onionbagblog

Inspired by the brilliant Robson Green Wild Swimming Adventure on ITV1 (blimey) this week? Feel ready for the Brockwell Icicles initiation ceremony? Fancy some ice skating instead?

Yep – that time of year again.

Come on in, the water’s…

Lido Life Begins at… 80

Giggsy? Murray? Strauss? Nah. Highlight of Sports Personality, 2009, will be a lido loving pensioner lifting the Unsung Heroes award. Step doggy paddle forward 86 year-old Doreen Fitch, aka Mrs Tooting Lido. Doreen has been involved with the South London Swimming Club since the 1940′s, and has led two successful campaigns to keep the SW12 outdoor pool open. It’s the blueprint that has helped Brockwell Lido Users to become so influential. Oh how we could do with the passion and campaigning skills of Doreen, down in the Rotten Borough, right now.

Hyper Hyper Local Level

This is rather lovely. From the charming couple that brought you Stockwell Stories (I’m simply the shop front,) Bill and Jayne from around this manor have started blogging – and with real purpose as well. The couple are remarkable campaigners for local housing rights. Bill is currently the Chair of the Grantham Road Residents Association, holding Hyde Southbank Homes to account over recent lease hikes. A real purpose for the hyper local model.

And finally…

The South London / blogging / cycling / lido loving / @lambeth_council disliking xmas tweeup will be on… well, you decide. Dates between 20th – 23rd have been suggested. @Jason_Cobb for further dialogue.

It all started with a throwaway remark to @LloydDavis last Friday at The ICA cafe:

“Why don’t you take Tuttle South of the river to @BrockwellLido?”

It was said in jest, and with some amount of smug, self-interest. But as Tuttle continues to find a new permanent home, there is some justification for staging a weekly geeky meet up South of the river at everyone’s favourite cafe by the water.

I’m in no way suggesting that Tuttle should set up shop permanently by the waters of Lake Brockwell. The group is far too big for both the space, and the location. Any central Tuttle gathering needs to remain just that. Slipping out of the office for a cappuccino at the ICA on a Friday can be excused; trekking down to deepest South London and aresing about by the lido, probably wouldn’t go down too well with the boss.

But I do think that South London could support a weekly social media offline discussion. Transition Town Brixton has used the online tools to help roll out the Brixton £; the mighty Urban75 and its ever growing community is based South of the river, as are some of the best bloggers in the capital.

All of this is just thinking out aloud. Tuttle seems to just happen, but I appreciate that @LloydDavis has more or less it made it a full time going concern. Preparation behind the scenes is immense to facilitate the weekly conversation.

But if enough people are thinking along similar lines to me, then maybe we should make a move?

A few obvious questions need to be answered before Brockwell Lido Tuttle comes into being:

Would we be welcome? Um – best ask @theLidoCafe.

When should Lido Tuttle take place? Weekly? Monthly?

Would the @theLidoCafe WIFI support the demand? Haven’t pushed it to full capacity yet.

Would there be sufficient interest South of the river? Seek and you shall find. You can only criticise someone who has actually tried something.

Would the South London public transport network support the venue? Probably not. The Lido is a pain to get to via public transport. We’d be looking at walking or cycling, which would definitely limit the reach of the Tuttle crowd.

I think I’ll wait and see what direction, both geographically, and in terms of group dynamics, that the Tuttle crowd decides upon over the next week or so. I’m personally in favour of a North / South / East / West gathering, either in rotation, or as stand-alone sessions. A coming together of the clan, once a month, would also help this to work.

The South will rise – and drink coffee, and talk about online and offline networking, and enjoy the view form the lovely lido cafe – again…

Halloween, and a young man’s thoughts turn towards the witching hour down at Herne Hill. Events conspired for the fragrant mrs onionbagblogger and I to head south bound to SE24, for an afternoon and evening of freakish fun, in what can often be the forgotten corner of South London.

First up was the inaugural Herne Hill Expo [pdf] The rather fanciful name may be out of character for an area not usually known for its self-promotion. The geographical positioning of being trapped between the borders of Lambeth and Southwark makes Herne Hill something of an ostracised hermit within the local area.

