that it is housed in a former indoor swimming pool, with a notable art deco interior.

It closed as a swimming pool in 1985, and was remodelled as a museum by the architect Jean-Paul Philippon, opening in 2000.

A modern entrance building, special exhibition space and garden were constructed within the roof-less shell of an adjoining textile factory.

By 1898 the collection was housed in the National High School of Arts and Textile Industry (ENSAIT), and was seen as a way of cultivating the tastes of the town's workers, foremen and manufacturers.

Museum entrance
Sculpture of a tiger and lion fighting by Emile-Joseph-Alexandre Gouget (1870)