Fancy A Thames Dip? 5 Upgrades Coming To London's Swim Scene

Bobbing Along #13

It's happened — the powers that be appear to have cottoned on to the rapidly growing popularity of swimming in London.

And not a moment too soon in my opinion. Last spring/summer saw peeps descend en masse on London's ponds, lidos & reservoirs (+ swim clubs), and that trend doesn't look like slowing down any time soon.

London swimmers rejoice — the proposed floating lido at Eden Dock. Image: Canary Wharf Group.

Through various grapevines I've heard about several projects that will give us Londoners some exciting new swim & sauna venues over the next 6-12 months. Here are five that, in my professional opinion, are the most interesting.

1. Canary Wharf Olympic-Sized Floating Lido

Sea Lanes, the peeps behind Sea Lanes Brighton, are building a six-lane, 50-metre swimming pool that will float in Canary Wharf's Eden Dock. It sounds pretty snazzy, with an accoutrement of saunas and some kind of clubhouse with wellness events and the like.

There is already open water swimming at Eden Dock run by the National Open Water Coaching Association (NOWCA), and it looks like NOWCA is going to be involved with this project too.

Opening June (or early summer) 2026, which is pretty impressive given the novelty of it all. 100% powered by renewable energy & open all year round. Very very interesting.

2. West Reservoir Improvement Works

Our social swimmers luxuriate on the West Reservoir grass last spring. Scenes that will hopefully be returning soon.

The West Reservoir — our social swim club's home swim venue — kicked off a number of improvement works last year, scheduled to be completed this summer.

Truthfully, it's not been without controversy (few will forget the bike racks vs. car park spaces palaver), but can't lie I'm pretty keen to see the end product. It looks like the infrastructure upgrades will increase the reservoir's overall swimming capacity, as well as bring back the beloved (!!) grass sunbathing area + new changing rooms.

There will also be a new cafe area for the West Reservoir Cafe — purveyors of London's finest pastel de natas.

3. The River Thames's First Ever Designated Bathing Spot

This is actually pretty wild and has flown mostly under the radar (as far as I can tell). In May this year, a stretch of the Thames near Teddington will be officially designated as bathing water for the purposes of the Bathing Water Regulations 2013.

Swimmers in the Thames at Port Meadow. The proposed bathing site near Teddington is considerably closer to central London.

This means, from May, mandatory water testing must be performed and, if the site's water is determined to be of poor quality, Thames Water will be obliged to investigate & remedy the source of pollution.

It must be said that these regulations are far from perfect (check out Surfers Against Sewage's campaign for reform here), but it nonetheless feels pretty significant. And massive props to the Teddington Bluetits (part of the Bluetits social swim community) for campaigning for this and getting it over the line.

4. Reopening of Valentines Lido in Ilford

Valentines Park Lido back in the day. Image: Redbridge Museum & Heritage Centre.

I only learnt about Valentines Park through researching for this newsletter, but it looks pretty unreal. And apparently there was a lido there back in the day — originally opened in 1924 (!!) but closed in 1994 due to financial mismanagement (shock).

As part of its regeneration of the area, Redbridge Council has announced plans to reopen Valentines Lido, with a 25-metre open air pool, steam room, plunge pool, gym — all the good stuff.

Looks like there may be some delays to the planned opening date of spring 2026, but the first phase of the project appears to have now been completed.

5.  Mixed Pond to be Open All Year Round + New Hampsted Heath Saunas 

The City of London Corporation (which manages Hampstead Heath) has released a new 5-year business plan which includes two very interesting proposals.

The first is consideration of whether the Mixed Pond should be opened for swimming all year round, as is the case with the Ladies' and Men's Ponds. At present the Mixed Pond is closed for swimming between October to April (although there is apparently a super-secret winter swim club which I mentioned in our last newsletter).

The second proposal is a simple, yet potentially game-changing, one-liner in the plan: "Review use of sauna at Parliament Hill Lido and appropriateness of use at other swimming areas." This reads like they are considering putting saunas in at the Ladies', Men's & Mixed Ponds — which I think would be BANGING, although I have heard (& do agree with) concerns that this would lead to overcrowding.

Special Mention — A Beach in East London? (East London Waterworks Park)

This one is fascinating. East London Waterworks Park is a charity campaigning to transform a 14-acre Thames Water depot in Waltham Forest into "a community-owned, biodiverse park with wild swimming ponds and community spaces."

Their proposals include two massive wild swimming ponds (with beaches!!) which, as far as I can tell, would be free to the public. When I say massive, I mean massive — the proposed swimming ponds would be able to accommodate up to 1,200 peeps per day. 

There is nothing like this in London at the moment, and whilst it is still very much a campaign rather than something in active development, I for one will be keeping a keen eye on progress.

Upcoming London Swims & Events

(If there are any other London social swim clubs you think should be included here please let me know.)

Swim Peeps (@swim_peeps)

• The Ponds + Social @ The Garden Cinema — Saturday, 7 March (there are a few tickets left which you can buy here)
• Social Swim @ West Reservoir Centre — Sunday, 8 March
• Social Swim @ West Reservoir Centre — Sunday, 22 March (the last social swim of our COLD HARD FUN winter swim campaign)

Chilly Dippers (@chilly.dippers)

• Chilly Dip @ Parliament Hill Lido — Saturday, 14 March

Girly Dips (@girlydips)

• International Women's Day Dip (in aid of Cancer Research UK) @ Brockwell Lido — Saturday, 7 March (join the waitlist here)
• Feel Good Friday Sesh @ TBC — Friday, 20 March

Queer Swim (@queer.swim)

• Queer Winter Sauna @ Camberwell Community Sauna Baths — Sunday, 8 March
• Queer Winter Sauna @ Walthamstow Community Sauna Baths — Saturday, 28 March

That's all for now, catch you at a social swim soon.

Sax