At 6am on a bright sunny morning in late May this year, I joined a gathering of excited Brightonians in the line to try out the water at the new Sea Lanes for the first time. I left an hour later slightly astonished. Looking around like Alice in Wonderland at the setting I had to pinch myself. 

When we first moved ‘down from London’ seven years ago, I insisted that I had to be able to see the sea from the house. I thought that I would buy a wet suit and a dry robe and immediately morph into a near-fish-person at one with the ocean I’d made my neighbour. I would be one of Brighton’s swimmers. That didn’t happen. Instead as a freelancer trying to work, commute, settle our family in, sort out our damp and crumbling house, the years passed… I never did get that dry robe (Ed: quite right too)

Bubbling along since we arrived has been this talk of a beach pool down at Black Rock – a regeneration project around the old Peter Pan Park on Madeira Drive. It wasn’t an area of Brighton we often went to. For us, it was a case of turning right at the sea, walking to Hove Lawns or further along, with our dog and our kids and friends. 

Planning issues seemed to dog the project. Every so often there’d be word that there were plans. There would be the odd mention in the paper. Then… nothing. Would it ever happen? Nay-sayers galore doubted it. And then in 2021 after vast negotiations with the council and local heritage and resident groups, the plan got its permission. It turns out that surely and steadily the main players with the vision for the pool were working away to make this dream come true. 

Immense challenges to the building process itself were an ongoing battle none of us knew about. 

While we all were grumbling because well you know, it’ll never happen, it’s pie in the sky, good things like this never come off – the project team dealt quietly with the delicate removal of huge concrete slabs, ever so gently so as not to de-stablise the terraces, issues with materials for the carbon-neutral structures (pandemic legacy too) and terrible weather conditions – all huge hurdles to the build. The changing rooms are made of materials that come from unrecyclable plastics like toys, make up, flip flops, bottle tops… and they have tried to ensure the place is future proofed too – when hydrogen power arrives, the Sea Lanes can switch, everything is in place. And it’s a triumph. 

The National Open Water Centre – aka, The Sea Lanes – conceived as “a stepping stone into the sea” has for the past three months never failed to deliver pure joy. The water sparkles and welcomes you in from 6am to 9.30pm during the week, a little earlier closing time on weekends. . And when it’s stormy, the water whips up little choppy waves to remind you where you are and make you work a little harder.  

When you stand in those changing rooms the stickers telling you about the fact that they’ve used stuff generally headed for land-fill to make the doors and benches is somehow incredibly reassuring. Big smiles are exchanged, little chats about the water temperature (it’s been matching the sea all summer and will be between 15 and 19 degrees in the winter) and where someone got their wet suit… “What will you wear in the Winter?” “Do you have a spare hat I can borrow?” “Have you seen my new heads-up-display goggles?” “The wind’s up today, it’s a real work out in there!” “The water’s crisp this morning!” “This place makes me happy”.  

I think we recognise each other now by our tattoos or our hats – these became mandatory (hats not tattoos but I’m considering a fish one since you ask)  in August and after a few furrowed brows I think really no-one cares. It’s kind of nice. I put on my swimming hat and I feel even more in character as the Brighton swimmer of my dreams. 

-Hat-Guy said “Hello” this morning. “Not seen you for a while, I always know you by your tattoos! Everything OK?” “Yes”, I said, “just been in Cornwall for the weekend”. And off we swim. 

There are lockers and showers beach side that are free for sea swimmers to use and there’s a smooth pathway to the sea to walk down without suffering Brighton’s pebble agony. You can always buy some water shoes at the lovely Paddle People shop and a coffee from Fika afterwards. Pop up to Photomatic for a picture to take home or investigate the myriad gym, yoga, sports massage, fitness outfits that have set up shop inside the 27 carbon neutral units. There’s even a little ice-cream parlour. It’s the home of swim-adventurers “Swim Trek” who offer an ‘endless pool’ approach to swim technique training, where you swim, resistance style, on the spot while an instructor shows you to adjust your technique and breathing til you able in the big pool. 

I did those very same lessons when I realised that in order to be that swimmer I’d always hoped to be I HAD to learn to crawl because… The other thing about the pool is you quickly realise 50 meters is BIG. Now I can swim a daily kilometer freestyle easiy. It’s really ALL about the breathing. Isn’t everything? 

