Swimming Pools: Hot & Cold in Bristol and Portishead Lidos

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Our coldest and warmest swims of the year (so far?) took place on the same memorable day at the start of February 2020 in two nearby pools in the West Country.

Portishead Open Air Pool

The cold one was at Portishead Open Air Pool, 7°C with a few hardy swimmers and very welcoming staff followed by lunch in the volunteer-run cafe. 


The story of the Pool is told in a book by John Birkinshaw, 'Celebrating Portishead Open Air Pool' (Clevedon Community Press, 2018).  Its a tale familiar from many other pools - a municipal heyday (the pool opened in 1962), decades of under-investment and funding cuts threatening closure, and a community campaign to save the pool. In this case leading to the establishment of the Portishead Pool Community Trust, who took over running the pool from 2009.



Mural by Emma Hill, 2018:



The pool is next to Portishead beach, overlooking the Severn Estuary.




Bristol Lido

The warmer swim was just a few miles away at Bristol Lido in the evening. Of course the air was cool but the water was heated - not sure of exact temperature, but they generally heat to between 20 and 24°C . Like its Thames Lido sister site in Reading, Bristol Lido is the kind of place you go for a treat, with a sauna and restaurant overlooking the pool. 


A night time swim followed by delicious supper was a fine ending to a lovely day.

Swimming on this site dates back to 1850, but the pool closed down in 1990 and was facing redevelopment. Its route to recovery was different to the community trust model seen at Portishead and elsewhere, here it has been refurbished as a more luxury facility by a local restaurant group who re-opened it in 2008.


Two very different swims, both enjoyable for different reasons. Back then we took for granted that you could stay in a hotel for a weekend, take in a couple of pools, not to mention the local parkrun (Ashton Court). By the end of the following month all this had changed with the Covid-19 lockdown. At time of writing, Portishead had announced that there would be no winter season swimming at the pool this year, while Bristol Lido is partially open but with strictly limited numbers of swimmers. Let's hope these and many other pools make it through to better times ahead. 

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