London Pools Campaign: news from the campaign for London's pools

Golden Goggles Award 2006

golden goggles invite 2006: Where is London’s best outdoor swim? London Pools Campaign sent out 100 swimming detectives to check out the city’s lidos and ponds…

The London Pools Campaign Golden Goggles Award 2006 for Lidos and Ponds will be presented by Fiona Millar and Alastair Campbell at Parliament Hill Lido on Thursda July 20th from 6 - 8.30pm

London has lost 58 lidos through the 20th century, the land given over to car parks, garden centres and supermarkets. It’s hot, it’s summer, everyone wants to go to the lido - to highlight the pleasures of outdoor swimming and the 13 lidos and ponds remaining in this city the London Pools Campaign sent out 100 swimming detectives to investigate the state of the city’s remaining outdoor pools.

The results of their investigation will be announced by two committed swimmers, Fiona Millar and Alastair Campbell, at Parliament Hill Lido, Hampstead Heath, on Thursday 20th July. ...more ---> ...

It happens in Paris too...

The Guardian, July 12th:

It was meant to be Paris's coolest landmark as the city fights a heatwave: a new floating swimming pool on the river Seine to replace a pool that came loose from its moorings and sank 13 years ago. But the Josephine Baker pool, named after the singer and French resistance fighter, has been shut days after opening following a safety scare when tiles started coming loose from the bottom.

The €17m (£11.8m) complex, which is filled with recycled water from the Seine, already had teething problems. Its grand opening last week had to be postponed for six hours after chlorine levels were found to be four times over the norm. Then Le Parisien reported ventilation problems as the temperature in the complex's gym soared to 34C (93F).

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Haggerston Pool Campaign Street Party

laburnum street party: Haggerston Pool Campaigners celebrated the 102nd birthday of the pool with a big street party on July 2nd with 2 stages, 70 stalls in the street, open days at Laburnum Boat Club and the Suleymaniye mosque. The highlight of the day was the parade with a samba band and an enormous swimming pupppet.

THe street party is held to draw attention to the pool still being closed after 6 years. Haggerston Pool was closed in 2000 at the height of Hackney Council's overspend on Clissold Leisure Centre. At the time it was estimated that £300,000 would have kept the pool open for 5 or 6 years. It is estimated Hackney Council have spent nearly £50 million on Clissold Leisure Centre which is due to re-open in summer 2007. ...more ---> ...

Launch of Outdoor Swimming Society

The Outdoor Swimming Society exists to celebrate and promote the joy of swimming in England's lakes, seas, rivers and lido's. Water needs no roof! If you love to swim in the great British outdoors, the Outdoor Swimming Society is for you.

Whether floating downstream looking at clouds and cow parsley on a summers day, or striking out across a remote lake where you can see only heather and crags, swimming outdoors is one of life's true pleasures. The world looks brighter after an open air swim, as if, while you were out there, someone coloured it in. ...more ---> ...