Brockwell Lido is a large

lido Lido may refer to: Geography Africa * Lido, a district in the city of Fez, Morocco Asia * Lido, an area in Chaoyang District, Beijing * Lido, a cinema theater in Siam Square shopping area in Bangkok * Lido City, a resort in West Java owned by MN ...

Brockwell Park Brockwell Park is a 50.8 hectare (125.53 acres) park located south of Brixton, in Herne Hill and Tulse Hill in south London. It is bordered by the roads Brixton Water Lane, Norwood Road, Tulse Hill and Dulwich Road. The park commands views of th ...

Herne Hill Herne Hill is a district in South London, approximately four miles from Charing Cross and bordered by Brixton, Camberwell, Dulwich, and Tulse Hill. It sits to the north and east of Brockwell Park and straddles the boundary between the boroughs ...

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

. It opened in July 1937, closed in 1990 and after a local campaign was re-opened in 1994. Two ex council employees Paddy and Casey took on the running of the Lido for the community. Lambeth council gave Paddy & Casey (ex council workers) a peppercorn lease rate from 1994–2001. Lambeth gave them a one-year extension in 2002 whilst a public consultation was held to decide on the longer term sustainable future of the Lido.

History

Brockwell Lido was designed by Harry Rowbotham and T. L. Smithson in the Moderne style for the

London County Council London County Council (LCC) was the principal local government body for the County of London throughout its existence from 1889 to 1965, and the first London-wide general municipal authority to be directly elected. It covered the area today kno ...

's Parks Department. It replaced the Brockwell Park bathing pond and is almost identical in design to the

Victoria Park Lido Victoria Park (known colloquially as Vicky Park or the People's Park) is a park in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets in East London, England. It is the largest park in Tower Hamlets and one of London's most visited green spaces with approxim ...

in Hackney. It opened in July 1937. The lido closed in 1990 due to cost-saving measures by

Lambeth Borough Council Lambeth London Borough Council is the local authority for the London Borough of Lambeth in Greater London, England. It is a London borough council, and one of the 32 in the United Kingdom capital of London. The council meets at Lambeth Town Hall ...

. A Brockwell Lido Users (BLU) group was established in 2001 to lobby for re-opening. The lido management was put out for tender and two former council employees won the contract and reopened the lido in 1994. Lucy Blakstad's film ''The Lido'' was filmed at Brockwell Lido in 1995. The lido has been listed Grade II on the

National Heritage List for England The National Heritage List for England (NHLE) is England's official database of protected heritage assets. It includes details of all English listed buildings, scheduled monuments, register of historic parks and gardens, protected shipwrecks, an ...

since July 2003.

Description

In 2001, the

Evian Evian ( , ; , stylized as evian) is a French company that bottles and commercialises mineral water from several sources near Évian-les-Bains, on the south shore of Lake Geneva. It produces over 2 billion plastic bottles per year. Today, Evia ...

logo was painted on the pool floor in a sponsorship deal worth £110,000. In 2005, £500,000 was awarded from the Heritage Lottery Fund as part of the £2.5 million redevelopment. 2001 was also the year BLU were officially formed as a pressure group to save the Lido. With the backing of over 1000 local Lido lovers and swimmers, they demonstrated to Lambeth council the passion that the 'local' people and community had for their Lido. Lambeth brought in Consultants and public meetings were held to establish the best solution to save and preserve the Lido for future generations. A Brockwell Lido Steering Group was created with three of the six stakeholders coming from BLU. In 2003 Fusion Lifestyle won the competitive tender from Lambeth Council to refurbish Brockwell Lido and create an all year round leisure complex at the site. A newly built gym, spa and fitness studios were constructed over four years and the newly expanded Brockwell Lido site was reopened in October 2007. In 2012 the 'Brockwell Icicles' winter swimming group reformed and campaigned for all year round swimming... the current operator Fusion agreed. BLU with the help of BLSC, finally obtained 7 day swimming for the Lido in 2014. Brockwell Lido is now open 7 days a week all year for those who enjoy cold water swimming. (Membership is not required and new cold water swimmers can turn up and pay on the day) In 2016 in April, Fusion finally installed a poolside sauna at the Lido and later that year at the BLU & BLSG AGM, Fusion agreed to open the whole pool every day from 1 November 2016, all thanks to a concerted campaign by BLU on behalf of the Lido users. The Brockwell Swimmers club was formed on 27 January 2016. The club is run by volunteers, is non-profit, CASC registered and is a members only club. Brockwell Swimmers run Water Polo at the Lido for a number of weeks in the summer. The Lido Café is an attached café/restaurant looking onto the pool.

Εvents

On 25 July 2019, amidst record high temperatures across the UK, the police were called as around 500 people tried to "storm" Brockwell Lido.

Bibliography

Footnotes

8. Holman, Bob (November 2017) 'Great Places To Swim, Brockwell Park Lido' Swimming Times

External links