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Something slightly different for my daily swim on Saturday morning. With fifteen summers of love for all things @BrockwellLido washed away in a single season through corporate incompetence from Fusion, I kept on cycling through Brixton, up towards Streatham and then a swing to the right for Tooting Bec Lido

Blimey.

I use to be a late season regular at Tooting back in the day. Once @BrockwellLido had pulled the shutters down after the August Bank Holiday, Tooting was my outdoor pool of choice through until the early autumn.

But with the bonkers 10am weekend opening time @BrockwellLido, I was buggered if I was to waste away half of my Saturday morning waiting for more misery from Fusion and it’s corporate incompetence.

Tooting was open for business at 6am. Brilliant. The obvious knock on effect of this is that the hour-long queues experienced back at Brockwell are banished from SW16.

The backlog of hot and bothered swimmers snaking all the way round to @thelidocafe is never really cleared throughout the day at Brockwell. Tooting however doesn’t allow for a queue to even start forming, with an early start to encourage a smooth flow of swimmers.

This ease of access was also carried over to the glorious 90-yard pool. The 10am dip at Brockwell is manic, as the not-so-early birds are all competing for space at the same time. Not so at Tooting, with a staggered approach to swimming.

The sensible £5 entry price at Tooting helps as well. The reception staff at Brockwell can’t seem to deal with the handing over of change, with the rather awkward £5.20 admission price. A chap at Tooting simply had a pile of grubby fivers on hand for anyone with a ten pound note.

I changed in one of the iconic Tooting multi-coloured themed cubicles. As well as adding to the historic atmosphere of the pool, this extra provision also eases the changing room provision that the shoebox changing rooms at Brockwell simply can’t cope with during peak times.

My swim itself was spectacular. I was able to see clearly underwater down a half stretch of the glorious 90-yard pool. Back at Brockwell and a metre visibility has been the best of late.

The base of the Tooting pool was incredibly clean. None of the plasters, crisp packets or unidentifiable floating objects that we have come to expect at Brockwell this season.

I had forgotten how the pool lining at Tooting has a rubber like mat quality. This felt far safer than the grazed and rather dilapidated pool floor at Brockwell, which has had one too many mid-winter breaks without any treatment.

My only criticism of the Tooting swim is the lack of swimming lanes. Much resistance was put up at first amongst the @BrockwellLido community. The lanes do offer guidance however, and provide a system that gives some direction once the pool becomes overcrowded.

I finished my swim, towelled off and then strolled straight inside the Tooting Lido Cafe. Sadly this is something that is not now possible back at Brockwell.

The Lido Restaurant Cafe is out of bounds from the poolside during busy days. You have to physically leave the pool, and then join the non-swimmers from the separate restaurant cafe entrance, all fully clothed and enjoying their private view of the swimmers and sunbathers.

I enjoyed my Tooting swim so much, that I stayed for the next four hours. Back at Brockwell and I usually head straight back to base after my swim. I’ve no reason to stick around – all sense of the lido community has long since been strangled out by the corporate mismanagement by Fusion.

Having paid up front for the season with my Brockwell membership, sadly I can’t justify a Tooting swim every morning as well. I’m already being fleeced twice by @lambeth_council, as a consequence of pimping out pools in the Rotten Borough to two preferred leisure partners.

I hope it is not too late for Fusion to return @BrockwellLido to the lido loving community that still holds a great deal of love for the building, the atmosphere and more importantly, the people.

To achieve this then Fusion has to recognise where the mistakes have been made, and take away the corporate identity and strong arm management that has turned @BrockwellLido into just another outdoor pool.

A trip to Tooting by Fusion staff would help. Here we have a local authority, running and managing a local authority own facility.

Now there’s a co-operative ideal for you.

Oh dear. Here we go again. Just as the second heat wave of mid-summer is set to hit South London over the weekend and whaddya know – @BrockwellLido is bloody CLOSED. Again.

This is turning out to be a major corporate cock up for Fusion down in SE24. It’s a repeat of that familiar theme of “chlorine issues.” I make this the fifth occasion this summer that Fusion has proved to be [steady] unfit for purpose.

The awarding of the twenty-five year lease to pimp out the pool on behalf of @lambeth_council appeared to have safety checks built in. It was crucial that a reliable ‘preferred partner’ was selected to take on the huge social responsibility of managing the stewardship of a much loved community facility within South London.

