Serpentine Lido

The Serpentine Lido Cafe at The Hyde Park, London is a perfect place to enjoy food and beverages on a visit to the Lake. They have indoor and outdoor seatings. We enjoyed their Beer and Aperol with chips on a bright sunny day watching the Serpentine Lake, the birds and people. The staff are friendly, helpful and welcoming.

We had such a memorable time at the Lido. The food was absolutely delicious — fresh, creative, and cooked to perfection. Huge credit to the chef for the attention to detail and for crafting a menu that really impressed. The personalised service from Kassim, made us feel like VIPs. A must-visit if you’re in Hyde Park and want great food with a side of genuine hospitality.

Amazing cafe with good scenery and atmosphere. A great bird watching place for bird lovers! I love this place the most in hyde park!

In serious need of oversight and leadership. Closing kitchen an hour before it’s suppose to, bar staff leaving bar unattended for 15 minutes at a time. Stick to your open times, loads of people going in at 5pm being told the kitchen is closed. This place could generate soo much more if they just ran it properly. When it first opened it was great, 2 years later, not the same….. slowly degrading, staff bare speak English, need to repeat orders. What a shame. Clear lack of leadership. Be better

Totally fabulous. Had it all to myself which was amazing, staff so helpful, was clean and nice to swim with birds sitting on the water with me. Facilities great, clean and well maintained. Brilliant price for swim. I had a fabulous time. The staff on the desk and lifeguarding were amazing. Will be back as this was a dream.

Went here with some friends to chill. Beautiful scenery, nice picnic, and sun lounger .Get there early and pre book. I had a fantastic day. Has little gem bar and little play area up the stairs. Also has cafe to get bit to eat. Only down fall is toilets sit right next to resturant and woof of smell is awful, mixture of hot weather and frequency. THey need constant bleaching.

Nice place to relax, but i had never seen anyone attempt to swim this lake. There is a swimming club here but it is always closed when I walk past. Update Around 0600 onwards this place is open till about 0800. A few regulars are seen here at this time swimming a freezing lake. Personally this not for me as I like to swim in a warm pool. Further details can be found on Google maps.

Perfect stop for those crossing Hyde Park. Great location by the water with lots of tables outside with some right by the water. There's also seating inside. Decent food options (burger on the dry side), although they are more like a museum cafe, focusing on sweet baked products and lots of coffee drinks. Plenty of drinks options, although the manager was unpleasant insisting that the apperol must be full of ice despite customer requests. (He actually threw the ice cubes into the drink). Very strange. Service is otherwise friendly and efficient. I think they have PIMMS on tap. There is a cream and coffee van outside for those passing through quickly. Lots of waterfowl birds staring in your plate - don't feed them or they start fighting each other.

I feel like I'm so much more British now that I've actually been here and swum in the lido!!!! Hazahhhhh!!!! It's rated 5 because it's just something you need to do once. There aren't many days when it gets hot enough to actually jump in the water, but you should give it a go at some point! It's about £4.50 per person and the grassy part by the water fills up fast but you can also lay on the cement (sounds nice!), and there's also a back part with a playground that's nice, just not right on the water. I especially like that there's an entire area reserved for the swans. Good for them for standing up for themselves. You go swans.

Considering how long I've lived in the area and how often I've walked or cycled past, it is a miracle that I waited until today to have a swim in Serpentine Lido - on the hottest day of the year!! We arrived before noon and didn't have to queue - different story when I left around 2.30pm ... Compared to other lidos, this one's not spectacular, but I just love the fact that you have the opportunity to dip into the lake in the middle of Hyde Park. And I've never swum with geese and swans before. The water was a good temperature and still relatively clean (it can get covered in algae) - but nowhere near clear, but it's probably a good thing that you can't see the ground. I was glad my friend is a regular and expertly walked up the stairs past the changing rooms - best come with your swimsuit under your clothes, they are a bit yuckie and overcrowded (single cabins only, no communal nudity - we are in the Royal Borough after all). You end up on a terrace with a small kiosk and then have the choice to turn right into a lovely area with paddling pool which is inhabited mainly by families with young children. Or turn left and cross a bridge to the main water. The area closer to the lake is a bit meh and we were already too late to find a flat bit, let alone a sun lounger (mind you, I didn't hear any German accents, so all fair play). My first experience of sunbathing on a steep slope, even later arrivals had to make do with the tarmaced "beach". The (cold!) showers spray a gentle trickle of water, but I love the fact that everything here is just a little bit rubbish and hope it will never change. Perfect for a couple of hours, then make room for the next person.

