great place to swim and has plenty to do get fit also have…read moreMassage has been in northampton for at least 30 years great place to go enjoy

Great place for a swim. The only downside is the lack of parking and it gets busy by 10 AM…read moreespecially during Summer.

I am only reviewing the INDOORS section of the Hitchin pool. There is a large outdoor pool, which…read moremy cousins, who are resident Hitchin-ians, assure me is fabulous in sunny weather. Sadly, the outdoor pool is open only for limited months. I had watched the Olympics, and was freshly inspired by Michael Phelps and Co. to get in the pool and swim some laps. The Hitchin Swimming Centre is only a 10 minute walk from where I was living in Hitchin, so I was excited to check out the facility. I had e-mailed a gent that worked there about the different swimming activities, and was thrilled to learn that they had masters swimming AND water polo! YES! Upon arrival at the pool, I was totally ignored by the staff. Maybe it was the sweep of the gold medals by the Phelps and friends, maybe it was my CLEARLY gorgeous American beauty that through them off- I stood there like a bump on a log while the front desk lady talked on the phone. When I finally was granted permission to see the pool, I was horrified. I could feel the heat coming from the in-door lap lanes upon entering the locker room. I seriously do not know how anyone could do a workout in that water. When I burst out onto the pool deck, I realized I had also burst into a sweat. It must have been over 90 degrees- it was like an Arizona summer! I was immediately told I could not wear my flip flops on the pool deck- awesome, I would have a take home prize of foot fungus! I then called the master's coach several times, trying to coordinate a time to come and swim with the program. He called me back once, then silence. It was so "He's just not that into you." I will have to return in the summer, in disguise, and check out the outdoor pool- maybe I can wear socks on the deck....

Splash is my local pool and I try to go swimming there once a week. It has a normal size pool with…read morea lane area which is sectioned off for serious swimmers that want to keep swimming lengths. There is also a childrens pool and a paddling area which is attached to the main pool, but sectioned off too. There is an area of bubbles that you can sit in situated in the paddling area ( not a jacuzzi though)and a waterfall effect which is switched on periodically. Separate to the pools is a flume, but I haven't seen that in use for a long time so not sure if that is used anymore. The changing rooms are clean and the locker system is modern. You don't need any change for the lockers,as you pay for it at reception with your swimming fee. You are then given a wrist band which opens the lockers, although I'm not sure what is to stop someone opening someone else's locker as they are not numbered, unless they are programmed so that you can only open one locker with each band. The water is usually quite warm which is always good as I hate getting into a freezing pool. There are swimming clubs and aqua aerobics on at certain times too. The swimming pool has it's own free car park too.

A fantastic fun swimming pool with waterslide and floats. The staff are really friendly and helpful…read moreand there is an excellent swimming school with great teachers ( although there is often a long waiting list) Within the town centre so good public transport and also a large free onsite car park.

This was the first new pool we visited this summer as part of our annual search for the best pools…read morein reach of London. Not sure how we heard of it but it came recommended so we jumped on a train to Bedford from St. Pancras and 36 minutes later were stepping out into blazing sunshine. Perfect day for a swim. We found the bus station and a bus that would drop us out of town to the pool. Pretty much in the middle of nowhere with a large Tesco next door and just one bus an hour. The pool itself is housed in a striking pyramid shaped building with various ponds and water features dotted around. No slides snaking outside which was a little disconcerting as that what we were coming for. Inside we found a great family fun pool with two slides reached from a central tower. The 55 metre 'yellow screamer' and the 45 metre red turbo 'flume of doom'. The red one is the quicker of the two and a solid slide - the yellow version a bit tame for us now. At the bottom of the slides they have a digital display that flashes up your speed and how long it took you to go down the slide - a nice touch I thought and not a feature I have seen anywhere else. The slides aren't the reason to visit though....there are much better options available elsewhere. This pool has a lazy river that snakes in a circle oustside the pool. In the summer months they open a door way and you can swim out into the sunshine and boy was it hot! We had struck lucky...water jets propel you round the route and yes it was busy but not uncomfortably so. Inside the rest of the pool is typical beach style so perfect for little ones. They have a separate quiet pool with bubble beds. Main pool has a decent wave machine, various jacuzzi pools, jet pool and a couple of swim round the island rapid streams. Really good mix of mushroom showers and underwater jets propelling you around. This is a well designed pool with plenty to do over a couple of hours. This is really great pool for under 10s that are confident swimmers - worth the journey - if the sun is out we will definitely be back. Decent changing rooms and showers. There is a cafe which is less great but fine for picking up a post swim slush puppy - I would avoid the coffee. We took a picnic and found a shady spot under some trees outside.

