Lido love

When Jonathan Cowie lived in London, it was Tooting Bec Lido that first kindled his love for open air pools. Now based in the Lake District, he’s feeling inspired to search out a bit of local lido love.

Lidos were where my love affair with open water swimming blossomed. I had always enjoyed swimming, but the heady mix of swimming outdoors, cold water and community that I discovered at Tooting Bec Lido 15 years ago was transformative. In many ways I was spoiled: at 91 metres long not only is Tooting Bec Lido the jewel in London’s lido crown, but the South London Swimming Club – which runs the pool in winter – is also the epitome of an active and supportive cold water swimming community. Whether you were a competitive swimmer or a winter dipper, there was a place for you in the club (and in the winter, sauna!). 

A busy schedule of club and public events – including the bi-annual UK Cold Water Swimming Championships, Sunday races, pantomimes, triathlons and aquathlons, art events, galas, training sessions and international trips to winter swimming contests – fostered a strong community ethos. And then of course there was the swimming itself: the huge pool takes your breath away the first time you see it, hidden behind trees from Tooting Common, bordered on one side by the railway line into Clapham Junction. Whether a width in the winter or a 10k in the summer, it was a special pool to swim in made even more special by its community of swimmers.

Other London lidos had their charms – Brockwell was certainly cooler (in vibes, not temperature), Parliament Hill had its space-age metal liner and Charlton had the luxury of being heated – but nothing could beat Tooting. In the September issue of Outdoor Swimmer, Emma Pusill urged us to stand up and support our local lidos lest we lose them to lack of funding and government support. Our capital’s lidos are lucky to exist in a London bubble, but around the rest of the country the picture is not so rosy, with community-run pools struggling for funding and with increased energy costs. Now that I live in the Lake District I am blessed with many lakes to swim in, but Emma’s article inspired me to search out a bit of local lido love.

Ingleton Swimming Pool is a 20-metre outdoor heated pool hidden at the bottom of Ingleton village over the border from Cumbria in Yorkshire. I visited on a chilly late-summer day with my friends Peter and Andrew. Run by volunteers, the pool is nestled behind trees and not only has changing rooms and hot showers (luxury!) but its very own grotto behind a waterfall. We dodged other swimmers to swim laps of the unlaned pool to earn our fish and chip supper – one chip per length! While the lido is heated in summer, the heating has now been turned off and a reduced timetable is in operation for cold water swimmers. We will definitely be back for some winter lido dipping!

Emma’s book The Lido Guide is a wonderful guide to the UK’s outdoor pools and a source of inspiration for lido swimming adventures. Next on our list of local pools to visit is Shap Swimming Pool – the highest swimming pool in the UK! It also happens to be close to a very good fish and chip shop…