Those meet ‘n greet the bidders sessions back at the Town Hall during February 2003 contained many false promises made by Fusion. The corporate leisure company took on the lido lease with a commitment to maintain the unique ambience and atmosphere established during the Paddy and Casey @BrockwellLido Golden Years.

The stuffy corporate image has slowly, slowly become all pervasive around the poolside. It manifests itself with the removal of the street art put in place by Paddy and Casey, the appearance of corporate branding, and yes, the physical divide between lido lovers and lido café restaurant diners – a wooden fence has actually appeared of late, keeping the riff raff of swimmers away from the café restaurant.

This is the least of the worries within our lido community – we now just want a bloody pool that is open each morning for our daily swim.

Let us not forget that Casey also pitched in with his proposal to run the lido some seven years ago. Another figure worth remembering is that the lido didn’t suffer a single “chlorine issue” in that run of twelve glorious @BrockwellLido Golden Days.

In a year when shutting swimming pools has been something of a recurring theme around these parts, the five closures (and counting) this summer @BrockwellLido have to be viewed in perspective.

It is the inconvenience that hits you the hardest – dragging your backside to Brockwell Park early morning, only to find that Fusion has messed up once again only spoils the routine and rhythm of your day.

Bloody Brixton Rec it is then…

Refunds have been promised by Fusion for the five days that have been missed so far this summer. I’m still waiting to see any return in my bank account.

And so if it’s not the “chlorine issues” that gets you @BrockwellLido then it’s possibly the break-ins (two so far this summer.)

Failing that then it’s the complete incompetence of Fusion as a corporate company to understand exactly what is required to manage a local facility that quite simply *is* the South London summer for folk around here.

Something is seriously wrong with the corporate management of @BrockwellLido. Fusion is currently three years into a twenty-five year lease to manage the SE24 community facility, after @lambeth_councill washed all responsibility from managing (and financially supporting) the historic art deco pool.

Following a promising start to the Fusion years (helped along by the considerable experience of Brockwell Lido Users) it now seems that the current management team at Brockwell Lido simply isn’t up to the job.

The pool has been closed four times in the past month because of “chlorine related” incidents, as well as suffering two overnight break-ins, the latest of which has been brushed over on the Fusion corporate website.

The “chlorine imbalance” may have been a factor for forcing the pool to close late on Monday evening, but the police cordon and forensic coppers that greeted early morning lido lovers earlier in the day, suggested something slightly more sinister.

At the base of the current problems with @BrockwellLido is the inexperience of the current management team. Former Site Manager, Jeremy Lake, left to join rivals Greenwich Leisure Limited, just before the start of the current season. Paul Maier, the Operations Manager, soon followed this departure.

Both previous employees were exceptional at their job. They combined the necessary business running of the lido with the laid back, meet ‘n greet customer service that such a unique facility requires.

It seems that little handover was left to the current lido management team, leading to the current situation where such basics as keeping the pool operational, are failing with an increased frequency.

In twelve years of the glorious lido Golden Days under the management of the much loved local pairing of Paddy and Casey, the pool didn’t suffer one similar incident. The team of highly experienced lifeguards recruited at the time, boosted not only the safety, but also the ethos that the lido generated.

Staff from this Golden Day period are still around. They love the lido so much that they still swim within the unique pool. This is the type of experience and management of the facility that Fusion can’t ignore not to be tapping into.

With a pool engineer optimistic of a lido re-opening on Wednesday 30th June, only one half of the current crisis that is developing at the lido will have been solved by Fusion. Security is also a pressing matter, and one that the company seems unable to currently control.

A fellow lido lover writes:

“Yet again tonight [Monday] there was a mini-rave in the Lido car park, with 20-30 people dancing to music in their cars. At 10pm, when the gym closes, they were successfully moved from the car park and the gates locked by staff in hi-vis vests.

They congregated outside, shouting and smashing glass. Twenty minutes later, the hi-vis staff let out a large dark car – perhaps a manager? – and its exit onto the road was blocked. Eventually a large police van and two police cars arrived and the dark car was able to get out, but one man was sat on its bonnet, preventing it from driving off further.

He was apprehended by the police and escorted into their van and the driver interviewed. Eventually, most of the people drifted away and the police left, but more than an hour later, at 11.14pm, there is still a small rowdy group at the gate, and I, as is well known, need my beauty sleep.

