It was a bone-chilling February morning in London in 2013. I could not sleep well and decided to go for a walk. I had not been in Hyde Park since my teenage years, so I decided to walk to the famous urban park.

With my hands stuffed inside the warmest jacket, I had rarely experienced this sort of damp cold. The cold seemed to go right through my clothes with a light flurry of snowflakes falling. I could see my breath as I walked through one of the largest and oldest Royal Parks in central London.

I was walking fast to speed up my blood circulation. But there was a distinct sound that I heard; a sound that every swimmers knows instinctively: the rhythmic sounds of a freestyle arm stroke.

Who in the world would be swimming in this cold? I was walking towards these sounds that were differently outside. But how could that be?

I would soon find out.

Just Get On With It

“Just get on with it” is a saying used by members of the Serpentine Swimming Club, a group of hardened and eclectic swimmers, endurance athletes, fitness swimmers and triathletes based in London, England.

I had never heard of that phrase before. How ignorant was I? Very ignorant as I would soon find out.

I learned the headquarters of the Serpentine Swimming Club is located at the lido in the Serpentine in Hyde Park – exactly the location where I had found myself this brutally cold February morning. The Club was open year-round. One of the Club’s regular events revolves around its Saturday morning handicap races, held at 8:00 am throughout the year. Throughout the year. I let that thought percolate slowly.

Then the lido came into view and I saw swimmers swimming. Those were the arm strokes that my ears picked up, but my eyes had a hard time believing. I was in awe of these people – it was clear there was not a stitch of neoprene on these swimmers. I could not believe what they were doing. It was like a hallucination or a dream that suddenly became apparently real. I was not seeing things or imagining the impossible. There were literally swimmers casually walking towards the Serpentine without hesitation, and calmly entering the 1ºC water without hyperventilation or apparent worries.

Irish-born and -bred John Tierney, one of the regulars who frequents the lido [shown above], introduced himself to me as I stared as the group, “Isn’t it just lovely with the fog?” said Tierney that was more of a statement than a question.

Tierney’s early morning crew included Ned Gammell who swam 4 lengths of the 110-yard course set on the banks of the 2012 London Olympic Games marathon swim. “I used to only swim in the summer…and then I met this crew. They convinced me to swim year-round,” smiled the Londoner who was pink-skinned, experiencing significant afterdrop. “It is cold, but it is really cold when you get cut by ice. But I go for a run afterward and warm up.”

Upon conversation, I realized how embarrassed I was for privately thinking it was cold.

Tierney and Gammell fascinated me with their seemingly impervious physicality against the cold.

The locker room of the Serpentine Swimming Club is functional and small. But the showers that are used by the team are the same temperature as the Serpentine: cold, extremely cold. “And sometimes the lights don’t work. We just get on with it. We are a bit quirky here, but we have get a real camaraderie here, along with the Dunkirk spirit. Oh, and it is fantastic when it snows,” says William Delaszle, another regular from Oxford.

Brilliant. My notions of what is possible were immediately knocked into the next orbit. What I witnessed was superhuman. But what was more incredible was the fact that Tierney and none of this colleagues acted like they were doing something superhuman.

But they were. They definitely were.

“I used to swim in Oxford in the River Thames. In the dark and almost got hit by boats twice. I thought it was crazy, so I decided to start swimming here,” explains Delaszle, a giant stock of a man who was a former Army officer.

The ability to handle the cold seemed to come with the territory. It was a territory that I quickly understood was not in my wheelhouse.

Bonnie Garmus, an American author and writer originally from California and now living in London, is another convert to the cold water swimming that is so popular throughout the United Kingdom. “Well, I like cold water swimming a lot. You know, actually, it’s the UK’s fault as I picked up that habit in the UK. I think you guys like to ‘do’ cold – cold water swimming, wild swimming, just in skins. So now unbelievably, I swim just in a swimsuit in the ponds in the winter, but then in the summer, I use a wetsuit for longer swims.”

Laure Latham (IISA bio here) is the first female president of the Serpentine Swimming Club in 160 years in 2025. “In many ways, the club has changed while staying the same. We now count 3,000 members and have become the largest open water swimming club in England. Yet, we still use the tiny changing room and we still swim in the dark in the winter without lifeguards. We are a British time capsule that’s keeping up with the times, which comes with its own set of challenges and rewards.”

I loved this experience – learning how durable, adaptable, resilient humans can become.

Serpentine Swimming Club

The Serpentine Swimming Club was inducted in the International Marathon Swimming Hall of Fame as an Honor Organization in the Class of 2022.

The Serpentine Swimming Club was founded in 1864 and became a haven for cold water enthusiasts and is currently also a major hub for marathon and channel swimmers. The Club has a historic focus on the English Channel.  Record-setting members include the first female and male swimmers to complete triple crossings and swimmers with the most male crossings including Alison Streeter, MBE, Jon Erikson, and Kevin Murphy. Other Club members honored by the IMSHOF include Nick Adams in the Class of 2013, Rosemary George in the Class of 2003, and Colin Hill in the Class of 2017.

Many other Club members have completed marathon swims around the world including Catalina Channel in California, Maui Channel in Hawaii, Robben Island in South Africa, Manhattan Island in New York, Strait of Gibraltar between Spain and Morocco, Lake Zurich in Switzerland, Lake Annecy in France, Cook Strait in New Zealand, Round Jersey in the Channel Islands, Jersey to France, Round Guernsey, Lake Geneva/Lac Leman in Switzerland/France, plus many crossings of the most famous fresh-water swims in the United Kingdom such as Loch Lomond, Loch Ness, and Lake Windermere.

Additionally and very importantly, Serpentine members have a long history of supporting and giving back to the swimming community. Members have long held officer and committee positions in the International Marathon Swimming Hall of Fame and in Honor Organizations inducted in the International Marathon Swimming Hall of Fame, the British Long Distance Swimming Association, the Channel Swimming Association, and the Channel Swimming & Piloting Federation.

I love it when the Serps often say, ‘Just get on with it‘ to visitors from foreign lands – like me – who hesitate to swim in mid-winter in water that has a sheet of thin ice on the water’s surface. Its members are truly about open water swimming and the camaraderie and mutual support that swimmers are known for. I love their Spartan changing facilities and the members who come smiling widely after swimming in the Serpentine in the mid-winter mornings before 9:30 am.  It can be cold and foggy – or sunny and warm – but they all come out happy and ready to take on the rest of their day. The Club is remarkable and truly historic and has long forged a lasting place in the legacy of the sport.

For more information about the Serpentine Swimming Club, visit serpentineswimmingclub.com.

Serpentine Swimming Club Officers

• Club President: Laure Latham
• Committee: Christine Bavington, Jesse Kelly, Craig Kerr, Ilyan Kovatchev, Nicola Sanderson, Stanley Ulijaszek
• Honorary Treasurer: Victoria Rock
• Honorary Secretary: Phil Smith
• Captain: Deirdre Ward
• Vice-Captain: Alan Luckhurst
• Honorary Handicapper: Daniel Lobo
• Assistant Honorary Handicapper: Thanos Pappasavvas, Michael Barron
• Honorary Judge: Rosemary George
• Honorary Auditor: Vacant
• Honorary Welfare Officers: Sakura Hingley, Norman Jones
• Honorary Archivist/Historian: Brian Thomas, Mike Olizar
• Vice Presidents: Rob Ouldcott, Nick Adams, Eric Carter, Rosemary George, Robin Hunter-Coddington, Norman Jones, Peter Larrad, Alan Mitchell, Michael Olizar, Brian Thomas

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