The Lido: The most uplifting, feel-good summer read of the year

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She spends hours wandering through the local cemetery, inventing biographical stories for the names inscribed on headstones. There she meets and befriends an elderly woman who sings to the crows, whom she names Sally Red Shoes. As a tentative – and, as in The Lido, unexpected – friendship develops, Masha gradually surfaces from the depths of her grief, and swimming becomes restorative rather than punishing. Now, Rosemary's beloved Lido, which has been in existence since 1937 is under threat of closure. It seems a large property company want to buy the real estate it sits upon to build a gym and tennis courts for their tenants. Some visitors say you can smell it before you see it. The Hyde Park Rose Garden in full summer bloom in June and July is a showstopper – a blaze of colour and heady scent. Many of the flowers will make it right through to first frosts. Kate is to research the story of the Lido, before it becomes a Brixton memory. She goes there to find out more about the potential closure of the outdoor pool. She is directed to interview Rosemary, who knows more about the Lido than anyone else. Our cafés – the Serpentine Bar & Kitchen, the Serpentine Lido Café, the Park Sports Café, and The Lodge Café at Hyde Park Corner – all serve delicious and sustainably prepared hot and cold food with vegan, vegetarian, and other dietary options. Every venue has outdoor and indoor seating, so no matter the weather, you can eat and drink in comfort.

Many of the striking features you see today in Hyde Park were created in the 1700s by a keen royal gardener, Queen Caroline – wife of King George II. She annexed almost 300 acres from Hyde Park to form Kensington Gardens and separated the two parks with a long ditch or ha-ha – the first of its kind. This is a very touching story about an 87-year old woman named Rosemary who lives in the Village of Brixton in England. Kate smells a story, and she wants to interview Rosemary. Rosemary makes a counteroffer: she’ll do the interview only after Kate has swum at the Lido.But at night, Hyde Park was still a dangerous place. Later on, King William III had 300 oil lamps installed between St. James’s Park and Hyde Park, creating the first artificially lit highway in the country. In my opinion, human interaction — that good old in-person connection - is more rewarding. Nothing emphasises the importance of human connection, relationships, and living in a close knit community during these pandemic times better than the “The Lido” does. King Henry VIII was a passionate sportsman. Not content with hunting at Greenwich Park and Richmond Park, in 1536 he also acquired the land that now forms Hyde Park from the monks of Westminster Abbey, adding it to his collection of hunting grounds.

Mornings with Rosemary is a novel that dives deep into community, friendship and mental health. I LOVED all the characters. I was seriously so invested and felt my heart being pulled to these fictional characters. It’s a gentle read but one I really enjoyed. Sometimes, it;s nice to have a story which warms your heart, makes you smile and leaves you with a glow inside. A female friendship and how young and old can gain in their own way through joining forces over a joint concern. The realisation that the lido is symbolic of so much in their lives. The writing flows as effortlessly as water in a pool. The descriptions are vivid - so vivid that you can almost smell the chlorine and taste the character's salty tears (This book is a perfect substitute till I take a dip in my pool). The Lido has these tender and emotional moments that made me truly glad that I read this book! However what starts as a journalistic assignment for Kate, soon develops into a personal campaign, and as the two women are drawn together in the fight to save The Lido as the valuable community asset that it is, a deep friendship develops between the two women that more than bridges the gap in their respective ages and life experience. The landscape of today’s Hyde Park remains much as it has been since Queen Caroline’s innovative relandscaping. Hyde Park in the 1800sThe Lido” is a sweet tale of two women joining forces and rallying the community to save a local swimming pool. This is an adorable, uplifting story of an unlikely friendship of a young girl who is struggling to fit in a suburb of London called Brixton. She works at a local paper and she has the assignment to write about the local swimming pool. She meets an elderly woman who has enjoyed the pool since the 1920’s. When a development company buys the land and pool to build an upscale apartment building, the swimmers are aghast. You can travel to Hyde Park via the Central (Lancaster Gate or Marble Arch) and Piccadilly (Hyde Park Corner or Knightsbridge) underground lines. Each of these is just a few minutes walk from the park. Some readers are disturbed by blue language and sex scenes. Though the story isn’t entirely devoid of these, there’s very little of it. The text is accessible to anyone with a high school education. Kate learns that the lido has been a cornerstone in nearly every part of Rosemary’s life. After all, it was here, Rosemary met her husband, George Post WWII, it was here, she and her husband George fell in love and went swimming every day of their lives together. But George is gone now, and her morning swims at the Lido are even more precious to Rosemary, it’s where she can still picture him, remembering their time together. Relive the memories.

Hyde Park’s facilities are open to everyone, at any level, and it’s pay and play. We recommend booking ahead as they are a popular destination. Ready to play? Make a booking with Park Sports here. Riding in Hyde Park I cannot wait for July so this book gets published and I could post some quotes from it - I highlighted a lot of them! There were some true gems there. I definitely recommend this book, especially because the story is about a lido (an outdoor pool) and it's almost summer time - you won't find a more perfect book! Also, get our your swimsuits out because this book WILL make you want to swim.

The unlikely friendship that emerges between Rosemary and Kate provides the novel’s emotional nexus. In their fight to save the local swimming pool they begin, inadvertently, to save each other. Until 1783, the infamous Tyburn Gallows sat just outside Hyde Park. Tradition dictated that everyone condemned to die there could make a final speech – and since you were about to die, you could say pretty much what you pleased. After the gallows were closed, the tradition for public speaking remained and the part of Hyde Park known as Speaker’s Corner became a popular place for Londoners to have their say. As Kate listens to Rosemary speak passionately about her Lido, she becomes invested in the plight of the pool and begins to help Rosemary 'save' her lido. Hence begins Kate’s campaign to ‘save the lido’ and thereby preserve the soul of this small close knit community. The fish lie on beds of ice, turning it from white to pink throughout the day and reminding you that you should never eat pink snow either"