For the security of the Park and the Lido, it is important that this gate is locked at 10pm weekdays and 9pm weekends. One wants youth to have its fling, but this car park is not the ideal venue for a rave.”

And so assuming that @BrockwellLido can actually be operated by Fusion as a functioning, chlorine safe swimming environment, plus here’s hoping that the current security issues can be resolved by both Fusion and the police, then hopefully we will have our lido back.

Ah, not quite. There is the small matter of the Lido Cafe, which although I totally love and support, as well as offering a very high standard of food for diners, there is the sad feeling amongst the lido users that we are not part of this project.

The Cafe is not accessible for pool users during busy days. You have to physically leave the building, and then enter the separate Lido Cafe entrance. Meanwhile, non-lido users are given access to the best view in South London (pool, swimmers, sunbathers) yet the swimmers and sunbathers have sadly been excluded.

This once again goes against the entire lido ethos that was established during the Golden Days of Brockwell Lido. It doesn’t matter who you are or what your status is – everyone is equal and welcome all around the lido.

Following fifteen summers of swimming in SE24 I was optimistic that my final season was going to go out on a high. It’s still practically impossible to leave the place without a huge grin on your face, but slowly, slowly, the magic of Brockwell Lido seems to be disappearing.

*Tuesday 29th, 10:00 update*

The pool remians closed. The receptionist is telling users that “we are hopeful of being open sometime tomorrow [Wednesday.]”

Very, very poor, Fusion.

Meanwhile, the lido website seems to be explaining the whole situation in terms of a “technical problem,” rather than the police incident that closed the pool on Monday morning:

“A technical problem in the small hours of Monday morning has been cited the cause for closure. We have our pool engineers on site from Tuesday morning at 7am and we will do everything possible to ensure that the pool is back in operation.”

Which is all very strange, seeing as though the place was cordoned off by coppers on Monday morning. The reality is a combination of a break-in and the return on the ongoing chlroine situation. Both incidents are only related in terms of a corporate cock up from Fusion.

*Monday 28th, 19:00 update*

The pool has remained closed all day. The police completed their investigations, but sadly the lido was unable to re-open once again because of a “chemical imbalance.”

*sigh*

If it’s not the chlorine that is closing Brockwell Lido then it is the local idiots who fail to understand the concept of community. It was heartbreaking to cycle to SE24 for the daily dip on Monday morning, only to find a police cordon and a closed lido.

It seems that a break-in took place during the early hours, clearing out the lido reception of cash from the night before. Any form of communication to customers from Fusion has sadly been lacking in recent weeks. It took a bizarre head nodding / shaking game with an off-message lifeguard, to try and work out why our lido was closed for the fourth time this month.

“Is this another chlorine bodge job?”

Head shake.

“Has someone broken in?”

Head nod.

“Has there been a poolside injury?”

Head shake.

“Was theft involved?”

Nod, nod, nod.

It’s not the first time that this has happened – the exact same situation took place only a fortnight ago following another Scorchio South London weekend of al fresco swimming. I hope that lessons were learnt first time round from Fusion, and the takings from the weekend weren’t left overnight on the premises.

The ease of access to the lido during the early hours appears to be down to no formal security in place regarding the car park games. With the Park Rangers closing the park at sunset, a word of mouth agreement is in place with @lambeth_council, allowing Fusion staff to lock the Dulwich Road gate after the gym closes at 10pm.

This only works well if the Fusion staff actually remember to lock the gates, come closing time for the lido gym.

Whoops.

Recent nights have seen a build up in the car park during the early hours, which High Court Judges would no doubt describe as a “rave.” Young folk gather around their cars, play loud music which omits a high frequency of beats per minute and… dance.

The rotters.

But this also leaves the lido highly exposed to abuse. The ornate metallic lido sign long since went missing from the front of the building. Last summer saw the closure of the lido when the early lifeguard opened up, only to find some fool had lobbed glass bottles over the lido wall.

Many lido lovers have been annoyed in recent weeks over the increase in security for pool users. Bag searches are in place, an activity that goes totally against the laid back ethos of lido life. It’s a shame the same level of security isn’t in place to keep away genuine trouble makers from the lido.

With the head nod / shake game over, I mounted the Moulton and pondered yet another morning of misery down at Brixton Rec. Back in SW9 and the morning swim lived up to the low expectations I had placed upon it.