Improving the local environment and putting in place tangible benefits for the community, is often at the whim of the rival political parties that divide and govern Herne Hill. It may not be quite an iron fist, but Lambeth Labour and the LibDems of Southwark don’t make for the best of bedfellows. Caught in the middle of course are the constituents.

The idea behind the Expo is to make a start at transforming this image. At its most crude level, the afternoon was seen as an opportunity for service providers (@lambeth_council) to engage with the electorate on a non-political platform. Good intentions, but how do you entice the locals out into the street for an afternoon of meet ‘n greet with some local politicians?

A visible campaign has built up around Herne Hill over recent weeks, spreading the message of The Expo. At the centre of this message has been the transformation of the Herne Hill tunnel from a dimly lit p*** alley at the side of the railway station, to become a public work of art that stimulates debate and awareness.

A couple of local artists have created a wordscape design, running from one end of the tunnel to the other. This has served as a stimulus for the main event on Saturday afternoon, the Herne Hill Hunt.

Organisers of The Expo identified early on that an activity had to be in place in order to get people to come out and participate. With much of Herne Hill being hidden, the treasure hunt was the perfect vehicle for letting people know that there’s much more to the area than being a political boundary borough.

My Treasure Hunting companion and I approached our Herne Hill afternoon rather late in the day, with the skies already beginning to bruise over SE24. The magnificent sight of a young couple cycling on a tandem, decked out in tweed and with a trail of tin cans and a Just Married sign on their back, convinced us that yep, there is much more to Herne Hill than simply traffic congestion.

We kept with the two wheels theme, and with the aid of an iPhone and a little help from following a young mother and child around on a bike, more or less managed to keep on course with the various checkpoints.

Our lack of Herne Hill knowledge was no hindrance – this was the whole point of the Hunt, to try and learn something new about the area. The clues were clever (‘look for a noble emporium‘ – Noble’s newsagents of course,) and in the time frame of just over an hour, we had traversed the triangle taking in Denmark Hill, Herne Hill and Half Moon Lane.

A brief stop off back at Expo HQ to hand in the forms, and then we headed across the Dulwich Road to the lovely @thelidocafe. Much like the Herne Hill Hunt, our timing wasn’t great. Too late for lunch, an hour or so early for the Halloween menu [pdf] put together by chef.

No worries, the Lido Cafe are an accommodating crowd; a delightful chorizo sausage served with fries, plus buttermilk squash ravioli for the lady, all washed down with some red wine and we were ready for stage three of the Herne Hill Halloween experience.

I was tempted to see if I could sneak out around the back the lido cafe for a cheeky, moonlit Halloween dip. But that would just be irresponsible, not to mention bloody freezing.

The final leg of the Herne Hill Halloween experience was le velo for the Muddy Hell cyclocross event. Cycling past Herne Hill station, and en route we noticed that The Expo party was in full swing. Well, it would be rude not to offer some support, wouldn’t it?

A salsa band was brightening up a rather damp evening in a corner of South London, pulling in a sizable crowd as well. The ingenious Indian Eye restaurant opposite was staging a projection of local images in the window. The lovely @mayoroflambeth was doing his civic thing, and local businesses had very kindly donated ample food servings and a steady supply of mulled wine. We stayed at the station for possibly slightly longer than was polite, enjoying the company, and the generous rounds of mulled wine.

And then finally, finally, sometime slightly before 7pm and we were velo bound. Cycling along Burbage Road and the shock was of all the Halloween activity. Things get slightly scary back at the SW8 base, but Sunny Stockwell this most certainly wasn’t. It seemed that every other house was decked out in Halloween decorations. The level of dedication was easily on par with the more traditional Christmas celebrations.

We dodged some trick or treaters, and then rolled up for Muddy Hell, the Halloween cylocross event at le velo, proudly staged by VCL and Rollapalooza.

Much like Herne Hill and South London earlier in the afternoon, cyclocross is often the Cinderella of cycling in SE24. Track riding rules, and rightfully so. But VCL also boasts a thriving junior cyclocross club.

There was a series of racers for juniors, women, men and vets. I think I fall somewhere in the sub-vet section, and so wisely left my set of wheels firmly locked up in the VCL club lock up.

