[2] However, the construction of a new pool was not realised until Cardiff was chosen as the hosts of the 1958 British Empire and Commonwealth Games.

The building was acclaimed as the first example of modernist architecture in Cardiff, and was similar in design to the Royal Festival Hall in London.

Work on the new pool began in January 1956[2] and the completed building was opened by the Lord Mayor of Cardiff, J. H. Morgan, on 18 April 1958,[2] two months before the Empire Games started.

[6] In 1973 a teaching pool was created for school children, opened by Winifred Mathias, Lord Mayor of Cardiff.

[6] The Empire Pool was demolished in 1998 to make space for the Millennium Stadium, leading to a severe lack of swimming facilities in the South Wales area.