London lidos that stay open through winter

Winter is when London's outdoor pools sort themselves out: a handful drain and lock up in September, while others keep the lanes marked and the gates open through January. What separates them is mostly water temperature and access, so each entry says whether the pool is heated, whether the winter timetable shrinks to a few morning hours, and whether you need a club membership to get in at all. Two of the sites here are 1930s municipal architecture still doing the job they were built for; one is a lake dug in 2019.

Places in this collection

  • Pools on the Park — The open-air 33m pool sits alongside a main indoor pool and a teaching pool in Old Deer Park, a few minutes from Richmond station, and it i…
  • Park Road Lido — Crouch End's 50m pool is heated to between 22 and 24°C and opens all year during daylight hours, which is the practical limit on winter swi…
  • Charlton Lido — A 50m pool in Hornfair Park held at 25°C right through the winter season, which puts it among the warmest open-air swims in London in Janua…
  • Tooting Bec Lido — At 90m the main pool is the largest outdoor pool in the UK, with a 19m paddling pool alongside; it dates from 1906 and reopened in April 20…
  • Parliament Hill Lido — Grade II-listed and unheated, the Hampstead Heath pool opens every day of the year, with the winter timetable running roughly 07:00 to 13:0…
  • London Fields Lido — A 50m outdoor pool kept at roughly 25°C all year and floodlit, which makes it one of the few places in the city where you can swim lengths…
  • Brockwell Lido — Opened in 1937 and set into a corner of Brockwell Park behind low art deco redbrick walls, the 50m pool is unheated and stays open through…

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