Lido Lovin’: 7 of the Best Outdoor Swimming Pools in London
No British summer would be complete without Wimbledon, jugs of Pimms, strawberries and cream, and of course, the great British lido. But what constitutes a lido? Derived from the Italian for beach, Merriam-Webster defines a lido as a fashionable beach resort, clearly having never queued up from dawn — another great British past-time — to try and get a spot on the sizzling concrete bank at their local pool.
Here in the UK, public, open-air swimming pools, first became popular in the 1930s, in a decade that became known as the golden age of the British lido.
As foreign holidays became less expensive, lidos fell somewhat out of popularity, but the lido has had a renaissance this past decade, and with holidays abroad looking hit-and-miss at the moment there’s no better time to enjoy one. Take a dip with us then, as we introduce you to some of our favourites in the capital.
7 Of The Best Lidos In London
London Fields Lido
Nestled in the corner of London Fields — the little sister of the much bigger Victoria Park just down the road — the history of London Fields Lido traces the popularity of the British lido to a tee. Opened in 1932, the pool was closed in 1988 and fell into disrepair, taken over by squatters and illegal ravers.
That was until 2003 when a local campaign brought it back to life with the 50m Olympic size pool now standing as one of the most popular spots in Hackney. The pool allows for lane swimming and sunbathing on the side, while floodlights mean keen swimmers can keep up their stroke past sunset.
Serpentine Lido
The majestic crown in arguably London’s most famous park, a trip to the Serpentine is an absolute must for Londoners and visitors to the city. This isn’t a heated pool like London Fields though. Rather the Serpentine is a cut-off section in the middle of Hyde Park lake with a bank for sunbathing and a stately clubhouse in which you can change or grab an ice cream.
The greenery at the bottom of the lake can be a bit squelchy underfoot — particularly for the squeamish — but for a taste of wild swimming in the big city, this is as polite as you can get.
Parliament Hill Lido & Hampstead Heath Bathing Ponds
The beastly Hampstead Heath is the park of north London, a sprawling mass that looks like it was plucked from a Jane Austen novel — if you can edit out all the rest of the park-goers that is. In terms of lidos, Hampstead Heath-ians are downright spoilt, with Parliament Hill Lido in the south-east corner by Gospel Oak tube station and Hampstead Heath bathing ponds located more centrally.
The former is another one of those brilliant 1930s relics with a red-brick frontage surrounding an unheated, stainless steel pool, while the latter is probably one of the most picturesque swims in the city, with separate wild swimming bathing ponds for men and women.
Brockwell Lido
From the north, we head down south and a real magnet for lido lovers. You have Tooting Bec Lido, the largest outdoor fresh-water pool in the UK, and Beckenham Place Wild Swimming Lake, a relatively new fixture on the London lido scene having launched in 2019.
And then there’s Brockwell Lido, housed in the park of the same name, which offers one of the best post-swim set-ups in the city thanks to the scrumptious sourdough pizza and craft beer offering at its cafe, run by local restaurant and bar chain 400 Rabbits.
Ruislip Lido
We’re taking quite the excursion out of central with this one, to the borough of Hillingdon, the home of Heathrow airport and Ruislip Lido, which promises London’s only beach and a 60-acre lake sat on the edge of a 726-acre nature reserve that’s twice the size of Hyde Park.
There is a massive caveat though — while it was once a swimming hotspot in the 1930s, swimming has not been permitted for a number of years as the water has become stagnant. You can try, of course, and some do, but be prepared to come out a sludgy mess.
Uxbridge Lido
The tale of Uxbridge Lido follows an eerily similar path to London Fields, having opened in the 1930s only to be closed down in 1998 and subjected to heavy vandalism. Of course, since then a massive renovation has restored its former glory, and it was even used as a training pool for the 2012 London Olympics.
The pool itself has quite an unusual 12 sides, with a hexagon-like shape jutting out at the centre, while two fountains on either end complete one of the best examples of Art Deco architecture in the capital.
