Lidos & outdoor pools · London
Tooting Bec Lido
Britain's largest freshwater pool (1906) — 100 yards, year-round unheated swimming.
Neil Theasby — CC BY-SA 2.0 via Wikimedia Commons licence
Plan your visit
- Typical visit
- 1 h–2 h
- Family-friendly
- Limited wheelchair access
About
Tooting Bec Lido, opened in 1906, is the largest freshwater pool in the UK — 100 yards long, 33 yards wide, holding 1 million gallons. Painted-changing-cubicle stripes round the perimeter, unheated, open year-round (the South London Swimming Club swims through winter). Grade II-listed.
Photo gallery
From the Wikipedia article
Tooting Bec Lido is an open-air fresh water swimming pool in South London. It is the largest fresh water swimming pool by surface area in the United Kingdom, being 100 yd (91.4 m) long and 33 yd (30.2 m) wide. The lido (swimming pool) is on Tooting Bec Common between Tooting and Streatham. An original condition of construction was that it should be concealed from views across the common by a surrounding earth ramp. This ramp is now largely covered with bird-filled trees, except where it is breached by the new entrance. The alternating bright red, yellow, and green doors of the changing cubicles seen above the turquoise water make the Lido a popular location for advertisement "shoots" and other filming. Brad Pitt's boxing "pool" scene in Snatch was filmed at the Lido. The Lido is operated and maintained by the London Borough of Wandsworth.
Excerpt from Wikipedia under CC BY-SA 4.0. See the source article linked in Sources below.
Background
History
Tooting Bec Lido is one of Britain's oldest open-air pools – it opened to the public on Saturday 28 July 1906 as the Tooting Bathing-Lake. Digging the lake had been proposed by the Reverend John Hendry Anderson, Rector of Tooting, as a project to provide work for unemployed local men. It holds one million gallons (4,500 m<sup>3</sup>) of water. Segregation of the sexes was originally enforced, with women and girls confined to one morning a week. Mixed bathing was not introduced until 1931, and then only at specified times. At the same time an "aerator", or fountain, was added to help pump the water round the pool and keep it clean. The main reason given for this act of modernisation was…
Visiting
The Lido is open to the general public from late May to the end of September each year. Tooting Bec Lido is home to the South London Swimming Club (SLSC) who have exclusive use of the Lido during the winter months, when the pool is open between 7 am and 2 pm. Members of SLSC can gain free entry when the pool is open to the public in summer. Adult SLSC membership is currently (2024) priced at £70 plus £110 for an annual lido pass.
Sourced from Wikipedia under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- Coordinates
- 51.4344, -0.1483
- District
- Wandsworth
- Parish
- Wandsworth, unparished area
- Postcode
- SW17 8JU
- Parliamentary constituency
- Tooting
Sources
- manual: tooting-bec-lido (manual)
- wikipedia: Tooting Bec Lido (CC BY-SA 4.0)
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Frequently asked questions
- Where is Tooting Bec Lido?
- Tooting Bec Lido is in London, United Kingdom (postcode SW17 8JU), in the parish of Wandsworth, unparished area.
- When was Tooting Bec Lido built?
- Dates from the Victorian period.
- Is Tooting Bec Lido a listed building?
- Tooting Bec Lido is officially recognised as Grade II listed.
- How do I get to Tooting Bec Lido?
- Drivers can navigate to postcode SW17 8JU. It sits within the Tooting parliamentary constituency.