This school deserves 5 stars for calibre and effectiveness of teaching. I have watched my…read moredaughter's swimming come along steadily, with no fear or anxiety, from confident but lacking much skill, to now, with the sort of graceful stroke we all dream of but most of us never achieve even with years of lessons. Honestly - I had years of lessons and was a lifeguard throughout my youth and her stroke is far smoother than mine! The only slight down side is that the facilities at Astley Cooper could be better. The water quality is fine, but the changing rooms are grotty. And it would be nice if the pool was larger. Still, it is difficult for independent swim schools to find suitable pools for hire, and the calibre of teaching, small class size, and obvious enjoyment my daughter gets out of her swimming lessons (who'd have thought!) far outweighs this small downside.

For me and my wallet, this is as good as it gets. Virgin Active, at least in my neighborhood,…read moreoffers a wide variety of cardio machines, ample free weights and weight machines, and 2 studios for all sorts of cardiovascular and holistic exercises. Additionally, there is a pool, a kids-care, and a spa (which I have yet to try). Both the men's and women's locker rooms offer sauna and steam rooms, so for those less-than-comfortable gym-goers who don't want to sit in a room, half-naked with the opposite sex, this is key. Body Jam and V Core are my favorite classes. You get your heart pumping and core strengthening from these classes. But there are tons more to check out!

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!

I used to be a member of this gym when it was Cannons and am going back because I need to use a…read moreswimming pool as part of my training. The staff have been helpful and loved that I wasn't given the hard sell when making enquries to join. I also really like the Fitlinx system, great way of remembering what I've done in terms of workouts.

Although lately I don't really have enough spare time I try to keep myself in shape and that's why…read moreI go to Nuffield Health Fitness. My personal trainer created a great program that perfectly suits my body's characteristics and would boast the best results in the shortest period of time. The activity I enjoy the most is the aquaerobics followed by a deep tissue massage. The facility and the equipment are state of the art and the membership deals are quite affordable to anyone. A truly great place to work out.

Been a member at Hampton pool for about a year and going at least five times a week but now in the…read moreprocess of cancelling my membership... I have seen the place steadily decline over that period...Very unfriendly staff who in all that time have never said "hello, how are you?" etc, never once.. It seems to have attracted a very macho kind of swimmer, always clipping at your heals in the lanes making the swim deeply unpleasant... Not all of us are training for the Olympics..! Regularly now there are at least seven people in each lane. I've notice the older people not coming so much anymore possibly because of the bullying nature of some of the swimmers in the lanes which is very sad... The men's shower area is tiny with mould on the roof..Often filthy toilets.. Sometimes they decide to clean the floor in the middle of the day so you're dressing/undressing on a floor soaked with detergent.. The place seriously needs new management and a massive shake up as Hampton Pool has the potential to be amazing but is presently a very stressful and intimidating place to swim. Shame...

Us Brits, eh? Give us an inkling of hot weather and we all race to the beach or the local pool en…read moremass but come the colder months, you couldn't pay us to step near water. I point the finger at myself, by the way, but visiting Hampton open air pool recently made me wonder why I ignore this place for 9 months of the year. One of the things that I love about this pool is that it is open all. year. round. So you could come for a swim on Christmas Day if you wanted. Or, you could come on New Years Day and swim off the hangover from the night before. Before you all run off it horror, let me just tell you that the pool is heated. It is also an Olympic sized pool, which is divided into lanes so you can have a work out at your own pace without some local Michael Phelps coming up behind you. There are plenty of programmes here, like parent toddler, or aqua aerobics - but if you want to swim solo, best bet is to check the timetable website so you can see when the pool is best to visit. It's about £4.50 for a individual swim, but they do lots of packages that knock down the price.