Charlton lido’s heated pool will re-open with an Open Weekend, featuring free swimming and a barbecue on the weekend of March 8 and 9. Open Weekend swimming times are 9-5pm, with the barbecue running 12-5pm on the Saturday. The pool will then open during the remaining weekends in March, with ‘full’ opening starting in April.
The pool closed in early November 2013, with GLL citing a lack of members making year-round opening uneconomical. In the meantime the refurbishment of the wider premises – including a new gym, studio and indoor changing rooms has been completed, with the gym opening at the start of this month.
The Charlton Champion 
Could not be more excited!
And the non Royal Greenwich lido leisure club is pretty good now and will be even more brilliant in the Summer
Fingers crossed for a sunny day.
I have also heard through the grapevine they are looking to start their swimming lessons end of april… Very exciting news for me and my children
They’ve got a lovely day for it.
Next week I mean. Obviously. Oops.
Hooray. Excellent news, I can’t wait.
I’d be interested to know where readers have seen the open weekend advertised. So far it doesn’t seem to have been mentioned in Greenwich Time, or on GLL or Royal Greenwich’s Twitter feeds (though the latter has, of course, tweeted many times about the Tall Ships event…). It’s to be hoped that they’re doing something more than emailing previous members in order to attract new users.
I just phoned up Charlton Lido and it seems that they’ve ( despite promises not to) increased their prices from £4 with a Greenwich Card to £5 with a Greenwich Card. I don’t think that’s fair after their reassurances that they wouldn’t increase the price. Anyone want to join me in making a bit of a fuss?
Do we know if the training pool will be open on the weekend or just the main pool?
This just says ‘main pool’, but it might be worth giving them a ring: http://www.better.org.uk/leisure/charlton-lido/news/2036
Thank you!
Neil – I saw the Lido free weekend ad on their website when I checked to see when the pool might open. I also received an email from them.
There appears to be a bit of working at cross purposes with the Lido (more like a private club) and the other, Council owned Leisure centres. There is no advertising in either the Arches or Eltham for the Lido or its open weekend, let alone in Greenwich Time aka the voice of Council.
I’m becoming slightly concerned that Better will decide to exclude their Swim membership (or make it a top up) from the Lido, as they’ve excluded the Stratford Aquatics centre. That would be a very self defeating move, so I hope not!
Can you shed any light on the tennis court situation in Hornfair Park? Last year they were free, Olympic legacy refurbished, Council courts with weekend coaching courses. The Lido club is advertising inclusive use of them as part of membership, but are apparently still talking to Council, so it’s all as clear as mud. Hope for some answers this weekend.
Let’s hope they’re proved right. It seems optimistic, though, to rely on members’ word-of-mouth when they closed for winter citing a lack of members.
Swam this afternoon with my 7 year old. The training pool wasn’t open but we has fun in the main pool and it was a nice temperature as long as you kept moving. I imagine it would have been perfect for lane swimming. I will be back!
It was wonderful to be back in the Lido pool again, in the bright sunshine. 50m feels longer than 2 x 25m! Seemed to be well attended too, helped by the great weather. Nothing beats open air (heated!) swimming. Much gentler on the skin too than the over chlorinated leisure centre/gym indoor pools. Hopefully it will be open every day quite soon, and stay open.