Taking the plunge in a pool for all seasons

I had long heard the capital's outdoor swimming facilities raved about by the sort of people who class themselves as "true" Londoners - perhaps as most of them seem to fall in those hard-to-reach areas, such as Brockwell Park and Hackney, where inaccessibility seems to breed authenticity.

Even given the expectation, I was bowled over. Clean, tranquil and stylish in an optimistic, 1930s sort of way, the Lido is truly a London gem - and the pool's Olympic length is positively luxurious. I instantly determined to make that 50m span underwater in one breath.

But besides the loveliness of breaststroking through the water, there's something about the place's architecture, a combination of clean Modernist lines, and atmosphere of good health that's just rather sexy.

It's not hard to imagine a group of guiltless Scandinavians having a hearty orgy in the showers, or at least a set of Busby Berkeley babes performing some symmetrical routine in the shallow end. Perhaps that's just me.

Why bring this up in the depths of November? Well, what I hadn't reckoned back in the summer was that the pool would remain open long into the winter - it closes only in thunderstorms - and indeed, would truly come into its own in the cold.

What the place now lacks in scantily clad sun worshippers it has made up for in autumnal charm. I had the vast pool pretty much to myself when I went for a vigorous dip on Sunday. Naturally, it's a bit chilly emerging in trunks from the dressing room (not helped by the fact that they decided to put the lockers outdoors) but the water is heated to the perfect temperature - you have to keep moving, but you oughtn't catch a cold.

What's more, the crisp air you gulp between strokes is deeply refreshing, far more so than the chlorinated fug of an indoor pool. The tranquil noise of a football game beyond, too, is far more soothing than the booming echo of yummy-mummy chat that one must endure in London's fashionable gyms.

Admittedly, one does find the odd fallen plane leaf affixing itself leech-like to the face - but generally the autumn foliage makes the water look all the more handsome, as if you're taking a splash in some Cumbrian pond. Or like Hampstead Ponds, without the threat of hypothermia and, if you're in the men-only one, sodomy.

Why oh why, I keep on wondering, do people bother with £50-a-month gyms? For £3.85 a go, I fear the Lido is too well valued to survive the winter. So at the risk of destroying my solitude, dive in.