Racing under lights added to the atmosphere. Most riders had made the effort with a Halloween meets lycra style of racing kit. This was matched with the crossover of messenger meets serious sportive competitors. Adding to the ambience was a DJ and a roller racing set up. If it hadn’t been for that fourth (or was it fifth?) mulled wine outside Herne Hill station, I would have been tempted to have a spin on the rollers myself.

The cyclocross course itself was something of a killer. Circumnavigating the perimeter of the track, and then crossing into the centre and with a huge ten-foot drop at one stage, I don’t think it was designed for my track bike. A bunny-hopping VCL rider played to the crowd, delighting the beer tent boys as he jumped over the hurdle after every lap.

The coming together of VCL and Rollapolooza shows what can be achieved from two quite diverse groups. The common theme is of course cycling – how each organisation goes about getting there are quite different. Herne Hill simply provided the perfect setting for a meeting of the clans.

And so some eight hours after setting off for the forgotten terrains of Herne Hill, we arrived back in Sunny Stockwell after an afternoon and evening of treasure hunting, poolside dining and floodlit cyclocross. I’ll have to remember not to forget about Hill Herne more often.

Chapeau!

Brilliant news! Lambeth REAL Plus cardholders can now gain entry to Brockwell Lido!

Blimey.

At least that’s what it said on p.74 on the recently published A Really Useful Guide to Services by @lambeth_council:

“In Lambeth there are four leisure centres, a community sports centre, and the Brockwell Lido. All accept the Lambeth REAL Plus card, giving generous discounts at all times.”

It’s complete twaddle of course. You need to take out membership with GLL for indoor swimming, and then a second separate membership with Fusion for the lido.

The infrastructure and freehold may be owned by @lambeth_council, but you have to pay twice for the public service. Plus please overlook the fact that the Lambeth REAL Plus card even uses the image of the lido as the main picture. You won’t gain entry flashing your REAL Plus card around the lido reception.

Having a unified membership scheme, allowing users to access the Lambeth GLL managed indoor pools and the Fusion managed lido, has been an issue that I have campaigned for since Lambeth Council first decided to pimp out leisure facilities to two different contractors.

It’s a question that I tire of asking at GLL user forums (next one 19th November, Clap’ham Leisure Centre) and at the BLU AGM. It seems that the poor Council leisure flunkey tires of answering the question, more than I tire of asking it. So I shall continue to ask it.

Initially I was told it was a “turnstile issue.” The swipe card used by the two separate leisure operators wasn’t compatible.

Ah, I see.

Upon my second time of asking, I was given the reply that the lido comes under Parks management, and not leisure.

Righty ho…

And then finally, at the BLU AGM earlier this month, the Council leisure flunkey confirmed that @lambeth_council couldn’t afford to operate a unified membership scheme; money is coming in from both GLL and Fusion – why pass on the benefits to the Council Tax payers?

That’s what happens when you decide to pimp out a public service to two rival organisations. The profit remains in house (although to be fair, Fusion are rather lovely) and the Council is freed from the day-to-day management of what can be a problematic service to provide.

Am I being victimised? Ha! Not really. The oldies are being ripped off by @lambeth_council as well. Free swimming for the over 60′s in Lambeth pools triumphs the Council’s website. That’s all pools apart from the lido.

I’m tempted to take along p.74 of the recently published A Really Useful Guide to Services by @lambeth_council to the final, final lido swim of the season on Saturday morning and make an arse of myself. But then it’s @lambeth_council that has got the problem (and the profits,) not me. Plus I’ll say it again – Fusion are really rather lovely.

Meanwhile GLL are trying. There’s the Swim London initiative, a scheme that for the same £26 monthly fee I pay to swim in Lambeth indoor pools, I can buy into a membership package that lets me swim in all GLL managed pools across London.

Wonderful! Where do I sign up? And, ah… lookey here. GLL also manage the lovely London Fields Lido up at Hackney. So now we have the truly absurd situation where if I take out membership to swim indoors at Lambeth owned pools, I’m excluded from swimming outdoors at the Lambeth owned lido, but I can swim outdoors at a lido owned by Hackney Council.

Bonkers. I need to take a cold shower. There are plenty of those at Clap’ham right now.

I have been wanting to catch up with Peter Bradley for sometime now. Peter is the author behind the brilliant Out of the Blue – a Celebration of Brockwell Lido. The book is essentially a social history project, published in 2007 to celebrate seventy years of outdoor swimming down in SE24.

