Nothing symbolises the great British summer better than the lido. Even reading the word no doubt conjures up the image of your beloved local swimming hole, complete with the sounds of wet feet slapping on tile and the feel of those staticky plastic caps yanking at your roots. Britain’s lidos first flourished under the golden age (and summers) of the 1930s, but the first lido was actually opened on the island of Lido di Venezia in 1857. From the Italian for ‘beach’ or ‘shore’, the debate is easily settled — it’s pronounced lee-do, not lie-do. This was a point that Thames Lido’s co-owner, Mark Thwaites, made at our meeting, a passionate prelude to the property’s thoroughly Mediterranean vision.

Thames Lido is a world apart from the typical UK lido. The space is open all-year round thanks to its heated luxury swimming pool, garnering an impressive 1100 members with a waiting list of over 500. Thwaites playfully describes it as ‘the Molton Brown of Lidos’ — a luxury retreat without the stiff frills and etiquette that smothers the fun of finer living. Most importantly, however, is that it’s not only a lido; restaurant, bar, pool, and spa effortlessly combine to create an exciting, urban adult playground.

A BRIEF HISTORY

In 2008, owners Arne Ringner and Mark Thwaites first tested this business model with the opening of Clifton Lido in Bristol. It was met with incredible success, and so they set their sights on a similar renovation project in Reading. Thames Lido is the oldest surviving outdoor pool of the early Edwardian era, and had since fallen into decades of disrepair. Undergoing a £4.2 million renovation over a painstaking three years, the lido reopened its doors to an eager public in 2017.

Built in 1902, the property was originally a ladies-only swimming pool filled daily by the unfiltered, unheated water of the River Thames. Because of this, the lido’s architecture is charmingly unconventional, made with four high walls to ensure the women’s privacy but remaining roofless and thus, technically, ‘open air’. Summer turns the space into a reverse terrarium, where guests look up to see dappled blue skies, flittering birds and the tops of green oaks, peering over the lido walls.

LUXURY SWIMMING POOL & SPA

Thames Lido’s star attraction is, of course, its luxury swimming pool. Built on a raised wooden deck, everything in the lido gravitates towards it. Around its borders gather guests lounging in deck chairs, or sipping cocktails under the pleasant shade of canary-yellow umbrellas. Even those exploring the indoors will be compelled to stop and stare at the shimmering blue through the building’s inviting bay windows. Against the entrance to the spa stands a line of wooden changing booths with colourful striped dividers — no doubt inspired by the perennially-photographed Cornwall beach huts. Everything feels a shade more vibrant than it should be, a touch more hazy; as if designed to mimic a sunlit day, regardless of the season.

Stepping indoors, guests can enjoy all that Thames Lido’s spa has to offer. The first floor contains a sauna, a Scandinavian-style steam room (heated to 45 degrees, but often adjusted to suit the guests’ taste), and an ice-bucket shower. Climb the colourful stairs to find a corridor of private treatment rooms, offering therapeutic classics such as hot stone massages, essential oil facials, and full-body exfoliation. For an underrated relaxation spot, head to the lido’s canopied ‘mindfulness room’. Tucked away on the second floor, white-robed guests sink into a room filled with plush velvet beanbags and flickering tealights. A wide window allows visitors to relax and quietly contemplate the meditative ebbs and flows of the shifting swimming pool. From March 2023, Thames Lido will also begin to offer ‘Light Touch Therapy’ massages for those undergoing treatment for cancer, performed by Oncology Massage trained therapists.

CLEAN LIVING

In another nod to the Scandinavians (and their ethos of clean living), the pool also contains very low levels of chlorine and other chemical irritants, cleaned instead with a high-tech UV filtration system. Thames Lido’s commitment to cleanliness finds quirkiest expression, however, in their ‘Wash Naked’ policy, encouraging guests to thoroughly shower before they step foot in the pool.

It is this policy that led to the development of Lido Spa, Thames Lido’s own personal skincare brand. Made in collaboration with Richard Howard (the mind behind Soho House’s apothecary brand Cowshed), the collection features a prewash and post-swim scrub. The prewash is antibacterial (promoting a self-sanitising environment), while the post-swim is an incredibly hydrating and richly scented rose and geranium lather. When visiting, you’ll be able to catch notes of the sugary, floral scent waft across the pool from time to time, proving it’s the simplest solution that often works best — create a product that people love to use.

The story behind Lido Spa’s product design is as charming as the designs themselves. In a moment of serendipity, local illustrator Sarah Corbett found herself inspired to sketch the lido’s guests while visiting one day. The owners fell in love with her quirky, colourful illustrations, and soon commissioned her to design their entire apothecary line.

LIDO RESTAURANT: FRESH MEDITERRANEAN FARE

Thames Lido’s restaurant wraps around the other half of the pool, serving Mediterranean tapas and mains in the glass-walled, sunlit space. Sheltered by a slanted wooden ceiling, the property’s historic structure peers out amidst a fresh, colourful redesign. The exposed brick wall, original Edwardian pillars and metal lattice work coexist with cheery yellow blinds, cushy purple seating booths and a teal tiled floor. It is in the restaurant that Ringner’s thoughtful design comes to the fore. Raised to meet the eye-line, the pool is built so that, while seated, guests will be able to watch the swimmers floating by as if on air.

Expect honest, delicious Mediterranean cuisine, made from local produce and cooked in-house — usually in the kitchen’s impressive wood-fire oven. Dishes include a traditional mezze-style platter (homemade flatbread with olives, hummus and baba ganoush), creamy garlic scallops in a burnt butter sauce, and slow-cooked Iberico pig cheeks, served with Jerusalem artichokes and fried sage. An enduring favourite is the charcoal-grilled chicken, paired delightfully with saffron rice, smoky harissa yogurt and pickles. These fantastic, filling dishes are served by staff in denim aprons — an intentional pivot away from the frivolities of fine dining. Finish in true Mediterranean fashion with a rich ricotta and olive-oil cake, or sample their variety of homemade fruit sorbets. 

Closing with a pithy soundbite from co-owner Mark Thwaites, ‘I’d love to remove clocks and cellphone service — if it wasn’t illegal, that is’. A Mediterranean oasis in the middle of a metropolis, Thames Lido invites you to forget where you are, and focus on how you feel. So, make Reading your next retreat and relax in this lido’s chic, timeless environment.