The Lido

Lido bather

The Lido was an invention of the 1930s. With fountains, slides, cafe's sunbathing decks and spectator terraces, the Lido's were all about the fun of the seaside and were as much about entertainment as they were about swimming. Seaside towns built these modernist facilities to attract tourists as swimming was seen as health-giving and restoring and sunbathing was good for you.

This illustration was inspired by a group of early morning swimmers who I interviewed as part of my research. They group swim in the water whatever the weather -with no wet suits -just a costume and hat!