We agreed in principle to record a podcast back at the start of May, when the lido opened for its first chilly dip of the new season. Work constraints, out of sync swimming routines and just general loving of lido life throughout the summer, have all conspired against our social history recording.

It was with some celebration then that I managed a chat with Peter over a coffee at the Brockwell Lido Users AGM on Saturday. The plan was initially for a five-minute audioboo podcast – thankfully I had the foresight to see that Peter was worthy of so much more.

And so in-between showing a group of architecture students around the splendours of the old building and other general BLU business, I managed to pin Peter down for a lengthy chat in our wonderful new cafe by the water.

All pre-pod preparation was disregarded. Peter is a lido lover, a social historian and a friend. We simply sat down for a chat, and took it from there.

What follows is a potted social history of outdoor swimming in SE24, covering the early days of the original Lake Brockwell, all the way through until the current Fusion years. Within this time frame we consider the construction of the lido some seventy years ago, the rise, fall and neglect of the pool by Lambeth Council, the squatting years and the golden days of Paddy and Casey.

I had wanted to talk to Peter about his more personal, subjective experiences of lido life. No worries – that can wait for a podcast part II project next summer.

Many thanks to Peter for being so generous with his time. If this recording leads you to wanting to know about the social history of Brockwell Lido, then I highly recommend purchasing a copy of of Out of the Blue.

And so that was the lovely lido season for another year. Ah, you say that…

*shhh* we’ve got another couple of weeks to sneak in before the shutters are finally, finally closed poolside in SE24.

It was therefore somewhat strange to be meeting up with the good folk of Brockwell Lido Users (BLU) for our annual AGM on Saturday morning, with the waters of Lake Brockwell still glistening and tempting us in for another fortnight of early morning tepid swims. Careful for what you wish for, and all that.

The BLU AGM is traditionally a reflective meeting, and one of some sadness, with the prospect of no more outdoor swimming planned for another eight months or so. Not so on Saturday morning in the packed splendid surrounds of our newly refurbished cafe by the water.

“I’m proud to announce we have decided to keep the lido open for a further two weeks,” declared Paul Maier, pool manager for Fusion. In terms of winning over an audience, the declaration of intent led to the first spontaneous applause for the morning. That’s the healing power of free cappuccinos and croissants. The cold reality of 7am on Monday morning might not be so welcoming.

I love these BLU AGM events. I tick off my tally of attendance in the same way I used to keep a count of how many girls I had snogged at school. That’s school as is *my* schooldays, and not the day job. Phew.

There’s a sense of the lido community coming together for one final time of the season. Work schedules and lie-ins often mean that you know all the lido regulars, but rarely get to see each other in the same room at the same time – fully clothed as well. Blimey.

Chairperson Melanie Marther opened the AGM by reminding members of the issues raised last year: a disappointing cafe, small changing rooms, talk of a Triathlon club and the need for pool railings. Testament to the power of BLU as a lobbying group, plus the willingness of leaseholders Fusion to actually listen to the users – all of the items on the agenda twelve months ago have now been actioned.

Fusion Finance Director Ivan Parkinson addressed the floor first:

“2009 has been a very good year. Increased usage and structural improvement had led to the lido being the most successful site for Fusion. Pool improvement will continue, with no price increase for next season.”

Ah, the lido prices. This has been a point of concern for some. I think my £150 season ticket represents superb value for money. It also serves as an incentive to dive into the waters of Lake Brockwell each morning. I’m not sure I would feel the same if I was paying £5.25 for a single swim.

Maier then explained the finer details on the 2009 season:

“The twenty-six week season of swimming is the longest the lido has been open in the modern era. In total, 44,333 swims took place – a figure up 11,000 on the 2008 season. This has been the busiest summer for Fusion, with on average, 283 swims a day. 30th June saw 2,313 swimmers. The average water temperature from May to October was 21.2 degrees.”

That’s a hell of a lot of lido lovers, and a figure that Fusion and BLU should both be equally proud of. Lidos can be the most amazing environment during the heat wave days, such as 30th June; the flipside is that they can be thoroughly miserable during dour weather.

