Jesus Green Lido

Heading down to London today and, after seeing a few Instagram posts from people swimming their way around the UK's outdoor pools, decide a lido swim is on the cards. There are a few options, but one particular outdoor pool has fascinated me. It's 100 yards long and more than 100 years old. Incredibly, I've also never been to Cambridge, so Jesus Green Lido it is!

Arrive for a lunchtime swim in peak summer on a 33-degree day, so I'm pretty certain this is going to be busy. Very busy.

The pool sits alongside the banks of the River Cam in Jesus Green, the impressive public park beside Jesus College. Apple Maps delivers me straight to the road on the opposite side of the river from the pool, and right to a street parking space beside the footbridge. Cross the chalk-bed River Cam, walk through the park and head towards the pool.

I've pre-booked my £7 ($9.31) 11:20am session and arrive, quite incredibly, right on time. There's a queue to enter, but once through the turnstile, after paying 75p for a single-use locker token, I'm presented with a bright blue pool that looks incredibly narrow, very long and very busy.

Take a right turn into the men's changing area, a long row of wooden cubicles. Quick change, stretch, apply some sunscreen to my head and shoulders, stow the valuables in a locker, then lug my Arena pool bag to somewhere convenient on the poolside.

Jesus Green Lido opens on 30 August 1923 as Jesus Green Bath. At 100 yards, or 91.4 metres, long and just 15 yards wide, its unusual dimensions are intended to recreate the experience of swimming in the nearby River Cam. Local men returning from the First World War dig the pool, providing much-needed work during a period of high unemployment.

The shallow ends and deep centre reflect a time when men and women swim at separate ends of municipal pools. Originally filled directly from the Cam, reportedly complete with the occasional fish, it switches to mains water after the Second World War. Now one of Britain's few surviving early outdoor pools, Jesus Green celebrated its centenary in 2023 and remains the country's joint longest swimming pool (with Tooting Bec lido, also 100 yards long).

The three-lane pool is set up with a lane rope pretty much down the middle. On the near side it's a very busy public splash session, while on the right there's a more reasonable lane swim. There must be close to 20 people in the lane, but the sheer length and double width mean there's room to pass and swim uninterrupted.

Jump in and make a start. First try to set the watch to 100 yards, but the custom length setting only goes to 99. Settle for 91 metres instead. I'll accept losing 40cm per length on the Garmin!

The water is definitely not heated. It has very little chemical taste, almost tap-water quality, but it certainly isn't clear or clean. I've never seen so many leaves in a pool, both on the surface and across the pool floor. The filter intakes on the bottom look completely clogged with them.

The pool feels like swimming in treacle. It's slow going and the first length seems to go on forever. I'm used to 50-metre pools, but this is nearly double that. It's a tub style concrete pool with no wave breakers, so every splash at the opposite end of the pool seems to turn into a rolling wave ready to slap you in the face! Convince myself there's some sort of current, or perhaps the wind is working against me, but after the turn it's exactly the same!

While I pass several swimmers on every length, there's plenty of space. I'm treating this as a special swim for the experience, so I'm not fussed about pace or people getting in the way. There are no flip turns today. Each end gets a calm and casual touch, spin and push.

There's no real plan when I set off. Leave the Shokz headphones behind because I think the volume of people will quickly become frustrating, so I'm expecting a basic 1km swim to get it on the list.

As I get into it, the lengths seem to get shorter and the number of swimmers isn't an issue. There are a few other people moving at a decent pace, so let the mind drift and enjoy the scenery.

The lengths pass until I've swum through 36 of them. Stop for a minute, then decide I'll be quite satisfied with a two-length warm-down to tick off just over 3.4km. Pleased with that, it turned out to be a great swim.

Swim done, head to a nearby garden centre cafe - where it feels like a 1,000 degress and everything looks melted - Order an ice coffee and sagging chocolate twist pastry whilst the car charges, then continue down into London.