When it opened in 1932, London Fields helped set a new standard for lidos, with changing rooms, a filtration system and a cafe. The lido was closed in 1988, and squatters soon moved in. It would have been demolished had campaigners not stepped up to save it. Eventually, in 2004, Hackney Council decided to revive the lido. It’s been enormously... See more

Known as Brixton Beach to some locals, Brockwell Lido was one of several lidos designed by architects from the London County Council’s (LCC) Parks Department. It was a modernist, more hygienic replacement for the park’s Victorian swimming lake. The lido was closed for several years in the 1990s until a local campaign revived it. In 2001, the... See more

In 1937, the LCC leader Herbert Morrison planned to make London “a city of Lidos”. This ambition was squashed by the Second World War (1939–1945), which forced a change of priorities. Later, under Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher in the 1980s, London’s councils were pressured to cut costs. Lidos steadily disappeared. In 1950, Greater London had 70... See more

As public spaces they serve as an embodied and participatory democracy. While the forms of swimming pool, sauna and sento may be robust and enduring, they rely on active participants and defenders on location to survive. In the relative vulnerability of the sauna or the swimming pool, we are permitted to imagine and test new behaviours and form new... See more