What is Tooting Bec Lido famous for?
The Daily Telegraph has named Tooting Bec Lido as one of London’s best outdoor swimming pools. The popular lido, Europe’s second biggest outdoor freshwater pool, was described by the paper as a south London treasure which had been a popular spot for bathers and leisure seekers since 1906. Tooting Bec Lido is London’s largest and oldest outdoor pool. It was opened in 1906 and was originally known as Tooting Bec Bathing Lake. The pool measures 300 ft by 100 ft, making it twice the length of an Olympic pool and wider than a standard 25m pool is long.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.Tooting Bec Lido is the UK’s largest fresh water swimming pool, measuring 91. From 1 May to 30 September, the Lido will open every day with two refreshing sessions per day, alongside special April swim times to kickstart the season.If you’re looking for your next outdoor swimming adventure, you’re in the right place. Our lido map is, we hope, the most up-to-date list of outdoor swimming pools in the UK. At our latest count, that’s more than 160 pools across England, Wales, Scotland, Northern Ireland, and the Channel Islands.Tooting Bec Lido is open to SLSC members only from 1 October to 31 March. You MUST be a member of the South London Swimming Club during the winter season.
When was Tooting lido built?
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. Tooting Bec Lido is London’s largest and oldest outdoor pool. It was opened in 1906 and was originally known as Tooting Bec Bathing Lake.The word ‘lido’ itself derives from the Latin ‘litus’, meaning shore. The first outdoor swimming area in Britain to adopt the name was the Serpentine Lido, in London’s Hyde Park, in 1930.From the Wordsense dictionary online: ‘Lido’ means ‘beach, shore’ in Italian. The first modern beach resort was an Italian destination called Lido di Venezia, an island with a long beach. The name is aspirational, evoking glamorous Venice. UK in the ’30s.In the 1800s, the Italian word ‘lido’ was used for trendy European beach resorts. In the UK, ‘lido’ – pronounced ‘lie-doh’ – refers to public outdoor pools with an area to sunbathe, often with a poolside cafe. The Serpentine Lido in Hyde Park was the first in Britain to use the name when it opened in 1930.
Is Tooting lido open to the public?
Summer opening times (open to the public) Tooting Bec Lido is open to the public from 17 April to 30 September 2025. The Lido gets very busy on sunny days. Book your swims through Places Leisure to ensure you get a place. Check their website for session times. Today, there are 127 lidos remaining open in England. Notable examples in London are Brockwell Lido in Herne Hill, Parliament Hill Lido at Gospel Oak in Hampstead Heath and Tooting Bec Lido in South London.
Why is it called a lido?
Lido, an Italian word for beach, forms part of the place names of several Italian seaside towns known for their beaches, such as Lido di Venezia, the barrier beach enclosing the Venetian Lagoon. Free beaches The Venice Lido also offers areas of free beach such as the sand dunes of San Nicolò and the Alberoni, the Murazzi rocks and Bluemoon beach, popular with tourists because it is strategically close to the Santa Maria Elisabetta vaporetto stop and also because it is equipped with showers and bathrooms.The Lido, luxury hotels excepted, is generally cheaper than Venice, with especially good deals if you avoid the peak summer months.Lido Key Beach is the official public beach of Sarasota residents, so it isn’t hard to understand why it’s one of the most popular beaches in the area.