The Lido by Libby Page (Fiction), and some musings about lidos.

In British parlance, a lido (pronounced, weirdly, Lie-do, not as it is from the Italian word lee-do, meaning ), meaning shore, as in the Lido in Venice) is an unheated outdoor swimming pool. They are treasured parts of the communities in which they are located, and have come under increasing threat of closure over the past few decades as local governments seek to cut costs. [Another casualty of bean-counting removal of community facilities have been public libraries - which is also touched upon in this book. 

Libby Page is a journalist, and keen swimmer. This is her debut novel. It tells the story of two women who form an indelible friendship over the fight to save the un-fictitious Brockwell Lido. One is a lacking-in-confidence young journalist named Kate, whose physical appearance seems to be rather akin to that of Kate in the pic above! She is new to the Brixton area of London. She suffers panic attacks. Kate is living a lonely life in a dire share-house where no-one has any contact with anyone else. Kate meets Rosemary, an older woman in her late eighties, recently widowed, who has lived all her life in Brixton, and has  been swimming at the lido for 80 years. The lido played a large part in the love story between Rosemary and her late husband, George. 

I enjoyed the book, especially since I share many of the author's interests - swimming, saving swimming pools, libraries, cooking. 

I especially liked the depiction of the coming together to a diverse community and the tactics they used to save their pool....see my entries on Bexley Swimming Pool (linked below), which we managed to save. Like in the book, we had some great support from the local newspaper. Not QUITE so fortunate at Batemans Bay, where, despite some vigorous campaigning (see link)  we lost the outdoor 50m pool and are acquiring an indoor 25 metre pool....a regressive step in my opinion. 

Bexley pool battle ; 

The fight to save Bexley pool part 2 ;

2011 update ;

Open House Feb 2014 ;

Making submissions to Council ;

Last laps at the old pool ;

After seven years of fighting, a commencement of construction ceremony; 

Aerial shots of the development ;

We won! Bexley pool reopened; 

All my posts on Bexley Pool.

One of my favourite passages from the book describes the importance to community of such assets. 

" 'When the old library closed down no one realised the importance of what we were losing until it had gone. It was a place for learning and also a centre of our community. And it's the same with the lid. We all take it for granted and that is why it is so important. We rely on it being there for us. It is somewhere you can go for a moment to yourself, whatever your reason may be for needing that moment....

'The lido holds so many memories for us all. For children who have never been to the seaside it is their summers and their freedom. For parents it is the memory of seeing their child swim for the first time - that moment when you just have to let go and let them fly. And for me, well it is my life."

I do have to admire the cold-water swimmers of the UK. Such water temperatures as those described here, and in At The Pond which I recently read, would see me balk - possibly even in the "warm" months! I guess we are blessed in Australia. 

Another way we are blessed is that municipal pools here are plentiful. Sydney is blessed not only with dozens of 50 metre outdoor pools, but ocean and harbour pools as well. Our pools also most usually have plentiful grassed areas and facilities like barbecues are common. A friend visiting from the UK whom I took to Bexley Pool (pre-redevelopment) declared it "like a resort". Another woman I met swimming there, who migrated from China, said that her family spends thousands of dollars visiting resorts on their holidays, whereas she spends $5 going to the local pool! 

Libby Page's page. Author / Swimmer/ Optimist

In researching this post, I found this gorgeous art print of Brockwell Lido by Jenni Murphy. You can buy it from this page. 

Read more: 

BLU - Brockwell Lido Users group

A blog about swimming at the Brockwell Lido (Londonist)

Brockwell Swimmers -  a swimming club 

At the Pond: Swimming at the Hampstead Ladies' Pool (Daunt Books, 2019)

Photo from CultureFly.co.uk 

 

I found this small volume of 14 essays utterly intriguing. 

Hampstead Heath in London contains three swimming ponds (and others for angling, model-boating etc; created when the Fleet River was damned in the 17th and 18th centuries as reservoirs for water supply to Hampstead and Highgate). The swimming ponds are one for women, one for men and one mixed. 

The writers who contributed include some well-knon, Like Margaret Drabble and Esther Freud, some not so well-known. It is divided into 4 sections, Winter, Spring, Summer, Autumn. Some swim year-round, some are summer-only. 

