In his new book Lido: A dip into outdoor swimming pools: the history, design and people behind them (Batsford), Christopher Beanland takes a tour around the world’s best outdoor swimming pools. Here, Christopher gives us a sneak peak into five of them:
OLYMPIA SCHWIMMSTADION, Berlin, Germany
The idea that politics can be kept out of sport is laughable – sport is pure politics. The 1936 Olympics in Berlin demonstrated that perhaps more than any other sporting event. Luckily Jesse Owens’ victory on the track and Dorothy Poynton-Hill’s dives from the high board into the pool made more waves, literally and metaphorically, than Hitler’s disgraceful theatrics. The Schwimmstadion, the work of Werner March, is as overblown and frankly terrifying as the Olympiastadion it abuts. Coated in limestone, it forms the northern axis of the sprawing Olympic site, and boasts ceramic reliefs by Max Laeuger and landscaping by Heinrich Wiepking- Jürgensmann. It is a strange place perhaps for a summer swim, but as with Tempelhof Airport, Berlin has decided to make the best of a past that went horribly wrong and instead provide a place where locals – like those living next door in Corbusier’s lesser-known copy of the Unité d’Habitation in Marseille – can cool off.
SEEBAD UTOQUAI, Zurich, Switzerland
Zurich’s lake baths fulfil the typically Swiss need for something that feels as close to a beach and as close to the sea as you’ll get in a landlocked country. Almost every city in the country has something along these lines. But being landlocked is not the problem we often think it is. Find me someone who’d take a cold, wet weekend in a British coastal village over a sunny day on Lake Zurich, where the temperature of the water may even be warmer than that of some sea resorts. Utoquai is a charming affair anyway – historic bathing buildings clustered hard against the water’s edge and plenty of swimmers taking a dip just five minutes from the centre of Switzerland’s largest city. An added attraction for architecture fans is the Pavilion Le Corbusier, the Swiss architect’s final work, completed posthumously in 1967 and just a short stroll from Utoquai. It was restored and reopened in 2019, following several wilderness years of sad dereliction.
BROCKWELL LIDO, Herne Hill, London
In 1995, Lucy Blakstad made Brockwell Lido the star of her extraordinary film for the BBC’s Modern Times strand. The Lido was one of the first instances of the lido renaissance being documented. The touching film shows how important the 1937 pool was to the community, even showing a marriage taking place here. Libby Page’s 2018 smash-hit novel, also called The Lido, is set here too and runs with the same premise, tugging at the reader’s heartstrings with its tale of love, loss and the lido fighting against closure. In reality it did close from 1990 to 1994 but you’d be hard-pressed to believe it if you visited on a summer afternoon today. The wooden decking is packed with people, the café is a popular destination, and the pair of ex-council workers who took the place over, Casey McGlue and Paddy Castledine, are revered as local heroes.
ICEBERGS, Bondi, Australia
Star of a million Instagram photos, Icebergs pokes tantalizingly out into the ocean, begging for a pic. When the frothy surf smashes over the pool walls, the striking visual effect is heightened. A few lengths here are understandably on many bucket lists, and it’s an easy one to tick off because so many backpackers find themselves in Bondi on their first few days Down Under. Not a bad place to begin the journey of a lifetime, is it? Maybe it’s because of the drunk backpackers diving in after dark, or the tourists going topless (verboten), or the endless other bothers the exasperated staff here have to deal with, or perhaps the fame of the place, that it all seems a bit stressful sometimes. The modern building behind the pool is nothing to write home about, but the restaurant on the top floor serves a great brunch, and the people running the show up there are golden.
KENNEDY TOWN SWIMMING POOL, Hong Kong
Swimming among the skyscrapers is an elevating (literally) experience at Hong Kong’s foremost public pool on the west of Hong Kong Island at Kennedy Town. Catch a clattering tram down from Central and you’ll spot the huge pool complex looming up with its zincclad sides. The Terry Farrell-designed pool (he made his millions working on numerous projects in HK and China) plays that classic Hong Kong trick of getting handy with levels. Swimmers ascend long escalators and at the top is the full-size, rooftop al fresco pool loomed over by dozens of high-rises but with panoramic views up the hills and over the harbour. An unmissable experience in the former colony (now Special Administrative Region) whose British heritage has left a legacy of swimming madness. People here love to take a dip – respite from the incessant office life, political turbulence and cramped flats that dominate existence here, perhaps.
Lido By Christopher Beanland is available on Stanfords.com here