I take my kids here and they love it. It is around fifiteen pounds for a family ticket, which is…read moregood value, as you can stay in as long as you like. it has two slides, a wave machine and a number of Lazy River type attractions, where you get pulled around by a current. My kids love the one which takes you outside in a loop, but be warned the current is quite strong, it can be hard to get out of the loop!! There is a large communal changing room which was clean. On the last occasion we went, I took them to the cafe afterwards. it served the usual kid stuff, chips and nuggets. it wasn't too expensive, I would say it was on a par with McDonalds. Good for a rainy day.

Can you keep a secret guys?? Not many people seem to have noticed it yet, but a year and a half…read moreafter the Olympics there's some exciting stuff going on in Stratford again... Yep living near the Park is paying off nicely at the moment - my new local council swimming pool is none other than the Aquatics Centre! It's been open to the public for the last few weeks and I have to say it's a pretty special venue - I still get tingles every time I walk in. It's £4.50 per swim session for an adult and there's an easy peasy online system to book in advance. There are 2 full size pools inside - the Competition Pool for the hardcore swimmers and the Training Pool where they separate the lengths into two 25m sections. Personally I found a 50m pool to be ridiculously long in real life (my superwoman stamina is a err work in progress) so I tend to do laps in the 25m lanes. You choose a pool and a start time online but it's pretty lax once you're in, and you can stay as long as you like. The water is a nice slightly warm temperature and it's usually a uniform 1.2m depth all the way along (though somehow they can change the depth of different sections - the mind boggles!). It's not all lanes - there are also sections of the pool roped off for 'fun' as well as swimming lessons. Also saw signs for a total wipeout stylee 'Splash Time' for kiddies at weekends that sounded like great fun if anyone wants to lend me a child?! The reason it misses a 5th star is that the changing rooms and shower facilities are just not that great. It's spacious yes and there are plenty of cubicles, hairdryers and lockers, but the layout is a little confusing (quite a wander from the lockers to the female showers), they seem to have too many staff/cleaners milling around not doing much, and the showers themselves seem temperamental and need you to wave a hand past every 3 seconds. Is this how Michael Phelps showered?! (*pauses to enjoy the mental picture*) Ahem. Yeah I expected better. So remember to bring your own towel+toiletries, a plastic bag for your wet cozzie (I haven't spotted a drying machine yet) and a £1 coin for the lockers. And please only tell your special friends - the nicest thing at the moment is that it isn't too busy on weeknights! See you there :)

The swimming pool itself is great, most of the time quiet, you can choose your line depending on…read morehow fast you want to swim so that you don't get disturb by other people while swimming. The changing space however is really poor for this kind of aquatics centre - you can really tell you're just meant to come, quickly change, swim and leave. There are few showers and they are quite temperamental. The lockers and cubicles are just not that comfortable to use. So it's a very good pool, but come there for exercise only and not hoping for a full spa experience!

These guys are great! I have always wanted to learn how to swim since early childhood, but never…read morehad the courage. My mother made an appointment without me knowing and I just had to go and try it out. Just a week after I was as happy and free as a dolphin in the water and I could swim quite well. Really friendly instructors and very understandable and encouraging behaviour. Thank you guys!

What a great 25m pool, and gym if you want to use for £6.50 per day single entry…read more Friendly staff, really clean facility. No restrictions on using fins or snorkel for lap swimming. Swimmers are super friendly, and considerate. Helped me get comfortable when one lane was too slow for me, and the other a little fast. Food in snack bar is delicious, vegan options, and super friendly staff. Water is perfect temperature for me. I like warm water, this is not too warm, or too cold. You can get in without shivering, but it's not bath water. I'm going to spend a lot of time here! If you have kids there's a play room. Basketball, five a side football, tennis, huge work out rooms. Go see for yourself when in London. It's a 15 min taxi ride from Camden Market. Stephen

This is a new pool. It is generally well run and kept clean, the water is not chlorinaed and it's…read moreall quite warm. Its overlooked by a good but expensive cafe. There are good changing facilities and a whole sports centre and library in the complex. The pool is also overlooked by the gym. This makes it more interesting swimming around as you can look at the various people in the cafe and gym. If you're a Camden Resident you have to take out club membership or you can have a one off swim for the usual price, something over £3. I get concessionary swim rates so it's free for me in the mornings. ou cannot dive as it's only 2 metres deep at the deep end, shallow end is quite deep too at about 1 metre, so not suitable for little kids. They do allow kids with floats in most times, and sometimes it's crowded if you are trying just to do laps. Showers are warm (I am talking about the ladies here but I believe its the same in the gents) and staff are polite. This is a big improvement on the pool there used to be, but unfortunately its' smaller There's a smaller pool which they can vary the depth of - this is usually used for little kids and classes like water aerobics. Very small kids like to play outside in the big water feature which is very shallow and just right for toddlers and tots. There is also a soft play on the site, in my opinoin pretty expensive at about 8 pounds

