Stop press: The Lido’s Spring opening hours, from Monday 3 April, will restore 7-day opening and a 6.30 am start on Mondays:
Monday 6.30am-12noon & 2pm-8pm
Tuesday 7am-12noon & 2pm-8pm
Wednesday – Friday 7am-12noon
Weekends 9am-5pm
These times will be further reviewed in May in preparation for the full summer programme from June 2017.
Friends of Charlton Lido got off to a very positive start with a series of well-attended introductory meetings during February. There was general agreement that although the group did not need to adopt a formal structure at present, its objectives could be summarised in the following four points:
People are very strongly committed to the Lido, value it highly and are keen to support its ongoing development in order to safeguard what is acknowledged to be a costly facility to maintain. The improved opening hours this winter have been very much appreciated, and there is strong support for the current pattern to be replicated next winter, and for additional hours to be offered when the levels of usage make this financially viable.
Lots of ideas were put forward for events and activities which could be used to help promote the lido more widely, both to the local community and to the wider community of swimmers. Members indicated that they would be willing to work with the lido to enable some of these to take place, and an informal exploratory conversation has already taken place with the centre manager to see what might be possible.
Improving communication between Better and members remains a priority which the Friends group hopes to tackle, and it was agreed to set up a Facebook page to complement the website and Twitter feed. We will try to use these to communicate information about events that are taking place as well as providing links to other swimming groups and events.
People put forward a number of potential improvements to the facilities that they would like to see. The café is important for lots of people, and seen at present as a very under-used resource. Whilst acknowledging the difficulties caused by the only access being from poolside, there would be strong support for any initiatives that could increase opening hours, particularly in the winter months.
Other ‘wish list’ items are the provision of a large clock on the end wall, clearly visible from the pool, a costume spinner – and some better weather protection for the lifeguards during the winter (London Fields has some rather natty Perspex cabins). Ideas for additional activities included more Swim Doctor sessions, aqua aerobics sessions, poolside pre-swim yoga and the return of a 6:30 early opening once a week during the summer.
Those of us who attended the meetings enjoyed the opportunity to meet fellow swimmers and to share ideas about making an already great local resource even better. We’re not planning to meet frequently, but are keen to keep the communication going. If you’d like to join the mailing list to be kept informed of future meetings and events, please email charlton.lido.friends@gmail.com.
There are still a few spaces for centre members at the next customer forum meeting. If you would like to attend, please email charltonlido@gll.org to request a place.
It’s been good to see so many people enjoying winter swimming at Charlton Lido over the past few months, in a year when outdoor swimming has been gaining much more publicity and popularity than ever.
If you’d like to get involved with other local swimmers, do come along to meet other Friends of Charlton Lido who are holding a couple of introductory meetings this week, on Wednesday 8 February at 7pm and on Friday 10 February at 12 noon, both in the White Swan, Charlton Village
Please drop Rosemary Leeke a line on charlton.lido.friends@gmail.com if you plan to come so that we have an idea of numbers.
Back in the autumn of 2013, a group of committed Lido swimmers held an initial meeting to discuss setting up a user group under the banner Friends of Charlton Lido; lots more expressed an interest but weren’t able to attend the meeting. The consensus both of those who attended the meeting and of those responding via the Charlton Champion website was that a group would be beneficial. However, at that time there weren’t enough people able to commit to getting it off the ground, and there was a hope that the full reopening of the Lido with the new gym and café would increase usage and address many of the concerns that were being expressed at the time.
Three years on it is clear that many of the same issues still continue to surface on a regular basis, so perhaps the time is now right to return to the proposal of establishing a Friends group to try to find a constructive way of tackling these. Informal conversations in the pool and the changing rooms suggest that lots of regulars would support the idea – so let’s try and make it happen!
Back in 2013 the initial meeting considered the following possible Friends group objectives:
Are these still the priorities? Are there others that need to be added? How could a Friends group help GLL to promote and market the Lido more effectively? How could it help to build a community of users, perhaps through organising events to draw more people in? Some of the other London lidos are very successful at this – could we usefully create links with them?
Exploratory Meetings
It’s always difficult to find a time for a meeting that suits everyone, so as a way of trying to get something off the ground let’s have two: one on a weekday morning and one either on a weekday evening or at a weekend. The aim of both would be to gauge the level of interest in being part of and if possible helping to organise a Friends’ group, to agree what its aims should be and to gather feedback about people’s main issues and suggestions.
If you support this idea and would like to be involved (even just by receiving updates), please register your interest by emailing Rosemary Leeke at charlton.lido.friends@gmail.com, and we will get back to you with some suggested meeting dates and a venue.
