A long way down

The Urban Swimmer makes a pilgrimage to the Tooting Bec Lido...

Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!

The Urban Swimmer is a North Londoner. He's had phases when he's lived in "Saarf" London, but these days it takes a lot to get him very far south of the river. This is doubly so of Tooting, the south London suburb, famous as largely being the butt of a number of jokes. However last summer TUS made a pilgrimage to a Lido of some repute. On the edge of the leafy Tooting Common sits the largest freshwater pool in England, and the 2nd biggest outdoor pool in Europe - the mighty Tooting Bec Lido.

After all the anticipation the Tooting Bec Lido is, truth be told, fairly innocuous. Hidden slightly behind a few trees it's a long rectangle of open water. There are some rather pretty, brightly painted changing cubicles on either side of the pool, a small cafe, small kiddy pool, showers and the obligatory ugly fountain (see TUS on Hampstead's Parliament Hill Lido).

Shocker: ugly fountain.

I am reluctant to say too much about the Tooting Bec Lido. The Lido you see, attracts a very loyal band of followers. It is partly run by the South London Swimming Club and supported by a core group of all year swimmers. In the 1990s the SLSC appear to have largely saved the Lido from closing, and jolly good too. Icy plunges have never really appealed to TUS, though apparently the Lido does have a small sauna, which he supposes, might just make the whole experience bearable.  A number of Lido loyalists blog about their daily swims. If you are interested in the Tooting bloggers or becoming a cold water adrenaline junky you should check out Unusual Love Affair in London, Quick Dip and Musings of an Aquatic Ape.

The pool is a huge 91.4 meters in length, which makes a single length quite an effort. That said it isn't especially deep. TUS got down there on a late summer Friday after getting slightly lost on the Common. It was a pretty quiet time to visit the pool, towards closing time, and only a handful of regulars did lengths around him.

The nearby trees mean the pools gets quite a few leaves in there, that and the little changing cubicles give the place a rather rustic feel. The Lido is over 100 years old. It's been here since 1906 and was built by unemployed people living in the area. The whole place and experience seems like a noble tribute to the spirit of amateurism. If TUS had to make a choice between amateur and professional, he feels that he is firmly with the former. It's the amateurs that love things purely for the sake of them isn't it? He knows aging amateur runners more keen on their sport than any young Olympic hopeful; home cooks who care more about their food than any Michelin starred Chef; and so on and so on. Could it be that fictional Tooting resident Wolfie Smith has in fact been living just down the road from a place that is a living embodiment of "Power to the People". In short the Tooting Bec Lido is a place with Soul...and that isn't easy for municipal buildings.

Now that Spring is in the air, TUS hopes it wont be too long before things warm up a bit and he can make another journey south.