To check swimming times download and print your 2010 Timetable
Prices for the 2010 season-tickets are:
Adult: £102.40
Junior/Student: £76.80
Senior Citizen: £51.20
Family (4 people, max 2 adults): £322.60
The season ticket covers all swim sessions with the exception of the new early morning swims on Mondays and Fridays, which can be bought at a discount for season-ticket holders. In addition, the Wednesday evening sessions are available only to season-ticket holders. If you’re over 50 and have a Prime Time card (available from Spectrum) there are further savings on the season-ticket price, call 01483 444888 for more details.
If you don’t fancy a season-ticket, the discounted blocks of 12 swim sessions are:
Early morning swimming sessions only:
Non season ticket holders £45.10 (12 for price of 11)
Season ticket holders £36.90 (12 for price of 9)
Any time sessions
£56.10 (12 for price of 11)
Or, individual sessions are priced:
Adults £5.10
Off peak (after 4.30pm), evenings, early mornings: £4.10
Juniors, students, senior citizens: £4 or off peak £2.90
Family ticket (4 people, max 2 adults) £16.60
Off peak £.12.30
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Guildford Lido was opened on midsummer’s day in 1933 and has been a favourite place for swimmers ever since. The Friends of Guildford Lido exists to ensure it continues for the enjoyment of many generations to come.
The Lido today
Set in a generous four and a half acres of landscaped gardens, the 50 x 27 metre Olympic sized heated pool is a delight for swimmers of all description – from the serious to the sublimely relaxed dippers, everyone is welcome, old and young and with two children’s pools it makes
a perfect venue for a family day out. Owned by Guildford Borough Council and operated by Spectrum, the Lido is a uniquely valuable asset to the local and wider community. For details on opening times, admission prices, season tickets and concessions visit the Guildford Lido Site.
The Lido’s future – is it under threat?
No, there are no plans to close Guildford Lido. Guildford Borough Council are performing an options appraisal that is intended to seek alternative ways to finance the provision of Leisure Services which will maintain or improve upon the award-winning standards already being acheived.
However, FOGL members, and many Lido users up and down the country have learned to be concerned in similar situations as many open air and indeed indoor pools have been closed as a result of cost-saving and efficiency reviews. FOGL have been actively engaging with GBC, including indiviudal councillors and members of the Executive to seek clarification of the process and GBC intentions for the Lido. We are happy to go on record as being reassured by the breadth and depth of support from both the Leisure Services Management Team and GBC Councillors right across the political divide.
Currently, our mission is therefore not involved with fighting a closure, rather it is to ensure that the users’ views are reflected in the review process. Further, our aim is to encourage the Lido Management to adopt a range of measures that will see the Lido maintained and developed as a great asset to Guildford residents and visitors. Our support and help is available to see the Lido flourish and be operationally succesful well into the future.
The Lido’s beginnings
Guildford Lido was built in 1933 as a result of an initiative by Mayor William Harvey, who launched a fund to provide work for six hundred local unemployed men across a number of projects, the Lido construction being one of these. Appealing to local people, Mayor Harvey asked them to donate a tiny percentage of their annual income towards the Mayor’s Work Fund and within six months the construction of an open-air pool on a site of over four acres was completed by 120 men. Seen as a permanent memorial to the Mayor’s Work Fund, six thousand people attended the official opening on 21st June 1933 and witnessed Mayor Harvey taking the first official swim after disrobing his finery.
In his opening speech, Mayor Harvey reflected the growing appreciation of outdoor living, still relevant today,
“There is today a new trend, a trend towards out-of-doors…these grounds are a token of what this town thinks about health and fitness and its liabilities to provide for those under its care”.
The opening of the Lido received international coverage, in papers such as the Ceylon Observer, the Havana Post and the Cape Times. In the first three weeks of its life, the Lido admitted fifty thousand people with £1300 taken at the turnstiles.
