onionbagblog

With limited opportunities available to swim in public pools in Lambeth, I thought I would attempt to uncover the other options available within the borough boundaries in which to swim. You would be surprised to know as to how many swimming pools there are in Lambeth. You just have to know where to look for them, or even whom to ask.

I’ve not set out to offer an exhaustive list. This is only the start. I was going to start a Help Me Investigate topic to try and collaborate the crowd sourcing. It’s a fine online tool that @paulbradshaw and others have established.

But given that I blog mainly about (i) swimming and (ii) South London, I thought perhaps this would be a better place to start.

And so my mission is to map the hidden (and perhaps lost) swimming pools of South London. I hope you are able to join me in the search, by offering assistance in the comments below.

This *isn’t* a historical or political quest; I want to share the options that are available to swimmers in the borough whilst our friends @lambeth_council attempt to save their leisure policy from complete meltdown. I found it ironic though to discover that I actually live in a specific part of the borough with the highest concentration of swimming pools.

The very essence of the search is going to be that most pools are private. Paying for a private swim in Lambeth is now no longer a crime against your political conscious (arf.) The privatisation of the public pools has already seen to this.

There’s some hidden treasures buried away in the borough (and on the map) such as the strip of pool at Tudor Court at the back of Brixton Hill, and the *shhh* private family pool just down from Streatham Common. Accessing the Google Maps via the satellite view will open up a whole new world of South London swimming pool snooping.

There are also some heartbreaking cases of previous botched Lambeth Council leisure policies, such as the filling in of the Kennington Park Lido during the late 1980′s.

Lessons to be learnt, swimming pools to be found. Please feel free to add any other suggestions. The count is currently on twelve fifteen sixteen - a pool a day for a fortnight would be my ultimate South London swimming fantasy.

The first person to put a pin on The Rookery at Streatham Common as a swimming location gets a dunking in the temporary pool whenever / if our friends @lambeth_council get round to building it.

Heads up @se1, @dominiccampbell and @lambethcpcg for assistance in pool hunt.

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