Guildford Lido
Guildford Lido is an outdoor public swimming pool in Guildford, Surrey. It sits in Stoke Park, just north of the town centre, and is surrounded by about 1.8 hectares of landscaped grounds. The lido attracts around 90,000 visitors a year. It is owned by Guildford Borough Council and has been run by Freedom Leisure since 2011.
Built during the Great Depression, Guildford Lido opened on 21 June 1933. Its construction was funded by The Mayor’s Work Fund, created by the then-mayor William Harvey to provide paid work for unemployed residents. The pool’s original size was about 50.3 metres by 27.4 metres; in 1989 the length was shortened slightly to 50 metres to meet international competition standards. The main pool is 50 m by 27.4 m with the deepest point in the middle, creating two shallow ends. The pool water is heated to around 24 °C in summer and kept at about 10 °C in winter. The site has level access, changing rooms and a hoist for disabled swimmers, 132 dressing cubicles and 600 lockers, plus diving platforms and boards (4.95 m, 3 m and 1 m).
Key dates include the 1989 refurbishment, the 2002 relining, and the 2013 addition of new water slides funded by the council. The lido did not open in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic and closed on 1 October 2023 for essential leak repair.
This page was last edited on 2 February 2026, at 05:16 (CET).