Cold-water swimming is having a moment, but not everyone fancies an icy shock. Across Britain, a batch of heated outdoor pools stays open through winter, so you can swim under grey skies in water that won't take your breath away — for the price of a couple of coffees.
The most dramatic setting is Portavadie on Loch Fyne in Argyll, Scotland, where what's thought to be the country's biggest heated outdoor infinity pool overlooks the water towards the Isle of Arran. A 90-minute swim with sauna and hot tub costs £14, and the whole leisure complex runs on a woodchip biomass generator. Further south, Beccles Lido in Suffolk — descended from an 1894 bathing place dug into the River Waveney — is heating its three pools to 28C in winter for the first time this year, from now until at least 3 January, possibly to March. Adults pay from £7.40.
In the Peak District, Hathersage's 30-metre pool just turned 90 and swapped its old coke boiler for renewable heating; the water now sits around 27C and night swims with live music are a fixture. Entry is £8. Chesham Moor in Buckinghamshire, a spring-fed 25-metre pool upgraded in 2023 with a NASA-designed ionisation system that keeps chlorine levels low, stays at roughly 27C year-round for £7.
Brighton's Sea Lanes, a 50-metre beachfront pool opened in 2023, keeps things cooler at a minimum of 19C and offers coaching from beginner to triathlete level — with three places to eat afterwards on site. Just down the coast, the 1938 modernist Saltdean Lido opens only in December this winter, heated to 19C. In London, Hampton Pool beside Bushy Park runs all 365 days a year at a tropical 28C (£, plus a learner pool and moonlight swims), and the city has plenty of alternatives: London Fields, Charlton and Park Road lidos are all 50 metres, while Oasis in central London adds a sauna.
If you like a swim with your dinner, Thames Lido in Reading (from £25 for two hours with sauna, steam and hot tub) and Bristol's Victorian Lido, open since 1850 and rescued from flat developers in the 2000s, both have serious poolside restaurants — Bristol is hosting synchronised swimming shows, Christmas lunches and a £135 New Year's Eve swim-and-five-course-dinner. In Pontypridd, the National Lido of Wales drops its pools to a bracing 14-15C for weekend adults-only swims from late October to late November, then cranks the heat back to 28C for Boxing Day and New Year's Day. And Faversham Pools in Kent keeps its 33-metre lido, complete with 1, 3 and 5-metre diving boards, open all winter for lane swimming, with soup and curries at the cafe.
Most of these cost between £4 and £25, and several pair the swim with a sauna — ideal when there's frost on the railings. Winter hours are often reduced and some sessions are adults-only or lane-swimming only, so check timetables before travelling.
