This film is part of Free
In the Heat of the Moment
At the height of Britain's bathing craze, hundreds of sun-worshipping Londoners test the waters at Hyde Park lido.
Overview
Dazzling newsreel scenes of sun-worshipping Londoners testing the waters at the newly opened Hyde Park lido. The lido was commissioned by Labour politician George Lansbury, seen here surrounded by a bevy of bathing beauties (both male and female), who cheer him with unfeigned enthusiasm as they clamour to be caught on camera. Elsewhere, swimsuited seamstresses are forced to sweat it out on the factory floor.
The happily-timed heatwave of August 1930 hit Britain during the height of a bathing-craze. The freshly-opened Hyde Park lido was the initiative of Commissioner of Works and popular socialist figure George Lansbury, who pushed for improved public recreation facilities. Unofficially known as 'Lansbury's Lido', it allowed for mixed bathing and sunbathing on the Serpentine for the first time, and remains a popular London oasis today.
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