Lido Life: The Thames River open-air swimming pool is on the horizon
The eagerly-anticipated Thames River lido is on the horizon with the launch of today's Thames Baths crowdfunding campaign with co-founders Chris Romer-Lee and James Lowe. Support the project and you could be experiencing the river-based open-air swimming pool sooner than you think.
Words by Ken Worpole
In 1937 Herbert Morrison, then Chairman of the London County Council, promised to turn London into 'a city of lidos'. He and other politicians found themselves caught up in the new cult of open-air swimming appearing in cities across the world. Sunshine, fresh air and a quick dip were part of the lebensreform health culture which swept Europe between the wars, as the poor physical condition of city-dwellers became all too evident. Given that paid holidays didn't emerge in Britain until the end of the 1930s, municipal leaders signed up to the idea of 'holidays at home', especially for those who couldn't afford to go to the seaside, let alone abroad. In her book, Liquid Assets, Lido historian, Janet Smith, located and mapped the 68 full-size lidos and open-air pools which operated in London during the 20th century, of which less than a dozen remain.
Thames Baths' plans for the Victoria Embankment lido.
But open-air swimming is back on the urban agenda. Since the publication of Charles Sprawson's Haunts of the Black Masseur, and Roger Deakin's even more influential, Waterlog, wild-swimming as it is now called, is becoming ever more popular. More recently, Al Alvarez's 2013 valedictory homage to the Hampstead Men's Pool, Pondlife, joined a long list of memoirs recalling the pleasures of swimming outdoors in London, in The Serpentine and the Hampstead Heath ponds.
Close-up image of the lido deck.
There's been talk for a long time about the idea of a new open-air pool in London, somewhere on the Thames - partly modelled on those river-based lidos in Moscow and Copenhagen - and now the 'go-to' project has arrived with the Thames Baths. This latest proposal focuses on designing a moored pontoon pool on the Embankment. It was launched in 2013 as part of the 'London As It Could Be Now' programme - an open call ideas project, developed by The Architecture Foundation, with Rogers Stirk Harbour + Partners and the Royal Academy of Arts. Architects Studio Octopi and their team were selected as one of five groups to work up new visions for the Thames, and in August 2014 the team released their ideas for a floating freshwater pool at Temple Stairs off the Victoria Embankment. This now has serious traction, gaining rapid support from politicians, planners, swimmers and funding bodies.
From left: Directors of Studio Octopi and co-founders of Thames Baths James Lowe and Chris Romer-Lee, and Product Manager Matt Bamford-Bowes
The people behind the idea have now formed the Thames Baths Community Interest Company, and unveiled a Kickstarter fund-raising scheme. They say that the daring design of the new pool creates a structure which sits naturally within the river environment, filling and flowing with the water that runs around, beneath and over it, and their latest proposals conclude with the following Magna Carta style appeal: 'We believe that it is every Londoner's right to liberate themselves from the intensity of the city by swimming in the Thames. Our ambition is for this to happen in as natural an environment as possible. Welcome to the Thames Baths, please join us to help shape what could be London's next big cultural project.'
The resurgence of cycling in the city, along with the continuing popularity of London's parks and green spaces, suggest that Londoners still enjoy the outdoor life of the city come what may. A swim in the Thames might just be the start of a lido revival.
Ken Worpole is the author of Here Comes the Sun, and many other books on architecture and the urban outdoors.
