I’ve got a new favourite place and its London Fields lido in Hackney. This place is great and is amazingly accessible. This might not be in the easiest and appealing part of London to get to but it is worth the effort and the £4 to get in. To be fair it isn’t that hard to actually get to as you can get off the East London line on the overground at Haggerston or Dalston and then walk about a mile to the pool. Once there the pool itself is 50m and is heated, there is also a cafe and some outdoor seating should you want to sit in the sun and pretend not look at the people in their swimwear. It is a magnificent place. It looks like it has been recently renovated and is clean, which is a lot more than you can say for some London pools. It is also fantastic to be able to swim outdoors and being able to look up and see leaves on trees rather than strip lighting in an indoor pool gets a big Rockupandroll tick from me.

The best thing though is the accessibility. It’s all on a level access, it couldn’t be easier to get in the building and there are two changing rooms with roll-in showers. What I was most bowled away by though was the fact that you don’t need any help to get into the water. The reason being is that there is a waterproof chair which you can get on in the changing room, before heading to poolside and pushing down a ramp into the water. The chair then stays in the water at the bottom of the ramp, ready for when you want to get out. Simple, effective and liberating. I loved every minute of it.

You can get all the details you need on the pool here http://www.hackney.gov.uk/c-londonfields-lido.htm.