Enough is Enough
Up until now we've turned a blind eye to the shabby outdated building, the ever present mould, the rusty decrepit fittings, the freezing cold water and the disinterested, distracted staff, but yesterday The Waterfront Leisure Centre in Woolwich hit a new low.
We checked the website in the morning (you have to with this pool because they're a law unto themselves when it comes to opening times) and saw that the pool was open for family swimming from 12pm until 3pm. We arrived with our two excited little boys (8 & 4) at just after 12pm and, after queueing for a short while, paid £16.55 and went through to the changing rooms - time stamped on the receipt as 12:13pm.
As usual the floor of the changing rooms was filthy but so what? We were going to have a good couple of hours of swimming, splashing and sliding with our two little fellas on a reasonably sunny May Bank Holiday Monday!
Or so we thought.
After changing, we got into the pool at around 12:30pm. At 12:59pm the life(less) guards suddenly sprang into action, positioning 'Pool Closed' signs all over the place and telling everyone to get out. When we asked why, we were told it was so they could have their lunch and clean, same as they did at the weekends. [NB. This is the only pool I've ever come across that kicks out paying customers in the middle of the day so its staff can eat their lunch! The concept of staggered lunches obviously hasn't made it to the Woolwich management yet.]
Of course kicking everyone out at the same time meant that a queue quickly developed for the changing rooms, so we were left standing shivering for a good 10 mins before we could get into a cubicle.
When we were changed we went to reception and asked the lady who'd taken our money why she hadn't mentioned that the pool would be closing at 1pm. She said she "must've forgot" and "what do you want, a refund?". I said under the circumstances that would be nice, so she shouted across to somebody to "go and fetch a Duty Manager".
The Duty Manager was completely disinterested in our situation and just kept repeating that we "should've checked the website", even after we'd explained that we had and there was no mention of the one hour closure anywhere.
And that was that. We left with 2 very confused and unhappy children, and £16.55 worse off for a 30min swim.
There are so many better equipped, better maintained and better run pools that I'm not sure why anyone would choose to go to the Waterfront Leisure Centre. It's unfriendly, unclean and unhelpful, and it needs to be put out of its misery as soon as possible - on health and safety grounds if nothing else, because sooner or later, something bad is going to happen there.
Save yourself the hassle (or possibly something worse) and go elsewhere. read more