The Pond as it is known is legendary amongst certain Londoners. It is "wild swimming" in a huge city ... many describe the wildlife and the vegetation...moorhens, ducks, snakes, reeds and grasses etc. The temperature is never what I would call warm, and in winter there can be ice, and of course snow on the ground. There seems to be several hundred hearty souls who do swim year round. However, there also seems to be a sort of reverence, an elitist aura around them. One writer says "they know the lifeguards". 

Also intriguing are some of the "rules" and customs ... eg there can only be a certain ratio of swimmers to lifeguards, so on a hot summer's day you may have to wait to drop in down the metal railing. Imagine trying to impose that at one of Sydney's (un-lifeguarded) ocean pools!) 

Hampstead and Highgate are high-end London suburbs, nowadays often populated by the very wealthy, though they weren't always - they were arty and bohemian in the past. 

I couldn't help comparing the Pond's mores with those at Sydney's McIvers Baths - the Ladies' Pool at Coogee. Some seem similar - the older coterie of "gatekeepers", sticking within your own groups, the basic changerooms, topless sunbaking, but the convivility in the water, and the style of swimming seems a little more open at McIvers. As well, apart from a couple of essayists with southeast Asian heritage, there is know mention of it as a refuge for diverse cultural groups like Muslim women or nuns or others who want to swim in a women-only environment. 

There was a major controversy a couple of years ago, when the London Corporation, which manages the Pond said it was ok for transitioning or transitioned male to female Transgender users to officially use the pool (they had been anyway), with backlash from some. That seems to have settled down now. 

It probably helps to be a swimmer to enjoy the book, but I think it's also interesting in broader cultural terms as a slice of London life.

Here's the page of the Kenwood Ladies Pond Association, a voluntary group of women which cares about the Pond. There's new and info about current campaigns. There is a video called "City Swimmers" in the Gallery.

A story about closure due to sewerage leaks, and a protest against compulsory charges.

Here's some reviews of the book: 

By Natalie Xenos - click here.

By Rebecca Armstrong - click here.

You can easily search for more online. 

Midwinter Swim at Brockwell Lido

Above: Postcard of Brockwell Lido the year after it opened (1938)

Above: Midwinter

I subscribe to a Yahoo Group called Lidos, which concentrates on British open air swimming pools (Lidos), and the battle for their preservation.

Recently I received this message:

"Hello, I thought other group members might be interested in knowing about this:

Midwinter Swim at Brockwell Lido – Come on in, the water's lovely!
Woolly hats or swimming caps essential.
Saturday December 20th
Swim from 12.00pm - 1.00pm
Activities/Refreshments from 11.45am - 1.15pm

Last year we had 73 swimmers and a water temperature of 3.2 degrees Celsius. This year we're hoping for over 100 swimmers but with the cold setting in the water temperature could drop even further so be prepared and bring a woolly hat or a swimming cap – or both!

If you don't fancy taking the plunge come and cheer the swimmers on – bring a hot towel to wrap them in and while you're waiting for them you can have a hot drink and a mince pie and learn about the history of winter swimming at Brockwell with BLU (Brockwell Lido Users).

Whether you're a swimmer or a supporter you can have a go at the art activity and customise a woolly hat for the swim or for wearing afterwards to warm up. We'll have some hats but do bring your own and any you have spare will be very much appreciated.

The entry fee is a suggested £1 minimum donation to Age Concern Lambeth; thousands of older people die each minter from cold related illnesses – help Age Concern to Fight the Freeze and keep them safe and warm.Also, at the midwinter swim BLU will be selling books and t-shirts and Elena Tognoli, August's artist in residence, will be there to launch her book "A Step-By-Step Users Manual To Brockwell Lido For People Who Don't Like Water" which she created in collaboration with Lido Users this summer, so as well as an invigorating swim you'll get the chance to do some Christmas shopping!

Hope to see some of you there... "

These people are hardier than I !! I wonder if the Bondi Icebergs and the Brockwell Icicles ever had an exchange program?

Brockwell Lido is in the London suburb of Herne Hill.

Official website of Brockwell Lido

Brockwell Lido Users Group - a group dedicated to maintaining and extending the facilities and services of the Lido.

London Pools Campaign

HAVE A GREAT SWIM!!!