Today was the first time that I was in this part of Hyde Park so early on a Sunday morning and it was quite interesting to finally see people swimming in "that" water. We saw people run & cycle to this spot, strip down, quick stop under one of the 2 showers on the side and straight in to the water it was. We were in awe at the bravery & courage of these men. I tend to do a funny jig around the sides of the serpentine and the round lake to avoid the amount of bird poop along the sides, can't imagine how much more of it there is inside the lake itself. Do you even brush your teeth in the morning without turning the hot water on? Now imagine plunging into icy cold water on a freezing morning! I salute them for their daring, but I'll stay on this side, thank you very much!

I was planning on spending a day here since July but then the Olympics started and my kid got the chickenpox blah blah blah so basically, yesterday was the first , danger free and sunny day we could all spend outside. Yay! So! not surprisingly, the place was packed! There was a long queue for the tickets but they moved quite fast (no more than 10-15 minutes). The prices are reasonable: £4 per adult, £1 for kids between 3-5 and free for kids under 3. You have a (fairly safe) fenced children's playground area + a paddle pool for the kids with water up to their knees (obviously, if we are talking about a 5year old). There's a long stretch of grass/field kinda thing that makes it easy for the parents to keep an eye on their kids and relax at the same time (is that actually possible??!) There's an ice cream/drinks/ sammiches shop (£1.50 bottle of water) but you can bring your own stuff and have a picnic. If you cross the bridge, you'll find yourself in the "adult" swimming area. The water is incredibly cold, fuzzy...duck infested and perfect for beginners or experienced swimmers. `HAhahaha. Or just for those who want to cool down and relax in the water - like myself. Equipped with 2 great pools, lots of grass, lifeguards, showers, lockers and plenty of room to sunbath, no wonder the Serpentine Lido is one of the longest running lidos in London.

Swimming in the Serpentine is an experience! There are changing rooms and lockers and well, a lido. Good luck if you can face the chilly English waters! I thought it was fun :-)

There is a small shallow paddle pool and a lido at the lake. The water is ... well it's a lake. The facilities are dirty. No wonder many people prefer to simply dip their toes into the Diana Memorial fountain.

While you can swim in the freezing lido, if you have children (10 and under, maybe 7 and under), you can't beat the children's paddling pool and play area overlooking the serpentine. Four pounds for an adult, one pound for 3-5s, and free for under 3s. There are life guards, bathrooms, and a sandwich shop. And most of the mummies there are very nice and friendly.

The Serpentine Swimmers club are famous for braving the cold and duck-infested waters here in almost any weather or season. I know this mostly because in the changing room of my local outdoor pool in Hackney, braggadocio Serpentine club members (sometimes old enough to be my grandfather) often cajole us weaklings for swimming in a lukewarm bath. Eager to see what the fuss was about, myself and a friend braved the lake in Hyde Park on a windy and overcast day over the summer. Being somewhat accustomed to the shock of suddenly entering near-freezing water from my time spent on Irish atlantic beaches, the Serpentine turned out to be surprisingly bearable to acclimatise to. Granted, I couldn't match the stamina displayed by the many tri-athletes and Channel swimmers who use it to train, but having braved the cold and weedy waves of the Serpentine, I feel I have added a valuable London string to my bow.