Thames Lido

The King's Meadow Baths opened in 1902 as a ladies-only outdoor swimming pool beside the Thames, closed in 1974 and sat derelict for over 40 years. In 2017 they were beautifully restored by the team behind Bristol Lido and reopened as Thames Lido — a 25-metre heated outdoor pool kept at 30°C year-round, poolside changing cabins, a two-tier restaurant, treatment rooms, sauna, steam room and a hot tub. The original Edwardian brick and cast-iron structure is preserved throughout; the whole thing is Grade II listed.

You book a two-hour pool session and get access to the pool, hot tub, sauna and steam. The pool is properly heated so swimming outdoors in December is genuinely delicious. The restaurant is a serious proposition on its own — a wood-fired Mediterranean menu (small plates, whole fish, flatbreads) that you can eat in swimming trunks with wet hair, or dressed up in the evening as a destination restaurant. Spa treatments (massages, facials) book separately from £70.

Fifteen minutes' walk from Reading Station along Napier Road, on the edge of King's Meadow. Pool session £40 weekdays, £50 weekends; food from £8 (small plate) to £30 (main). Book online at least a week ahead — weekends sell out. Weekday mornings before 09:00 are quietest and cheapest. Bring a swimsuit and a towel or hire theirs. This is the single most surprising thing in Reading and one of the reasons to make a proper weekend of the town rather than a day-trip. Ten minutes from town-centre hotels.

The layout is small and easy to read, which is part of the pleasure. You come in off Napier Road past the old red-brick gatehouse frontage, check in at a reception desk barely bigger than a ticket booth, and are handed a key to one of the numbered timber changing cabins that line both long sides of the pool — the same cabins Edwardian women used, restored rather than replaced. Change, hang your clothes, walk three steps and you are in the water. The hot tub sits at the far end, the sauna and steam room in the corner block, and the treatment rooms are tucked behind them. Above it all runs the first-floor gallery where the restaurant tables look straight down at the swimmers. Do the circuit in this order — swim first, then hot tub, then sauna last — and you will use the full two hours without ever queuing for anything.

Walking from Reading Station is the only sensible arrival. Leave by the north side, follow Vastern Road east past the office blocks, turn left down Napier Road and you are at the door in twelve to fifteen minutes on flat pavement. From the Oracle or Broad Street allow twenty minutes via Friar Street and Vastern Road. Reading Buses' Caversham-bound services along Caversham Road drop you five minutes' walk away, but the walk from the station is quicker than waiting for one. A taxi from the station rank is about £6 and takes four minutes in light traffic, longer at 17:30 when Vastern Road clogs. On-site parking is limited and fills by mid-morning; the Kings Meadow car park a few minutes away and the station-side multi-storeys are the fallback. Cyclists can ride the Thames Path in from Caversham Bridge and lock up outside — that is the pleasantest approach of all.

Budget properly and it is a treat rather than a shock. The two-hour swim session is £40 Monday to Friday and £50 at weekends and on bank holidays, and that single price covers pool, hot tub, sauna and steam — there is no separate spa surcharge once you are inside. Treatments start around £70 for a shorter massage and climb with length, and they are booked on top of, not instead of, a pool slot. Food is à la carte: small plates from about £8, mains up to roughly £30, so two people eating properly with a glass of wine each land near £100. Towel and robe hire is available for a few pounds if you travel light. Memberships and gift vouchers exist and are the only real discount route. Two people swimming and lunching should plan on £120 to £150 for the half day.

Timing changes the place completely. The 06:30 and 07:30 slots are the cheapest, the emptiest and the best — steam coming off the water, six people doing lengths, the restaurant not yet open. From 10:00 to 14:00 at weekends the pool is at capacity and the hot tub becomes a queue. Late evening slots are calmer again and pair well with dinner upstairs. By month: January is the busiest booking window of the year as resolutions land, so reserve two to three weeks out; February and November are the quiet sweet spot; July and August sell out fastest for weekend afternoons. Winter genuinely is the highlight — swimming outdoors in the dark in December while the sauna steams beside you is the thing people come back for. Heavy thunderstorms can clear the pool for safety, so check the day's status before travelling in unsettled weather.

It suits couples, solo swimmers, anyone with a spare morning before a train from Reading, and anyone who has already done the Abbey Ruins and the museum and wondered what else the town has. It suits a wet afternoon perfectly — the sauna, steam room and covered gallery mean rain barely registers. It suits lap swimmers less well at peak times, when the 25-metre pool carries too many people for a sustained crawl; come at 06:30 if you want lengths. It does not suit families arriving on spec: the pool skews adult and children are only admitted in specified sessions, so check before booking rather than turning up with a toddler and armbands. The Edwardian fabric also means steps, thresholds and narrow cabins; wheelchair users should phone ahead and ask exactly which parts are reachable rather than assume. A one-hour gap before a train is not enough — the minimum useful visit is the full two hours plus changing.

Fold in the surroundings and you have a whole half-day on foot. Kennet Mouth, where the Kennet joins the Thames under the Horseshoe Bridge, is three minutes away; King's Meadow itself is right outside the gate; the Thames Path runs east towards Sonning (about an hour's walk) and west over Caversham Bridge to Christchurch Meadows in ten minutes. Reading Abbey Ruins and Forbury Gardens are twelve minutes back towards town, and Reading Museum in the Town Hall, with its full-size Victorian replica of the Bayeux Tapestry, is free and fifteen. The honest caveats: £40 for two hours is expensive for what is, structurally, a swim; the restaurant is very good but book it separately or you will find no table when you emerge; and the surrounding industrial edge of Napier Road is scruffy, not scenic. Come for the water and the building, not the setting.

Hours & entry

Not free

Daily 6:30-22:00 (pool) · Restaurant 12:00-22:00 · Booking required for pool sessions

What to see

{'what': 'The heated outdoor pool at 30°C, year-round', 'where': 'Central courtyard'}

{'what': 'Restored Edwardian changing cabins', 'where': 'Both long sides of the pool'}

{'what': 'Wood-fired Mediterranean small plates', 'where': 'Restaurant, first floor and poolside'}

Tips from the ground

Book the 06:30 or 07:30 slot for a near-empty pool and the cheapest rate.

Combine pool + lunch: book a 12:00 pool slot and a 14:00 restaurant table.

Winter is magical — swim outdoors while it snows. Bring flip-flops.