We head down to Beckenham Place Park lake to take a look at the wild swimming facilities.
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00:00 Finally, some sunshine and a bit of nice weather. London is so great in the summer. Beer gardens,
00:07 open strolls around the city and the amazing parks we have as well. But if you want to
00:12 have a wild swim and feel in touch with nature, most people will head to the seaside and you
00:17 have to travel around two hours on a train to get to a beach like Brighton. Because let's
00:22 face it, no one's particularly keen on jumping in the River Thames anytime soon. There are
00:27 plenty of Lido's but what if you want to feel in touch with nature in the capital?
00:32 Well, this week I spoke to a Londoner who mentioned Beckenham Place Park has a wild
00:37 lake that you can swim in. And then I'll often go to Beckenham Park, there's an outdoor,
00:43 well there's a lake there that people swim in and then try and get to the seaside as
00:48 much as possible as well. So there's a few options. Amazing. And that is, so would you
00:52 consider Beckenham Park as almost like wild swimming and if it's a lake is it wild swimming?
00:57 Yeah, I mean some people that have grown up near the sea will find it weird that you have
01:03 to go and pay to go and swim in a lake. I guess it is quite wild, it feels quite wild
01:09 there. There's reeds and there's animals that come and hang out whilst you swim so it feels
01:13 kind of wild. But it's not that huge. It's nice though.
01:18 So that's where I've come down today to check it out, see if it's busy and have a look around.
01:25 Beckenham Place Park has London's first purpose built swimming lake. And if you are coming
01:31 here for a dip, you're bound to be surrounded by nature and have a little few visitors maybe
01:36 from some birds at the park as well. The lake is 285 metres long, reaching depths of up
01:42 to three and a half metres. It's operated by PTP coaching and the lake is open for pre
01:48 booked swimming sessions and paddle boarding sessions as well. So yeah, you can't just
01:52 head down with a towel. You do have to book in advance, but it is still wild swimming.
01:57 Open water swimming sessions are available every day from £3.95 and you can book that
02:02 on the park's website.
02:09 Now there are other places to swim in open water around the city. The other obvious destination
02:14 being Hampstead Heath and up there on the other side of London, you can just bring a
02:19 towel but beware, it does get incredibly busy during hot days. I mentioned earlier I wouldn't
02:25 be keen on jumping in the River Thames and that is true, but there are basins in and
02:30 around the river run by Love Open Water. They have spots in Canary Wharf and the Royal Docks
02:36 with the average water temperature between 14 to 17 degrees according to their website.
02:42 Both of those are now open for the summer as well, so there are plenty of places to
02:47 swim in the capital. For more on this and other news from Watson across London, head
02:52 to Londonworld.com.