Wetsuit Swimming in the London Area
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| Serpies showing various degrees of bravado on a spring day at Serpentine Lido. Not even their swimming genie can keep them warm! |
London offers plenty of opportunities to swim in a wetsuit and doing so is certainly recommended if you have never used one before. The following list is by no means comprehensive; you can find a complete list of London Lidos (open air swimming pools) at http://www.lidos.org.uk/ but check first that they are happy for you to swim in a wetsuit. There's also information on the Triathlon London site.
This page has information on:
- Tooting Bec Lido
- Serpentine Lido
- London Fields Lido
- Brockwell Park Lido
- Hampstead Heath (Parliament Hill) Lido & ponds
- Liquid Leisure
- The Princes Club
- Heron Lake
- Weir Wood Resevoir
Tooting Bec Lido 90m x 25m
The biggest swimming pool in Europe. Open air and unheated.
Tooting Bec Road, SW161RU
Tel: 020 8871 7198
Open 29 May to 31 Aug – 6am to 8pm, Sept 6am to 5pm
Year round swimming is possible 7am – 2pm by joining South London Swimming Club. Membership costs £15 + £85 annual lido pass. Allows swimming October to May 7am to 2pm (dawn in Dec, Jan)
Serpentine Lido 110m
A roped off area of the Serpentine lake with changing rooms and toilets.
Serpentine lake, Hyde Park
Map
Open June to Sept 10am to 6pm
Cost £3.50
Joining Serpentine Swimming Cluballows you access to the Lido between 6.30am to 9.30 am year round for just £15 per year. The roped area of the Lido is 110m but the swimming club can swim down the lake to a buoy about 200m away. This is a friendly club with cross channel swimmers and folks just taking a morning dip come hell or high water. As with the Hampstead Ponds, please respect this, chat to your fellow club mates and avoid doing anything to create ill-feeling towards black neoprene outsiders. Afraid of what lies beneath? Richard Melik is a regular swimmer and has had no stomach problems but keep an eye on the website for information on algae etc and be sensible if immuno-suppressed.
London Fields Lido 50m x 17m
A 50m outdoor heated pool. Maintained at 25°C it might be a bit warm in your wetsuit!
London Fields Westside, E8 3EU
Open all year round
Monday to Friday 6.30am - 8pm
Weekends 8am - 6pm
Brockwell Park Lido 50m x 27m
Another huge outdoor swimming pool. Opening times are more restricted than other lidos on this page because there is no swimming club based there.
Brockwell Park, Dulwich Road, SE24 0PA
Tel: 020 7274 3088
Open July – Sept
Monday to Friday 6.45am – 8pm
Weekends 12.00 midday – 6pm
Cost: morning swim £2.50, adult swim £5 (£4 on bad weather days)
Parliament Hill Lido 60m x 28m
An outdoor pool on the edge of Hampstead Heath and a stone's throw from the running track. Now re-opened with an impressive stainless steel lining to help retain heat.
Parliament Hill Fields, Gordon House Road, NW5 1LP
Tel: 020 7485 3873
Open May – Sept 7am to 9am, 10am – 6pm
Oct – Apr 7am to 10am
Cost: morning swim £2, adult swim £3.80, summer season ticket £55
Hampstead Heath Ponds
There are 3 spring water fed ponds with changing facilities, roped off swimming areas and diving boards but otherwise are exactly as you would expect a “pond” to be! They appeal to a dedicated community of local swimmers who recently won a battle to be allowed to swim year round. They are also a thriving gay hangout on hot summer days. They offer real open water swimming, swans and all, but at busy times the life guards may object to wetsuited free-stylers. I have never had any problem explaining that I only want to do a few lengths at the outer edge of the pond. Five of you doing drafting drills may destroy this goodwill.
Located on the west side of Hampstead heath in various locations.
Mens/ladies ponds open year round, mixed pond summer months only. Open dawn to dusk. Cost £2 (Parliament Hill Lido season ticket can also cover the ponds).
Liquid Leisure
This is one of a several waterski lakes surrounding London that has opened its doors to swimmers and even has marked courses for those intent on logging the miles. One definite minus is the restricted opening times for swimming which you will find on the website however, rolling up early on a saturday, you'll see loads of swimmers to encourage you that it was worth the early start. When you leave the water there are bacon rolls, coffee and showers to freshen you up for the rest of the day. One good feature for lone swimmers is that you are checked in and out of the water. Unlike the lidos, these lakes are proper open water swimming, offering the chance to practice sighting and rounding bouys etc. The cost of a swim is £5.
Datchett is outside Windsor just off the M4 at junction 5. Follow signs to Datchett from the motorway and on arrival take the first left and then left again at the T junction. Liquid Leisure is 500m on the right. (SL13 9LY is the postcode to type into your favourite mapping website). Datchet (1km) and Eton (5km) both have railway stations.
The Princes Club
Like Liquid Leisure, the Princes club is a waterski lake. It has the benefit of being the closest to the centre of London, situated just south of Heathrow airport and after the drive through dreary West London to get there it feels like quite an oasis. This lake makes a lovely swim because it is a long straight line, so you can switch off and stroke gently up 800m and back and the tree lined banks make you forget you are on the edge of a vast city. This location doesn't have the great ensuite facilities of Liquid Leisure but its less restricted opening hours for swimming and offers evening swims as well as early morning (see website) and proximity to London might make it more accessible. The cost of a swim is £5.
Ashford is between Feltham and Staines. Ashford Station (1km) is the closest railway stations but the Heathrow Terminal 4 tube is accessible by those carrying folding bikes on the underground. The postcode is TW14 8QA.
Heron Lake
A further lake just West of London is Heron Lake. Bigger, more open and deeper than Liquid Leisure and Princes Club, making it less likely to bump head on into another swimmer, but having a lower temperature than the other lakes. Lars Menken's opinion is that the big plus is that it is a nicer lake and has hot showers however, Datchett has nicer bacon rolls and much better parking. The lake is run as a charity and donations made support the lake to stay open. Wetsuit hire is available. For regular swimmers, Heron offers voucher books making the price for regular swimmers lower than an indoor pool. The price for one swim is £5.
Heron Lake is situated just outside the M25 junction 13, at the end of the Staines bypass. The nearest rail station are Egham (1.5 miles), Staines (2 miles). The postcode is TW19 6HW.
Weir Wood Resevoir
A swimming and boating lake in East Sussex. There is public access during some afternoons during the week and triathlon training Tuesday and Sunday evenings. During the programmed sessions there is a safety boat and first aid cover, with shore spotters. The swimming area is between the two pontoons (238m) or around the marked course of 750m. Changing facilities with showers are available during set training times. Triathlon swimming cost £5.00 each. Details for 2011.
Address: Weir Wood Reservoir, Forest Row, RH18 5HT
Turn off the A22 at Forest Row on the mini roundabout between the church and the The Swan Mountain Range restaurant, 800m turn right opposite Micheal Hall School. Follow the access road into the grounds, turn left into the car park. From the Turners Hill direction A2028 south turn left into the Selsfield Road, through West Hoathley, Sharpthorne, across the forest and into the edge of Forest Row, turn left just before Micheal Hall school. follow as above.