Maier then outlined the notorious algae situation, which led to the lido being closed for forty-eight hours at the start of September:

“We increased the chlorine, but not enough to suppress the seasonal increase in trout fly. The seasonal conditions of a cool August, followed by a bright early autumn, were perfect for an increase in fly activity. Next season we are experimenting with a chlorine free solution.”

With water temperatures currently at 14 degrees, its no surprise that we haven’t seen too many of those pesky trout flies around in recent weeks.

About those the pool temperature: we swim outdoors because we want to. It’s a natural experience, and one that invigorates your limbs in a way that the sterile, sweaty and soulless surrounds of Brixton or Clap’ham can’t compete with. Maier confirmed that the possibility of heating the lido all year round has been explored:

“The solar power option used by the newly opened Bristol lido would cost a pool our size £180,000 per year. No company is prepared to give a guarantee of pool temperatures for this outlay. A heated pool is still a possibility, but not at the standard indoor temperature of 28 degrees. Our swimmers appreciate 18 – 21 degrees.”

Fusion site manager Jeremy Lake then explained the importance of the lido as a recognised local facility for swimming, rather than just sitting around poolside:

“The lido is now a swimming destination and not just a hot weather location. We need to treat extended swimming into the season as an evolution. School swimming is important for promoting the lido as a community facility.”

The ‘evolution of swimming’ is well underway. There is a momentum in place now that is difficult to ignore. We went to the end of September in 2008, and a month later still for 2010. Plans were hatched for a Brockwell Lido Swimming Club during the AGM, using the Tooting based South London Swimming Club as a model for all year round swimming.

Next to address the AGM was Caroline Burhard from Whippersnappers, a children’s organisation that was established at the lido back in 1994. As ever, this was an inspiring, breathless speech. Whippersnappers are good, good people. They are achieving some truly brilliant results here on the ground in South London, continually punching above their weight and leading the way for young people in the area. They deserve your support. Long may Whippersnappers be an active presence at the lido.

The many splendid activities organised at the lido over the past twelve months were then outlined by Gethan Dick, the Heritage Education Co-ordinator at Brockwell.

“What has been really pleasing has been to witness how initial events that we set up over the past three years have now become established. Users are expecting these to happen, and they have become calendar events. The midwinter swim attracted 400 brave souls on the Saturday before Christmas, with all money raised donated to Age Concern. This event is confirmed for the 19th of December 2009.

The Modern Movement Art Deco Fair is a great season starter, with 2,500 visitors over the May Bank Holiday. We doubled out schools programme this season, with 1,600 South London children getting the opportunity to swim at the lido. The artist in residence project has functioned as a fantastic public art project once again.

The Rider event, linking Brockwell up with our friends at Parliament Hill lido was well supported. We plan to include Charlton Lido next year, encouraging bicyclists to make the journey between all three venues on the same day, and compare their experiences. It is good for the lido community to learn from one another.”

A quick pause for coffee, and that was most of the main business of the BLU AGM over with. It got slightly surreal with a form passed to me for completion, asking:

What are your memories of water?

Um, wetting myself for the first time?

Feedback sessions followed. The main points from the floor seemed to be a desire for all-year round swimming, earlier weekend opening (currently 10am) and also a request for nude swimming sessions. Count me in.

And then all that was left was for the traditional BLU AGM question from the lone lido nutter sitting in the corner, asking the Man from Lambeth Council:

“What progress has been made in the past twelve months to introduce a Lambeth wide swimming scheme? I don’t see why I have to pay GLL to swim in Lambeth owned pools, and then take out a second membership scheme with Fusion to swim in another pool owned by Lambeth.”

With apologies to my fellow BLU members, but it is a question I will continue to ask each year until (i) I get an answer, (ii) the uniform membership is rolled out or (iii) I bugger off to Wivenhoe in search of nude swimming sessions at the nearby Brightlingsea Lido. I think you know what the most likely scenario will be.

The Man from Lambeth Council replied by repeating the same answer he gave me back in the spring at the Clap’ham Users Forum: the recession has meant that we are short on money and can’t subsidise.

Aren’t we all, Bruv. Still at least it was an alternative from previous years when a “compatible turnstile system for different sites is still being looked into,” was offered as a response one year, and “the pool is part of the park services, and not leisure,” at another AGM. I love creativity within my Council employees.

Same place, same time, same question next year.