Each year thousands of us enjoy paddling, swimming, surfing or just splashing around in the sea yet, despite enormous investment by the UK's water industry, some UK bathing waters still pose an unacceptable health risk to water users. That’s why we produce the Good Beach Guide - a comprehensive guide to bathing water quality around the UK and one of the drivers for positive change in UK water quality.

By encouraging people to swim at MCS Recommended beaches, we can keep up the pressure for improvement and provide vital information for people who value clean seas by helping them choose beaches with the cleanest bathing water. Only beaches with the best water quality make it onto the MCS Recommended beaches list. Use our beach search or download our full UK list to find clean bathing beaches near you.

Published by MCS since 1987, the Good Beach Guide began life as a ‘Golden List’ of beaches in 1960. Tony and Daphne Wakefield had tragically lost their six-year-old daughter, Caroline, after she contracted polio swimming at a sewage contaminated beach. Outraged that raw sewage was being pumped into the sea, the Wakefields published a new ‘Golden List’ of clean bathing beaches. This, along with other clean sea campaigns, finally led to the introduction of European standards for bathing water quality in 1976 and massive investment by the water industry to clean up raw sewage - have a look at the interview on BBC from 1957 on the right-hand side of this page.

Health risks from swimming in the sea are now considerably lower and water quality is regularly tested during the summer at many UK beaches. But there is still work to be done and, by continuing to publish our Good Beach Guide, we are proud to be pushing for change 24 years after the Wakefields entrusted us with their 'Golden List'.