Cool off this summer in one of the UK’s many outdoor swimming pools – and make it a proper day out with a long lazy lunch or alfresco dinner by the water.

From history-steeped baths with modern restaurants to countryside pools with homemade cake on offer, here’s our pick of the best food-friendly lidos.

Brockwell Lido – Herne Hill, London

The capital’s most companionable lido: a 50-metre Grade II-listed pool from 1937, wrapped in white Modernist walls, set in Brockwell Park. What lifts it above the rest of London’s outdoor pools is the Lido Café, which occupies one flank of the building and takes its cooking seriously with brunch that draws non-swimmers, seasonal plates at lunch, and dinner served with the water still glinting through the windows. Come early, swim, then hold the table.

Thames Lido — Reading, Berkshire

Built in 1902 as the Kings Meadow ladies’ baths, this is thought to be the oldest surviving Edwardian pool in the country — and it has been restored into something closer to a spa-restaurant with a pool attached. The 25-metre water is heated to 26°C year-round, the balcony overlooks it, and the kitchen turns out Spanish and Mediterranean small plates that make a long, unhurried afternoon feel entirely reasonable. Book the food as well as the swim.

Bristol Lido – Clifton, Bristol

Opened in 1849 and rescued after a long local campaign, Bristol Lido is the oldest heated outdoor pool in Britain and arguably the best-fed. The restaurant runs along one side of the pool, wood-fired oven at its heart, sending out Mediterranean cooking to tables where you can watch the swimmers below. There is a poolside bar, a sauna and a spa too. It is the closest Britain gets to a Mediterranean afternoon in a Georgian suburb.

Sandford Parks Lido – Cheltenham, Gloucestershire

A 1935 survivor set in its own gardens, with a 50-metre main pool, a children’s pool and enough lawn that a whole family can spread out for the day. The café is the reason it makes this list: proper breakfasts, cake all afternoon, and tables under the trees. Cheltenham’s Regency terraces are a short walk away if you want dinner afterwards.

Jubilee Pool – Penzance, Cornwall

The UK’s largest Art Deco seawater lido, a great triangular wedge jutting into Mount’s Bay, its shape designed to take the force of the sea. Since 2020 a section has been geothermally heated, so you can swim comfortably well outside summer. The Jubilee Pool Café and Bar does daily-changing plates, ice cream and craft beer on the terrace, with St Michael’s Mount in the middle distance. Time it for sunset.

Saltdean Lido – Saltdean, East Sussex

Historic England has called it one of the seven wonders of the English seaside, and the crescent-shaped 1938 Modernist building is genuinely startling when you first see it. Saved from developers by a residents’ campaign and reopened in 2017, the heated pool and lawns sit a few minutes from the Sussex coast between Brighton and Newhaven. Café by the water, deckchairs, and the undercliff walk into Brighton for dinner afterwards.

Hathersage Swimming Pool – Peak District, Derbyshire

A 30-metre 1930s pool in the middle of the Hope Valley, heated to a very persuasive 28°C and open year-round, with the moors rising behind the hedges. The café is the countryside-cake end of the spectrum in the best way — homemade, comforting, and exactly what you want after a swim in February. Summer brings monthly night swims with live music.

Ilkley Lido — Ilkley, West Yorkshire

An unusually handsome 1935 pool on the edge of the moors, with a curved main pool, a broad grass bank for sunbathing and Ilkley Moor looming behind it. The on-site café covers breakfast through to cake, but the real move is a swim followed by the walk into Ilkley itself, which has one of the best-fed high streets in Yorkshire. Open May to September, and busy the moment the sun appears.

Stonehaven Open Air Pool – Stonehaven, Aberdeenshire

Britain’s northernmost lido, and one of its most improbable: a 50-metre Olympic-sized pool filled with filtered North Sea water and heated to 29°C, run largely by volunteers, open June to September. There is a café, a paddling pool and a sheltered sun terrace that catches the light beautifully. Midnight swims with music are the local institution. Afterwards, Stonehaven harbour is five minutes away for supper.

Lido Ponty – Pontypridd, Rhondda Cynon Taf

The National Lido of Wales, built in 1927, left to ruin for decades and restored in 2015 to its white-and-green Art Deco glory in Ynysangharad War Memorial Park. Three heated pools, wide terraces and a visitor centre with a café, all set among the trees with the River Taff running past. The food case for coming, though, is really the town: Pontypridd Market, a few minutes’ walk across the park, is one of the best places to eat in the valleys.

Also worth a dip:

Tooting Bec Lido, the biggest freshwater pool in the country, for its painted changing cubicles; Jesus Green Lido in Cambridge, long, narrow and tree-lined, with the riverside pubs a short walk off; Portishead Open Air Pool in Somerset for a poolside picnic; Pells Pool in Lewes, the oldest freshwater lido in Britain; and Tinside Lido on Plymouth Hoe, for the Art Deco and the sea air.

Opening times shift with the weather and the season at almost all of these, and the restaurants often book up well ahead of the pool. Check both before you travel.