What had been imagined as a bright and colourfully decorated complex initially has been realised – post public consultations – with a more muted colour-palette to better compliment its setting against the terraces of Madeira Drive. A good decision, I think, when you stand and look at it. And that’s often what I do. I stand on Madeira drive and marvel at this lively, vibrant, positive, hope-filled place. The colour is brought to the place by the busy-ness of the businesses, the happy people waiting for coffee, breakfast, lunches or a beer in the evening sunshine. Dogs, stand up paddleboards, runners, walkers, kids, kites, bikes and yes, brightly colour swimming robes. Possibly also dogs-in-swim-robes.

“Yellow Wave” started it with their lovely beach volleyball set up and fab café but Sea Lanes pool and it’s village are the cherry on the cake. It’s a world class undertaking, you feel like Brighton is really showing off. Loving its beach, loving its seaside setting, loving its people actually and delivering aspiration that’s achievable. Grumblers say it’s just another members club – it really isn’t though! You can swim as a non-member but it just makes sense to join – like I did at my local pool. It’s just a few pounds more and a million miles away in terms of spiritually delivering just what I need. They even run a monthly beach-clean with a free coffee at the end of it.  People are starting to gather here and we all need this as a community of human beings, places to gather that make us feeling hopeful. 

The water ALWAYS lifts my spirits – get into the blue to shake off the blues I always say to myself – it connects me to not only myself, my ability in the water, my sense of strength and presence but to the other smiling people I share the pool with. And that is more important now than ever it was. 

There’s now a reason to turn left at the pier. 

I think we recognise each other now by our tattoos or our hats – these became mandatory (hats not tattoos but I’m considering a fish one since you ask)  in August and after a few furrowed brows I think really no-one cares. It’s kind of nice. I put on my swimming hat and I feel even more in character as the Brighton swimmer of my dreams. 

Yellow-Hat-Guy said “Hello” this morning. “Not seen you for a while, I always know you by your tattoos! Everything OK?” “Yes”, I said, “just been in Cornwall for the weekend”. And off we swim. 

There are lockers and showers beach side that are free for sea swimmers to use and there’s a smooth pathway to the sea to walk down without suffering Brighton’s pebble agony. You can always buy some water shoes at the lovely Paddle People shop and a coffee from Fika afterwards. Pop up to Photomatic for a picture to take home or investigate the myriad gym, yoga, sports massage, fitness outfits that have set up shop inside the 27 carbon neutral units. There’s even a little ice-cream parlour. It’s the home of swim-adventurers “Swim Trek” who offer an ‘endless pool’ approach to swim technique training, where you swim, resistance style, on the spot while an instructor shows you to adjust your technique and breathing til you able in the big pool. 

I did those very same lessons when I realised that in order to be that swimmer I’d always hoped to be I HAD to learn to crawl because… The other thing about the pool is you quickly realise 50 meters is BIG. Now I can swim a daily kilometer freestyle easiy. It’s really ALL about the breathing. Isn’t everything? 

What had been imagined as a bright and colourfully decorated complex initially has been realised – post public consultations – with a more muted colour-palette to better compliment its setting against the terraces of Madeira Drive. A good decision, I think, when you stand and look at it. And that’s often what I do. I stand on Madeira drive and marvel at this lively, vibrant, positive, hope-filled place. The colour is brought to the place by the busy-ness of the businesses, the happy people waiting for coffee, breakfast, lunches or a beer in the evening sunshine. Dogs, stand up paddleboards, runners, walkers, kids, kites, bikes and yes, brightly colour swimming robes. Possibly also dogs-in-swim-robes.

“Yellow Wave” started it with their lovely beach volleyball set up and fab café but Sea Lanes pool and it’s village are the cherry on the cake. It’s a world class undertaking, you feel like Brighton is really showing off. Loving its beach, loving its seaside setting, loving its people actually and delivering aspiration that’s achievable. Grumblers say it’s just another members club – it really isn’t though! You can swim as a non-member but it just makes sense to join – like I did at my local pool. It’s just a few pounds more and a million miles away in terms of spiritually delivering just what I need. They even run a monthly beach-clean with a free coffee at the end of it.  People are starting to gather here and we all need this as a community of human beings, places to gather that make us feeling hopeful. 

The water ALWAYS lifts my spirits – get into the blue to shake off the blues I always say to myself – it connects me to not only myself, my ability in the water, my sense of strength and presence but to the other smiling people I share the pool with. And that is more important now than ever it was. 

There’s now a reason to turn left at the pier.

By Ceri Barnes Thompson

Sea Lanes Brighton, 

300 Madeira Dr, Brighton BN2 1BX 01273 044163

http://www.sealanesbrighton.co.uk

Membership is from £50 per month