Timing my birthday suit moment to coincide with the weekly swim from the lovely kids in one of the schools I work in didn’t help my cause. The appearance of the legendary Nostril Man – the swimmer who empties the contents of his nose after each length in the same style as a Premier League footballer – only added to my indoor indisposition.

It has got to the stage now where the policy of pimping out public pools to two private contractors is actually starting to pay off for me. With a Fusion lido membership and a GLL Swim London membership for Brixton, at least I’ve got all bases covered when it comes to finding somewhere to swim in Lambeth each morning.

Meanwhile, the lovely lido continues the slow decline of trust between users and management. It is testing the levels of human patience to conjure up any feelings of contempt associated with such an amazing community facility. Fusion’s poor corporate management of the project is sadly pushing many lido lovers to feel frustration towards the future of the facility.

When is a free swim not a free swim? When the coalition government is used as an excuse by @LambethLabour not to continue with the local election pledge it made less than two months ago.

Ah yes – it’s a return to an old family favourite around these parts – that @LambethLabour election pledge of “free swimming for every resident.”

*sigh*

Almost two months after @LambethLabour was returned to power, has anyone actually managed a free swim at any of the borough swimming pools Brixton Rec yet?

Nope, me neither.

I appreciate that for pledges to become policy takes some time. What is not acceptable however is to make political capital out of a pledge, just because you don’t like what the ConDem coalition is doing up the road in Westminster.

We’ve seen this already in the Rotten Borough, with the mixed message being sent out regarding the school Academies debate (bad locally, but we’re still going to build one…) It now seems that swimming has become caught up in the political point scoring as well.

The axing of free swimming for under-16s and over-60s in the ConDem budget was a typical free market move. Pay to play etc, and sod the healthy benefits that are often needed by this demographic.

But the national ConDem swinging of the leisure axe has absolutely nothing to do with the local election pledge made by @LambethLabour less than two months ago.

Free swimming for every resident is free swimming for every resident. Simple. No ConDem opt-outs were made in the manifesto. The choice was clear for Lambeth residents – vote for @LambethLabour and free swimming will be rolled out.

Not so now it seems.

Already @LambethLabour councillors are starting to show signs of using the ConDem budget as the get out clause, rather than be held to account.

If manifesto pledges are dependent upon a higher power, then what’s the point in making them in the first place? You may as well live in fantasy Lambeth La La Land, promise the most ridiculous piece of local legislation, and then retract it whenever the electorate decides not to vote in your Westminster pals on a national level.

Keeping it local, and I’m still paying twice for my daily swim – once with Fusion for @BrockwellLido, and once again with Greenwich Leisure Limited for my Brixton Rec membership. Both pools are owned by @lambeth_council, but the pimping out model of public services means that residents get fleeced twice.

And so yeah, Councillor Bigham – free swimming for every resident? This blame game is starting to sound a little lame.

*Tuesday 22nd, 12:30 update*

Head down to the comments for the corporate response from Peter Kay, the Chief Executive of Fusion.

Original blog post…

You have to speak in *shhh* hushed tones whenever you talk about shut swimming pools around these parts. But yep – sad to say that @BrockwellLido was closed for the second consecutive morning early on Tuesday.

To not be able to offer swimming for the second consecutive morning during the height of the midsummer months is unfortunate; to repeat this act is not even careless – it’s a cock up of major proportions on behalf of Fusion.

The problem here is chlorine: too much chlorine. Fusion has been pumping the pool full of chemicals, to try and keep away the midges after the algae situation of last summer.

It’s a delicate balancing act – not enough chlorine and the algae ferments; too many chemicals and you run the risk of having to close the pool because swimmers’ skin starts to burn away.

Blimey.

And so having been told by Fusion management *not* to leave the chlorine pump on overnight, the last man standing lifeguard, um, left the chlorine pump on overnight on Monday.

Whoops.

The scenes at 7am outside Lake Brockwell were not pleasant. Swimmers are usually a serene bunch, happy to see in a midsummer morning with the tranquil activity of a dip in the great outdoors. Turn them away for the second morning running and the Speedo boys and girls tend to get a little agitated.

The lido community is more than the sum of a simple swim. We meet early morning to share friendships and conversation in what has to be the most delightful location in all of South London. It’s a way of life for the summer months, and one that doesn’t take too kindly to a corporate cock up one again from Fusion.

This is the third time this month that Fusion has forgotten how to run an outdoor pool. From memory, there wasn’t a single chlorine or algae related incident in the twelve years of the lido golden years under the fine management of Paddy and Casey.

