Taking a dip in balmy waters before tucking into a Mediterranean feast are activities not normally associated with the commuter town of Reading, but the new Thames Lido brings eating and exercise together in a refreshing and unexpected way.
Consisting of a 100-cover restaurant headed by celebrated Bristol chef Freddy Bird, a 25m outdoor heated pool, two saunas and treatment rooms, it’s the brainchild of Bird, Swedish developer Arne Ringner and architects Marshall and Kendon, who together revitalised the similarly derelict Clifton Lido in Bristol in 2008.
‘When we arrived on site in 2013, we found a pool filled with duck weed, rotten timber beams and brickwork covered with buddleia,’ explains Sam Kendon. ‘The lido had been abandoned for 40 years, and we spent most of out time restoring original features such as the decorative wooden bargeboards, tiles, floors and ironwork.’
Built as a Ladies Swimming Pool in 1902, the lido is entirely sheltered from public view, but small windows allow glimpses of boats and cyclists as they trundle along the Thames towpath nearby and tall trees on all sides provide backstroke swimmers with a delightful canvas of green. Ringner and his team stepped in as the Grade II listed building – one of oldest open-air municipal pools of its era – was on course to becoming a hotel.
A Spartan setting this is not. Swimmers and spa goers in blue robes tuck into wine, hearty rumps of beef, pork collars and ox cheek, all cooked in Bird’s charcoal grill and wood fired ovens; early morning swimmers can have hearty cooked breakfasts and coffee, and for the few who are there purely for the fitness rather than feasting, fresh juices and salads are served all day.
The creative trio that make up the ‘Lido Team’ may have no real passion for swimming, but they are always on the hunt for unloved British lidos in need of repair; ‘They are becoming harder to find,’ says Kendon, ‘from Penzance to Tooting to Brighton, these days lidos are rather high profile.’
The team behind its redesign consists of chef Freddy Bird, Swedish developer Arne Ringner and architects Marshall and Kendon.
The lido includes a 25-metre outdoor heated pool.
Originally built as a Ladies Swimming Pool, the lido is entirely sheltered from public view.
Now it includes a 100-cover restaurant headed by celebrated Bristol chef Freddy Bird.
The architects worked on restoring original features such as the decorative wooden bargeboards, tiles, floors and ironwork.
The restaurant offers breakfast, coffee, salads and juices, as well as more hearty meals, for hungry swimmers.
INFORMATION
For more information visit the Thames Lido website and the Marshall and Kendon website
-
Itapororoca House is nestled in the Brazilian forest overlooking its leafy coastal contextDesigned by Bloco Arquitetos, Itapororoca House is a treetop residence in Bahia, Brazil, offering a large wrap-around veranda to invite nature in
-
Sophie Smallhorn’s plywood tables for Uncommon Projects are colourful and modularThese modular tables by the artist and the plywood specialist play with colour for function, fun and flexibility
-
Aldo Frattini Bivouac is a mountain shelter, but not as you know itA new mountain shelter on the northern Italian pre-Alp region of Val Seriana, Aldo Frattini Bivouac is an experimental and aesthetically rich, compact piece of architecture
-
The architectural innovation hidden in plain sight at Frieze London 2025The 2025 Frieze entrance pavilions launch this week alongside the art fair, showcasing a brand-new, modular building system set to shake up the architecture of large-scale events
-
RIBA Stirling Prize 2025 winner is ‘a radical reimagining of later living’Appleby Blue Almshouse wins the RIBA Stirling Prize 2025, crowning the social housing complex for over-65s by Witherford Watson Mann Architects, the best building of the year
-
‘Belonging’ – the LFA 2026 theme is revealed, exploring how places can become personalThe idea of belonging and what it means in today’s world will be central at the London Festival of Architecture’s explorations, as the event’s 2026 theme has been announced today
-
Join us on a first look inside Regent’s View, the revamped canalside gasholder project in LondonRegent's View, the RSHP-designed development for St William, situated on a former gasholder site on a canal in east London, has just completed its first phase
-
The Royal College of Art has announced plans for renewal of its Kensington campusThe Royal College of Art project, led by Witherford Watson Mann Architects, includes the revitalisation of the Darwin Building and more, in the hopes of establishing an open and future-facing place of creativity
-
Ursula K Le Guin’s maps of imaginary worlds are charted in a new exhibitionUrsula K Le Guin, the late American author, best known for her science fiction novels, is celebrated in a new exhibition at the Architectural Association in London, charting her whimsical maps, which bring her fantasy worlds alive
-
Power Hall’s glow-up shines light on science and innovation in ManchesterPower Hall at The Science and Industry Museum in Manchester was given a spruce-up by Carmody Groarke, showcasing the past and future of machines, engineering and sustainable architecture
-
Celebrate the angular joys of 'Brutal Scotland', a new book from Simon Phipps'Brutal Scotland' chronicles one country’s relationship with concrete; is brutalism an architectural bogeyman or a monument to a lost era of aspirational community design?
