London Lido Challenge 2011

Great News!

Lepra Health in Action have confirmed the London Lido Challenge 2011. Based on our original "Lidotastic day out" Lepra Health in Action are asking would-be Lido fanatics to swim cap up and jump in to raise money for a great cause.

On Saturday 13th August challengers will be attempting to swim in 8 outdoor pools with each swimmer setting their own personal challenge. To take part in the event simply buy a ticket from LEPRA Health in Action for £35 which will give you entry to all 8 pools.

Parliament Hill Lido

London Fields Lido

Tooting Bec Lido

Kenwood Ladies Pond

Hampstead Mixed Pond

Highgate Mens Pond

Serpentine Lido

Uxbridge Lido

Thanks to the generosity of the participating Lidos the full ticket price will go directly to LEPRA Health in Action however swimmers are welcome to raise even more for LEPRA by setting up a JustGiving page and persuading their friends to sponsor them.

We're also hoping to hold an after swim party for swimmers and non swimmers alike - details to follow shortly.

The end result

All in all we swam 26944m in total and so far we've raised over £500 for LEPRA with several more hundred still to come. Nearly everyone in the team swam in at least one pool that they'd never swam in before and we've already started making plans to revisit some of them when we can spend more time enjoying the experience. In addition we've advertised how great Lidos are to some of our more skeptical mates who although they wimped out of the swim have since seen the pictures and heard our evangelicism and are considering a trip to an outdoor pool sometime soon.


Initially this was just a silly challenge that Pete and Libs set themselves but as it spiraled out of control and the money started rolling in for LEPRA we've realised that we started something special. From cold water wimps we've learnt to take the cold shock and get our shoulders under, we've found some stunning new pools to swim in and we've introduced our mates to some of our old favorites. We met loads of fellow lido swimmers along the way who were interested in joining in a similar fundraising event in the future and now we've warmed up we'd even consider doing it all again... maybe!

The Team

Peter "The Challenger" Hutchin

Pete swam 5890m in 12 pools and thanks to all the lidos generosity was able to donate the £35.48 he saved on admission charges to LEPRA

Chris "Along for the Ride" Jamieson

Chris swam 4668.75m in 12 pools and thanks to all the lidos generosity was able to donate the £35.48 he saved on admission charges to LEPRA

Libi "Mr T" Hutchin
Libi swam 5221.5m and thanks to all the lidos generosity was able to donate the £35.48 she saved on admission charges to LEPRA








Jo "The Fundraisor" Whiteman
Jo swam 2560m in 6 pools and thanks to all the lidos generosity was able to donate the £17.81 she saved on admission charges to LEPRA.









Seb "Are All the Pools Outdoor?" Chamberlain
Seb swam 2560m in 6 pools and thanks to all the lidos generosity was able to donate the £17.81 he saved on admission charges to LEPRA






Ally "Tiny Trunks" Pamphilon
Ally swam 2980m in 6 pools and thanks to all the lidos generosity was able to donate the £17.81 he saved on admission charges to LEPRA




John "The Wetsuit" Moogan
John swam 1000m in 2 pools and thanks to all the lidos generosity was able to donate the £17.81 he saved on admission charges to LEPRA






Matthew "Torpedo" Harrison
Matt swam 500m in 1 pool and thanks to the lido's generosity was able to donate the £3.31 he saved on admission charges to LEPRA








Cat "Might Just Stay in Bed" Greene
Cat swam 500m in 1 pool and thanks to the lido's generosity was able to donate the £3.31 she saved on admission charges to LEPRA








Dorrie "Refreshment Angel" Spencer
Dorrie swam 980m in 2 pools and thanks to the lidos generosity was able to donate the £7.81 she saved on admission charges to LEPRA





Shirley "Who Said I Didn't Swim in Cold Water?" Hutchin
Shiley swam 100m in 1 pools and thanks to the lidos generosity was able to donate the 62p she saved on admission charges to LEPRA








Nikki "Cameratastic" Whiteman
Nikki didn't swim in any pools but came along to cheer us on and take video footage at 4 pools. Thanks to the lido's generosity she was able to donate the £9.50 she saved on admission charges to LEPRA