Back in the day and the algae was attacked at source with the good old-fashioned method of a wetsuit, some breathing apparatus and a chisel. The result was the beautiful clear blue waters of Brockwell, something that has come to characterise all that is lovely about the lido.

It hasn’t helped that the Fusion site manager departed this summer, swiftly followed by the lido manager. A new team is in place, but with little knowledge in how to upkeep an outdoor pool.

And so for the second morning running, it was a return to my love / hate relationship with Brixton Rec. Sterile, suffocated, and yep, heavy on chlorine.

Yuk. No thanks.

A third morning of such inconvenience may not get the polite “pah” response from the lovely lido community of SE24.

Come on in – the water’s… um, cloudy.

This piece was first published on Londonist, and appears (slightly) dated.

Brockwell Lido has offered outdoor swimming to South Londoners for seventy three summers, although sadly not consecutive, with four years missed during the early 90′s as part of a Lambeth Council cost cutting exercise. I am proud to be entering my fifteenth season as a swimmer down in SE24, and one that for personal reasons, sadly may also be my last.

The 1937 Grade II listed pool provides locals with a 50 yard unheated (hurrah!) stretch in which to swim, as well as a state of the art modern gym, housed away in a refurbishment that was completed three summers ago.

The awarding of a twenty-five year lease from Lambeth Council to Fusion, has been the savior of Brockwell Lido. The gym makes money all year round, enabling al fresco swimmers to enjoy lido life for the six months of the year when South London hits a heat wave.

Ah, yes – about that current South London heatwave…

The Happiest Day of the Year in South London was the morning after the general election. If the election results weren’t enough to give you a kick up the backside, then the tepid twelve degrees temperature on the first morning of the pool being open made diving in a personal political act.

The anticipation of meeting up once again with the lovely lido community is the inspiration to drag your aching body down to Brockwell Park at 6:30 in the morning. It almost made the months of misery spent bemoaning Brixton Rec seem bearable.

As ever, you’ve done the hard part by being in the park. Once you are poolside, then you are going to swim. With a wetsuit hugging my toned torso (steady) what could go wrong?

A great leap of faith into the deep end, and I had forgotten how the Happiest Day of the Year also leads to your head exploding, should you make the silly mistake of forgetting your bright pink swimming cap.

Bugger.

Halfway down the first length and I panicked. The arms and legs were functioning, but the head had long since lost circulation. I started to see things on the other side of the pool that all rational thought tells you simply don’t exist.

That wasn’t *really* a naked female swimmer, was it?

I persevered, and after five minutes of a frantic freestyle motion, my conscious existence soon returned to my well being. I looked above as a flock of geese passed overhead, observing my every motion, and I then broke out into a great big underwater smile that will probably remain all the way until the season closer come October.

A return to the heated changing rooms was a welcome respite. The continual blasting out of Radio Twaddle on the internal sound system is something that I, and other early morning swimmers, could well do without.

But a minor gripe in what has signaled the start of six months of early morning swimming and grinning down at the lovely lido. By the time I had showered and put back in place my three layers of clothing, I was just about able to walk in a straight line once again.

These will gradually be shed, one by one, over the coming weeks, along with the wetsuit as I acclimatise back into the routine of daily lido life.

The lovely Lido Cafe was open for the Breakfast Club, and the public art project from local artists Gethin and Myles, was proudly on display in the basin of the pool for those brave enough to take a dip. Memories of lido life from local users have been lovingly painted around the perimeter of the pool, as a statement of some form of private underwater reading club.

Expect the pool temperature to rise to around twenty degrees come mid-June, peaking at a positively Mediterranean twenty-five degrees by July. Best keep the wetsuit ready from here onwards…

A lido swim doesn’t come cheap at £5.20 per adult. This is a figure calculated more in line with the traditional lido ethos of having a swim, and then arseing about poolside for the rest of the day. Season tickets at £150 represent far better value for money.

The lido community is set to truly take off this season, finally having a functioning lido cafe upon which events can be arranged. Brothers Daniel and Duncan not only provide poolside refreshments, but also high class cuisine and an entertainment schedule during the evenings.

So yeah, fifteen years of putting the lengths in at the lido, and fifteen summers ‘wasted’ by sitting around the poolside doing bugger all.

Golden Days I tell you, Golden Days.