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Birthday Girl
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onionbag blogger
Tuesday 10 July, 2007


The water's still... fucking freezing

And so a big South London Happy Birthday to the Old Girl. Nope, not boozed up bonkers Bag Lady who sits outside The Swan in Sunny Stockwell each day (and who once chased me down the Clap'ham Road whilst I was out running.)

But a big up birthday shout to the beautiful Brockwell Lido.

I wore my birthday suit

Seventy today, and she's still going strong. No thanks to a lot of Lido love from far too many people to mention over the past seventy years. Worth noting though the knobbers at Lambeth Council who see no shame in showboating a picture of the Lovely Lido that is rotated on their website, but have contributed bugger all over the past ten years in terms of financial support.

70p for a swim all day today (which just shows my sense of bad timing having forked out �145 for a season ticket yesterday,) seventy swimmers for the early morning dip and a pool temperature at 7am of seventy degrees to match.

Yeah, right.

And so who do you think was the magical seventieth swimmer early on Tuesday morning? It was a photo opportunity waiting not to happen, I tell you.

I offered to swim in my birthday suit for the cameras, but the snappers turned a blind eye. You could have your eye out with that, etc.

Seventy years ago today and the Lovely Lido replaced the old swimming lake in Brockwell Park. The grand opening was something of an eye opener; fifteen year-old Thelma Phelps was thrown into the pool by the Lord Mayor of Lambeth ('You look a nice girl,' he is quoted as saying. Good to see that Lambeth Councilors were knobbers back in the day as well.)

Now aged 85, Dr Phelps was expected to attend the party at the Lido later this evening. I'd like to see one of the current Lambeth knobbers try that trick once again.

Unable to attend the party, I made the most of the free birthday cake before the commute to work this morning. I picked up a copy of the excellent Peter Bradley book, Out of the Blue - a Celebration of Brockwell Lido, which was published today.

Bollocks to 'a day to read the Alistair Campbell Diaries,' as had been the case with the liberal elite at work this week. I've got all summer to read Out of the Blue; it's not called a procrastinating paperback to match the pace of Lido life for nothing.

I'm still in awe of the new look lido. Yep, I was wrong, and I admit it. The opened up front is fantastic, as are the seasoned South London Lido loving regulars who gathered to celebrate the old girl this morning.

I doubt if I will be around in seventy years time, but I'm sure Brockwell Lido will still be offering a laid back lifestyle for South Londoners as a welcome retreat.

Brockwell Lido 70th birthday, 10/07/07

Brockwell Lido 70th birthday, 10/07/07

Brockwell Lido 70th birthday, 10/07/07



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