Top 5 Outdoor Swimming Pools
For when the sun does show it's face, the Welcome to London team have compiled a list of our favourite outdoor swimming areas in city.
If you really want to take to swimming like a duck to water, then a visit to these ponds is a must. You’ll be paddling right alongside your billed buddies and feeling the slimy pond bottom underneath your feet, giving you a truly organic experience. The waters are separated into areas for men or women as well as a section for mixed bathers. Children aged 8-15 may be allowed in the mixed pond accompanied by an adult, at the lifeguard’s discretion. The Men’s and Ladies’ ponds are open all year round, although the water is particularly cold even during the summer.
Feel like you’re training for the big games in this Olympic-sized heated pool. And like a true competitor, the lido has had to really fight for its place too, as the local council had tried to close it down but thankfully failed to do so. It’s a wonderful place to swim and situated in a scenic part of Hackney, but its popularity means that it can get quite overcrowded in the summer season.
At a length of 90m, this is the largest freshwater, open-air pool in London and also the oldest. There’s a paddling pool that’s a better size for kids and a relaxing gazebo shaded area for those rare hot and sunny days. It’s even got a claim to fame as the bright red, yellow and green doors of the changing cubicles have featured in Guy Ritchie movies and advertising shoots.
Lush green Hyde Park, a wide-open space bang in the middle of traffic-congested roads and swarms of people, invites you to take a dip in London’s longest lake. Enjoy watching ducks and swans waddling their way past you, being surrounded by the peaceful parkland and the absence of eye-stinging chlorine. There’s also a private sunbathing area, sun loungers for hire and a kiosk that’ll take your orders for the Lido Café next door. Open until 12 September.
One of the only pools that seems to have really thought about London’s chilly climate, as it remains open and heated all year round, even on Christmas Day. It’s set in two acres of woodland next to Royal Bushy Park. For youngsters, there’s also a learner pool and swimming lessons are available for all ages and abilities. Sweat it out even more at the poolside gym or have a well-earned bite to eat or drink at The Sun Deck Café. The only thing that’ll put this pool out of service is a raging thunderstorm.
The street entertainers of Covent Garden must first audition in front of the square's management before they are allowed to hit the streets - the only area in London where this happens.
