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Many of the stories on these pages featured in an award-winning TV series called Disappearing London, presented by Suggs from Madness.
Series 2 of Disappearing London starts on ITV London at 7.30 pm on Tuesday 9 January 2007, and runs for 6 weeks (9, 16, 23 30 Jan, 6, 13 Feb).
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Tooting Bec Lido
London's secret oasis brings a little piece of the seaside to the city.
Lidos are wonderful, exotic oases; like little bits of the seaside in the middle of the city. Swimming outdoors can be an exhilarating experience, especially in the full knowledge that the hustle and bustle of London is just over the Lido wall. In the first half of the 20th century lidos made a big splash across Britain. And nowhere was the craze for open-air bathing bigger than in London. In fact, there were a staggering 60 lidos and open-air swimming pools in the capital alone. But times change and today only 8 of them survive - including a magnificent one in Tooting. Janet Smith regularly takes the plunge here. She's an expert on the history of places like this. Janet observes:
"It's one of the those places where you can't believe you're still in London because you've got all the trees surrounding it so you feel as though you're in the countryside. You've got this lovely expanse of blue water and multi-coloured seaside cubicle doors and it is an oasis, it"s a great place of escape from all the stresses of London life and everything else just stops when you're here."
By the 1930’s, outdoor swimming was big business and lidos were being built all over the capital.
During the 1920s and 30s there was a growing obsession with sunshine and the outdoor life and there was a national fitness campaign to get the whole of Britain fit and healthy. In those days, people were not going abroad on holidays in the way we do today. The lido was a summer holiday resort for Londoners and the cheap package holiday led to the demise of many of London's lidos.
Much of the credit for Tooting Lido's survival must go to the South London Swimming Club, a group of dedicated swimmers who are prepared to brave the freezing temperatures even in the cold winter months. One Tooting lido regular Sarah Hamer recently completed her first channel swim.
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