A heated 50-metre outdoor pool on Brighton's beach, open all year and built to ease swimmers towards the sea
Open to visitorsopen all year; every swim must be booked ahead online or in the app
Until 2023 this stretch of Brighton seafront below the Madeira Terraces, the long Victorian arcade of cast-iron arches along Madeira Drive, was a derelict site. Sea Lanes opened there in June 2023, billed as the UK’s first National Open Water Swimming Centre, and the idea is a stepping stone: you get used to swimming outdoors in the pool before trying the sea a few metres away. The pool is 50 metres long with six lanes, filled with chlorinated fresh water rather than seawater, and heated to at least 19°C all year round. A group of local businesses runs the site, with South Downs Leisure running the pool, and every swim has to be booked ahead online, in the app or by phone. The Luna Hut sauna is on site for warming up afterwards, Kemptown beach is right alongside, and the Royal Pavilion is about a kilometre north-west. Brighton station is about 2km north-west.
