I recently wrote about my local art gallery in Charing Cross Hospital. There is also a sports club there with a 25 metre swimming pool that I splash around in a bit. But there is another local-ish swimming option.
The Serpentine Swimming Club was founded in the middle of the 19th century and offers members year-round swimming. The club warns that facilities in the changing rooms are “Spartan”. It also says that wearing a wetsuit, while technically allowed, is not in the spirit of the club. In the winter months swimming is allowed between 6.00 a.m. and 9.30 a.m. However Spartan the changing rooms it would hardly prepare me for immersion in the Serpentine at daybreak in January. Who breaks the ice? The iceman cometh, they cry – teeth chattering.
On Christmas Day there is a race, the Peter Pan Cup, the first donor of which was James Barrie in 1913. Among other early supporters of the club were Lord Lonsdale (the Yellow Earl) and Lord Londesborough, grandfather of my nephew, Tim. The club points out that these aristocratic patrons did not dip their toes in the water, although I think they may be wrong about the Yellow Earl who, after his expedition to Canada and into the Arctic Circle in 1888, would have been acclimatised to the temperature. Sixty-two of the sixty-nine huskies that accompanied him died of the intense cold.
There has been bright, clear weather recently and London has been looking good. Here is a picture I took of some swimmers in the Serpentine.
Even West Kensington buffed up well.
