The Strand Pool, Medway's Open Air Lido
Strand Approach Road ME7 1TT Gillingham

BONUS OPEN DAY!! The Pool will be OPEN on Tuesday 16th July, as the temperature forecast meets Medway Sport's requirements. 11.00 to 5.00, all welcome. Could be your last chance for a quiet (ish) swim before the schools break up...

WANTED....... A volunteer or two to help manage this successful Facebook site for the Friends of the Strand Pool (FOSP). Set up four years ago as a resource to support this wonderful and historic outdoor lido, the FB page now has over 3,500 regular followers and posts frequently reach 10,000 to 15,000 readers. Our record is over 100,000! The page is mostly active during the outdoor swimming season, from May to early September. That's the time when the Strand's many visitors ...rely on this page for information about opening times, costs, queues etc etc. It's really not an onerous or terribly time-consuming role, but the current administrator is moving away from the area and won't be able to keep the information as up to date as needed. FOSP also has an informative website at www.strandpool.info that will need occasional updates. Again, this is not a difficult task for anyone with basic web skills. Interested? Please respond here and we'll be in touch.

Pool will be open EVERY DAY from Saturday 20th July.... 11.00 to 5.00 daily Come and enjoy outdoor swimming at Medway's only Lido all details here.. www.strandpool.info... (Thanks for the great drone pic to Dave Best)

On the weekend that the Pool 'should' have opened for the season, a reminder of times past....

Update from Medway Sport, it's busy at the Pool...

Pool open on Wednesday 17th July, enjoy another bonus, warm day at The Strand. 11.00 to 5.00

Strand Pool 'will not open this year' - We can now confirm that Medway Council / Sport have announced their decision via their website, as follows - "The Strand The Strand outdoor swimming and paddling pools will not open this year due to the ongoing coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. We understand that this will be disappointing news but the safety and wellbeing of visitors is our top priority. ... The Strand parkland is still open." Clearly the difficulty in managing social distancing and maintaining appropriate levels of antibacterial cleansing at the Pool is a major challenge. And the pandemic continues to create previously unconsidered issues in so many ways. But we would ask that Medway Council / Sport DO NOT use this sad situation as an excuse to run the Strand Pool facilities down - it must return fully prepared and fit for purpose in 2021. All supporters of the Strand Pool are requested to politely remind their local councillors of the importance of this much-loved and unique leisure facility, and to ask for their commitment to seeing it open again in full health next year.

Pool Open again tomorrow - Friday 12th July 11.00 to 5.00 25 degrees forecast!

Latest 'full' notice from Medway Council / Sport. Apologies that it's a few hours late, we have not been online for much of today.

As the Government have now announced that outdoor pools can open from Saturday, we have asked Medway Council's Sport and Leisure dept for an update on their earlier decision not to open the Strand Pool this summer. We will post here as soon as we receive a response.

Just a quick update - at the moment, Medway Council have not provided any dates for the (hopefully) upcoming season at the Strand Pool. Obviously, the Coronavirus pandemic dominates everyone's thinking at the moment, and it seems increasingly unlikely that the Pool will be allowed to open as usual at the end of May. But we will keep everyone informed as soon as we know.

The season is nearly over..... Strand Pool closes on Sunday 1st Sept until next year.. Make the most of these final few days at one of the Medway Towns' most special places

It's the last day of the Strand Pool season today. Thank you to all the Medway Sport staff on-site at the Pool who have again provided a lovely, clean, safe, friendly and special place for people to relax and swim this summer. See you next May