It’s all going oh so swimmingly
hipster lido – on weekday afternoons it’s more likewework-on-sea with creative and tech freelancers blathering away on their phones and plenty of good-looking, wellgroomed types. On warm weekends it gets hot ’n’ hectic with locals and Hackney house-sharers in their twenties.
But the heated pool is perfect all year round and winter sees hardened triathletes take over, along with older swimmers who prove that a daily dip is probably the single best choice you can make in life if you want to live a little longer.this modest lido with its cute coloured changing room doors, is one of the city’s most endearing little pockets of calm and pleasure. Open now.
● better.org.uk/leisure-centre/london/ hackney/london-fields-lido
In 1995, Lucy Blakstad made Brockwell Lido the star of her touching film for the BBC’S Modern Times strand.the Lido was one of the first instances of the lido renaissance being documented and demonstrates how important the 1937 pool was to the community, even showing a marriage taking place here.
Libby Page’s smash-hit novel, also called The Lido, is set here too with its tale of love, loss and the lido fighting against closure. In reality it did close from 1990 to 1994 but you’d be hard-pressed to believe it if you visited on a summer afternoon today.the wooden decking is packed with people, the café is a popular destination, and the pair of ex-council workers who took the place over, Casey Mcglue and Paddy Castledine, are revered as local heroes. Open now.
● fusion-lifestyle.com/centres/ brockwell-lido
Johnwibberley’s masterwork is a lido the city of Plymouth can truly be proud of.the enormous curved pool projects out into the English Channel below the famous Hoe where Francis Drake liked a game of bowls.
Completed in 1935, this huge lido has an eight-sided theme – octagonal fountains at either corner and one in the middle bring the whole piece to life.tinside is also listed at Grade II, making it one of the most important pieces of modern architecture in the country from that period. Opens on August 1.
● everyoneactive.com/ centre/tinside-lido
The pride of the spa town – a bucolic Georgian resort known for its literature festival and poised on the edge of the Cotswolds – Sandford Parks Lido gives Cheltenham a spring in its step every time spring comes round again (it is only open seasonally).
Some lidos can feel rather hemmed in, with brick walls encasing the place and sunbathing space at a premium, but Sandford Parks is spacious, with long lawns, benches and picnicking places a plenty.the 165ft main pool is joined by a kids’ pool and art deco architecture around the edge from its 1935 birth.the spouting fountain is the symbol of the place, a kind of Spanish tribute to the power and beauty of water.
Re-opens to the public tomorrow.
● sandfordparkslido.org.uk