Leisure World is the perfect place for wet school holidays. The complex houses ice skating, bowling…read moreand a water park. It's possible to buy a day ticket and do all three activities. The bowling is much the same as anywhere else. The ice rink is quite small which is great for beginners (not too far from one side to the other). The place is very noisy .There is loud disco music with people screaming and shouting to be heard above the noise. The ice is very 'wet' with big puddles of water so falling means getting soaked. However, it's cheap and cheerful. (Take a change of clothes and gloves) The water park is great fun. Again, there is very loud music so it is impossible to talk. There are a number of really good flumes. As you can imagine there are long queues for each ride. There is a shallow lagoon area for toddlers and a café/ spectators area. The water park needs a really good clean. There is fungus growing in places, discarded plasters on the floor and grime in the cracks. If you can ignore this you can have a good day out.

When my family and I visited the Leisure World, we only really experienced the water park which I…read morewas seriously impressed with in general. Some great slides to mess about on, a nice safe area for younger kids and the "rapids" which flow around in a circuit seem to keep people amused for ages. We visited on the Saturday of a bank holiday weekend early in the afternoon and I expected the whole place to be totally packed solid. I was surprised to see that it wasn't too bad at all and, once having gone into the pool area, it was still relatively quiet for an hour or so. There were queues for the bigger slides (up to 20 minutes or so) but some of the smaller ones were minimal. By the time we left a couple of hours later it had become a lot more crowded and slightly less suitable for much younger kids. However, this is not a criticism but rather an observation and something worth knowing - it's worth taking this into account and adjusting when (if?!) you visit accordingly. I found it all to be clean and safe with a sufficient number of staff at all times. It cost close on £20 for 2 x adults and a 5 year old which could be considered a bit pricey for a swimming pool. However, bearing in mind all the facilities, it's not comparable to a swimming pool and therefore reasonable in my opinion. Other than the water park itself, you can see from the website that there is also a cinema, skating rink, bar, various amusements, a nightclub and a bowling alley as well as a few places to eat. The perfect place to spend a few hours whatever the weather. After messing about in the water park we tried the Pizza Hut. Nothing special but as expected apart from the pizzas could have done with being a bit hotter. No big deal to be honest. The service was friendly but I'd imagine that it could suffer a bit if it was a lot busier. All in all Leisure World in recommended :o)

I live a good swim. And here at the Kentish Town Pool I get to have a good swim in a beautiful…read moreenvironment. The main pool here is one of the Victorian-era swimming pools and it's really quite magnificent to swim in it...especially when at certain times of the day the sun hits the water just right. I use the Better Health App to sign up for a swim. I avoid the busy times - early mornings and evenings - and so most of the times I share the lane only with a few other folks.

A fabulous new gym at a price to…read more suit everyones pocket : love it!

This was my regular gym from a few years ago The gym itself was lovely, great place to workout…read morelooks modern and clean. The only issue I had was with the staff at the main reception of the Venue, there was a few that seemed to be very unprofessional (giggling to each other when I would arrive to check in & making off putting glances) At this time I was pretty much a new & overweight must be said) member to the gym scene, so this was really off putting and made me feel very uncomfortable in returning.. after a few months I decided to leave my membership and go elsewhere. The staff in the gym itself are wonderful, extremely helpful & considerate. There is a wide range of equipment available for cardio and strength training which is great. I have not used the swimming pools but the view you get from the gym is great, looks like a great place to swim. Won't be returning though due to the bad experience with staff as the first impression you get of a place is in the hands of the reception, even though not all staff at reception were bad the impact of a few can have a major impact. Have found another gym company & am greatly enjoying it there.

This is not a bad swimming pool, but I suspect the casual/leisure swimmer may disagree. The primary…read morereason I like coming here is the water temperature, it is what many would probably consider cold but for serious swimming this is perfect. You really can go for it here without the overheating problems you get in some public pools where the temperature is just too high to be comfortable. The only problem really is that they have followed this concept through to the jacuzzi in the health suite, its barely warmer than the pool. Although I can't stand it when it's skin peelingly hot here it is just too cold, it needs to be hot enough to relax and sooth the tired muscles that have been worked in the gym or pool and this just doesn't do that. Other than that great, changing rooms are clean, if a little shabby in places. The staff seem reasonably pleasant and helpful and although I haven't used it the gym looks decent, it's on the first floor and looks out over the pool.