Charlton Lido

Charlton Lido: summer swimming season starts soon

Neil Clasper


Good news for swimmers: Charlton Lido’s summer season starts on Tuesday 31st of May, with extended opening hours for the pool.

The new timetable will be:

Monday: 6.30am-8pm

Tuesday – Friday: 7am-8pm

Weekends: 9am-5pm

The main changes from the current timetable are an earlier start on Mondays, and all-day opening on Thursdays and Fridays. This timetable will run to September when it will be ‘reviewed’.

The cafe (closed for refurbishment since October last year) is due to re-open next Tuesday, and will be open 9-5pm through the week. We assume this also means that the sun terraces will re-open.

Finally, there’s a Customer Forum for members taking place this Thursday evening (May 26th). We’ve heard of members who’ve not received the email that was sent out last week and – as with other events at the lido – there’s been no mention of it on Better’s website. It may be too later to register, but if you’re a member and want to apply (or get on the list for future customer meetings) we suggest dropping a line to charltonlido [@] gll.org.

 

Five interesting things happening at Charlton Lido soon

Neil Clasper2 Comments


It’s not always straightforward to find out what’s going on at Charlton Lido. The website’s updated sporadically and not particularly easy to navigate, and they’re still not in the habit of emailing updates to members. We’ve been digging, though, and found 5 Interesting Things Happening At Charlton Lido In The Coming Weeks:

  1. May Bank Holiday opening times: “…Charlton Lido & Lifestyle Club will be open 9-5pm on Monday 2nd & Monday 30th May.  All Fitness classes between 9-5pm will take place as normal and the Lido will be available 9-4pm”.
  2. The cafe – closed back in October last year for refurbishment – is now due to reopen in May.
  3. There’s a weekly drop-in swim clinic on Monday nights between 7 and 8pm, with tuition included in the price of a swim.
  4. Greenwich Tritons are organising a Clash of the Tritons event taking place at the lido and Hornfair Park on June 5th. You can follow Greenwich Tritons on Twitter here: @greenwichtriton.
  5. Adults can get a free swimming lesson on June 25th, sponsored by Speedo. Sign up here.

Charlton Lido has a 50m heated outdoor pool, and can be found at Hornfair Park, Shooters Hill Road, London SE18 4LX.

‘Snowflake Swim’ for Demelza at Charlton Lido

Neil Clasper

Charlton Lido hosts a charity ‘Snowflake Swim’ swim for Demelza Hospice Care for Children on Sunday 31st January, from 2pm. Maybe you’ve been inspired to give the lido a try by the new Land Rover advert, or you’re a regular who wants to raise some money from your weekend swim for a local charity – you can sign up online here. Good luck to all who take part!

Nightswimming: late opening at Charlton Lido

Neil Clasper2 Comments


The clocks have gone back and the evenings are drawing in, but there is one local benefit to the dark early evenings: swimming under the moon and stars at Charlton Lido.

Autumn opening hours have been amended following feedback at the lido’s user group meeting, and the pool is now open late on Tuesdays and Wednesdays.

Pool opening hours:

Monday: 7am-12pm

Tuesday: 7am-12pm & 2pm-8pm

Wednesday: 7am-12pm & 2pm-8pm

Thursday: 7am-12pm

Friday: 7am-12pm

Saturday & Sunday: 9am-3pm

This writer can’t recommend it highly enough: to swim outdoors in the dark in a heated pool is a luxury on our doorstep. It needs support, though: use it or lose it! We urge you to give it a try.

In other lido news, the cafe is currently closed until the New Year while it undergoes ‘a rebranding’ – fingers crossed it’s a little more insipiring than the previous version when it reopens. More on this when we have it.

Charlton Lido’s spring 2015 opening hours revealed

Darryl Chamberlain2 Comments
© Neil Clasper
Charlton Lido. Photo © Neil Clasper

The sun’s out (sort of), it’s getting warmer (sort of), so what could be better than a dip in a nice heated open-air pool?

Thanks to Vicki Butler at Charlton Lido for getting in touch with the spring opening hours, which begin from 30 March, and the customer forum (on 10 March):

I thought you and your readers may like to know that the Charlton Lido & Lifestyle Club pool programme for the Spring has been published and it has some extended sessions.

You can pick up the timetable from reception on your next visit. The Spring timetable will commence on Monday 30th March (the start of the school Easter holidays).

In short, it is :
Monday 7am-2pm
Tuesday closed
Wednesday 2-8pm
Thursday 2-8pm
Friday 7am-2pm
Weekends 9am-5pm.

An email to members has also been sent this afternoon regarding the next customer forum, if you want to receive the email and have not, please notify reception who can add you to the database.

The team look forward to seeing you and your followers at the Club soon.

Current winter times are 7am-2pm Mondays and Fridays, 2pm-8pm on Wednesdays, 5pm to 8pm on Thursdays and 9am-2pm on weekends. You can also check the (unofficial) Twitter feed or the Charlton Lido website for more details.

Charlton Lido: Good news for winter swimmers

Neil Clasper3 Comments

Moonlit swim at Charlton Lido

Charlton Lido & Lifestyle Club has announced pool opening hours for November through to February, and it’s good news for swimmers as the heated outdoor pool will remain open five days a week through the winter months. This will be the first winter’s swimming since the refurbished pool opened in 2012.

The pool opening hours from 1st November are as follows:

Monday – 7.00am – 2.00pm
Tuesday – Closed
Wednesday – 2.00pm – 8.00pm
Thursday – Closed
Friday – 7.00am – 2.00pm
Saturday – 9.00am – 2.00pm
Sunday – 9.00am – 2.00pm

As ever, we advise checking the official website for opening hours if you’re planning a swim.

Charlton Lido latest: customer forum, survey, Halloween swimming, and Twitter

Neil Clasper1 Comment

Charlton Lido

Some quick Charlton Lido updates:

Customer Forum and Members’ Survey

The lido’s first customer forum event saw 20+ members gathered to meet management and staff from the centre. You can read their write up here. One of the main themes that emerged (that’s rather downplayed in the write-up) is the lack of communication from the lido to members: a show of hands suggested that only two of the attendees had received an email from GLL this year. Clearly this isn’t helping engagement and visitor numbers.

GLL have advised that members who want to receive emails should contact the lido reception to ensure that they’re set up correctly on their system. If you’re a member, you should have received a customer survey by email earlier this month – if you’ve not, contact the lido. The next customer forum is to be scheduled before the end of this year (possibly because they’ll want to break the news of further reductions in pool opening hours); disappointingly they want to limit attendance to 15 members maximum.

Halloween

There will be a Halloween-themed late swimming event on October 31st – hopefully the first of many regular themed events mooted at the Customer Forum.

Twitter

We’ve wondered for a while why Charlton Lido doesn’t have its own Twitter feed, but learned this week that individual Better centres “aren’t allowed” their own Twitter feeds (rather surprising for any business in 2014, we think, never mind one that’s trying to attract new members…).

It seems, though, that some enterprising soul has started an unofficial feed. Given recent criticisms of the Lido’s communications, it’s tempting to think that anything must be an improvement on the way things have been done since it reopened. You can follow them here: https://twitter.com/charltonlido/. Let’s hope that GLL see sense and start an official feed soon.