Saturday 6pm - Parliament Hill Lido

By the time we reached Parliament Hill Lido the sun was breaking through the clouds and glittering off the calm water. We were all so cold that none of us hung about instead racing through the changing rooms and jumping in as quickly as possible. Although we were all concentrating on the warm showers in store for us once we’d swum our 400m it was impossible to ignore how beautiful the pool was. With a metal floor the sun glitters in all directions and the art deco pool is stunning especially when it’s almost empty as it was for us. After the heavy rain only minutes earlier no-one else in London was thinking about jumping into the freezing Lido. Just like the Lido we had started in the water at Parliament Hill is icy and we all agreed that the metal flooring although stunning was sapping the pool of any warmth the sunlight might have provided. As we finished our final few strokes and took a celebratory photo Dorrie entered the Lido. She had joined us earlier in the morning at London Fields and had promised to join us later in the day. Since our other friends had politely excused themselves it was even more special to see Dorrie again especially when she produced bubbly and hot chocolate from her bag. It turned out later that she had been delayed joining us since she had been baking celebratory Lido themed cakes for our party later that evening. As Dorrie swam her 400 meters in a deserted pool the rest of us warmed up in the showers and headed back out to sit by the pool and drink prosecco in the fading sunlight. After the heroic feeling afternoon it was an amazing way to finish the challenge. Thanks Dorrie!

In total we swam 3300m at Parliament hill and thanks to the support of the Lido we were able to add the £40.50 we saved on admission fees to the sponsorship pot.

Saturday 5pm - Kenwood Ladies' Pond

Blue Green Algae almost threatened to call a halt to the girls challenge having been detected a week earlier at Kenwood Ladies' Pond. After being told about the algae by a staff member at the mixed pond he cheerfully informed us that it wouldn’t necessarily stop experienced outdoor swimmers such as ourselves swimming in the pool at our own risk. Though chuffed that our apparently adept performance at the mixed pond had given the man the impression that we were anything close to experienced wild swimmers the fact remained that, had he seen our pitiful performance at Uxbridge Lido, he may have quickly revised his calculation of our expertise.

After absorbing as much information as possible about avoiding the algae Jo and Libi decided to do the only thing possible and swim with our heads held high and their mouths tight shut. Well mostly quite shut. Libi and Jo aren’t renowned for their ability to keep their silence and a certain amount of water was swallowed before they realised that chatting might have to wait till they were back out of the water. Although the ponds aerators bubbling away had lowered the levels of algae in the water we had the whole pond to ourselves apart from a couple of coots who watched us closely as we swam our 400m.

At Kenwood Ladies' Pond the girls swam 880m and, thanks to the management were able to donate £6 to the sponsorship fund.

Saturday 4pm - Highgate Men's Bathing Pond

As we crossed the Heath the drizzle that had been falling when we left the Mixed Pond suddenly became a downpour and those of us who had opted to change out of our wet swimsuits for the short walk realised our mistake since we were all so wet that getting into the next pond wasn’t going to get us any wetter.

There had been warm showers at neither the Serpentine nor the Mixed Pond and without a tube journey to warm ourselves up we all found ourselves feeling the cold especially as we faced two more unheated pools before the warm showers at Parliament Hill. For the first time we found ourselves losing much of our humour and texts from fair-weather swimming friends excusing themselves from the challenge did little to lift our spirits.

We came to the Men’s Pond first and the boys turned off down the path only realising later that Pete, who had stayed behind at the Mixed Pond to chat to his family, had taken a wrong turning in the downpour and was wandering round the Heath lost in the rain and feeling even worse than the rest of us.

He was eventually found by some friendly park rangers north of the ladies pond and made up for his late arrival diving from the board and cutting a few corners of the pond.

For some reason the boys told us Highgate Men’s Pond

was the warmest of the unheated pools and warmer by far than the supposedly heated Park Rd Pools although we don’t know if that was just to make Jo and Libi jealous since they found Kenwood Ladies Pond anything but warm!

At Highgate Men’s pond the boys swam 1480m and, thanks to the management were able to donate £10 to the sponsorship fund.

Saturday 3pm - Hampstead Heath Mixed Bathing Pond

The Ponds on Hampstead Heath are the closest most Londoners are able to get to wild swimming – albeit watched by a friendly lifeguard.

Surrounded by trees and set back from the heath the Mixed Pond is a stark contrast to the chlorinated indoor pools that many of us usually swim in. After braving so many unheated pools we were finally getting better at getting over the cold shock but the shade of the trees meant that the mixed pond was particularly cold and despite his wet suit John found he just couldn’t get in.

The rest of us found the swim even more beautiful than the serpentine although we found that the sun on the surface of parts of the pond led to warm patches which were lovely to swim through but made the cold patches even harder to brave. The sun shone on our swim making the whole pond even more beautiful. Noone felt like taking a cold shower after the cold of the pond and since the next stop was just across the Heath most of us decided to do a bathing suited dash. As we left pond the rain started to fall and the black sky made the trip across the Heath to the single sex ponds look less inviting than the summer stroll we had imagined when we were planning the challenge.

Thanks to The Mixed Bathing Pond we were able to add £16 to the LEPRA fund and between us we swam 3105m.