This is a friendly local and convenient leisure centre. Colfes is actually a private school…read more However their sports facilities are so good that they hire these out to members of the public. It includes a great swimming pool and gym. They run great fitness classes. I have atteded the yoga classes and it is a great way to de-stress after work! There are different types of membership opportunities to suit different circumstances. They also have a lovely new cricket pavillion and cricket green. All in all a lovely local first class fitness centre!

From the owner: Welcome to Colfe's Leisure Centre, the best independent leisure centre in SE London/Lee/…read moreLewisham/Greenwich providing amazing facilities, at affordable prices. Memberships from just £31 per month with no contracts. One month and family memberships available, all conveniently located in Lee, Lewisham. Access to Swimming pool, Gym, Free Fitness Classes including yoga/Pilates/spin, Free Court/Pitch Hire including badminton/table tennis/ basketball/outdoor tennis. Facility/room Hire including theatre/pavilions/halls/pitches/sports grounds/classrooms. Free parking, priority bookings. All located in SE London/Lee, close to Lewisham and Greenwich. Also on offer-Children's football, badminton, tennis and basketball coaching, children's swimming lessons, adult badminton and tennis's lessons in SE London.

Great local centre, under new management since lockdown. We mainly go there for swimming lessons…read moreand for fun with the kid, who give them a strong 4 1/2

outrageous!!! . Shocked to received a phone call told me my daughter's swim lesson next week is…read moredelayed. but my daughter has quit the swimming lesson for two years. found that kept charging us for membership through direct debt for two years. It is not a normal gym membership, it is a class membership. For two years they just pretended not notice that my daughter did not take any of the lessons, while still put my daughter in classes that they knew my daughter will never go. contact them and they refuse to refund. I cancelled the direct debt myself. You know what? they called me again told me there is one month notice to cancel and they want me to setup the direct debt again to charge me one more month. it is part of my fault not to read the small print. just found the age to join the membership is 8. the previous lessons we took was not bonded membership and I did not notice the difference.

I've been coming here for years and have finally seen one too many examples of appallingly bad…read moreconduct from the lifeguards. In my time coming here I've seen a lifeguard laugh at a disorientated, dehydrated old man asking for water and tell him to go buy some from the vending machine. I had to deal with it. I've seen people in the showers with all the drain covers off so anyone could stick their foot in the large, wide holes and break their ankle. Just a week ago I pointed out that the lanes were set up going in the wrong direction and that the children in the lane next to the adult fast lane could get injured by clashing arms . The lifeguard threw his arms up angrily and more or less said he didn't care. The swimming coach of the children dealt with it. When I later explained to the lifeguard why the lane directions alternate he stared in the other direction with his arms crossed saying "alright mate, alright mate" repeatedly like a sulking thirteen year old. The swimming lessons are very good and the teachers very professional - possibly the staff are from a different company. Other than that I'm stuck in a membership with this centre and have no desire whatsoever to have to keep dealing with the minority of rude, immature lifeguards.

Be very careful when signing up for a membership. I was…read morecollared by a membership assistant to join and if i am honest felt a bit pressured, nevertheless i put pen to paper and joined after being assured there was a cooling off period by the assistant. I Cancelled the membership the day afterwards and two years later discovered they had issued a County Court Judgement against me! Parkwood Leisure, who own the centres are not nice people to deal with, they are insensative and hide behind 'guidelines' so please please please tread very carefully.

This place has loads of drop in groups for the under 5's. All with cute names like caterpillars and…read moresprouts!! The staff are really friendly and sessions usually cost just £1.50 which is a bargain. There is a cafe which serves great food at very reasonable prices although the opening hours of the cafe do vary. It has something going on every day and I reccommend picking up a programme of events from the reception.

I only come for the pools; can't comment on the gym. Both pools are clean & in good order…read more The changing rooms need a clean as do the floors throughout. They do provide shoe/foot coverings though. Kids all over the gaff. All the time, every time. Time demarcations need to be tightened up.

One of the first pools we visited in our search for great leisure pools fifteen years ago beyond…read moreour local pools (we have 2 within twenty minutes walk). This had 2 large flumes, bubble beds, wave machine, large jacuzzi pool, beach style, short swim round the island and I remember using it a few times as the best pool we knew. Well, it was till the next year we discovered Waterfront in Woolwich and didn't go back. Last summer though we were looking for new flumes for my youngest daughter who was then aged eight and decided to go back so she could sample. Probably best not to revisit past loves. The first time we went after school practically everything was unavailable because the large swim school basically took over the whole pool. No slides, no wave machine, no bubble beds, no swim round the island (permanently gated off, jacuzzi pool broken - had been for a long time). Not much fun..... Gave it another chance though and went back on a Saturday morning.. The flumes were rubbish, the queues were the longest I have seen (bizarrely it had been like a massive scrum just to get in the centre - no idea why....)and you had to sit on a mat with a single water jet - not as they used to be.... Not a pool I will be visiting again but no doubt if we lived close I guess we would use it. The whole area was in the middle of a massive regeneration programme a year ago and they had just built a rather nice 25m lane pool which was great. Not sure if they have spent money on the leisure pool - there were rumours they were going to. The poolside showers were the worst I have ever experienced but I am guessing they have been sorted. I like the idea of the library being co-located with swimming pool - seems a good one to me. I know we would combine the two if we lived locally. I know we wont be back unless we hear the flumes have been refurbished and worth the visit.

I'm a fan of unusual & weird places and I would says that the New Docklands Steam Bath is…read moredefinitely high up on this list. I've first heard about this place when I was telling a friend about my wonderful experience at the Turkish "Hamam" in Dalston. My friend listened attentively to my story and then told me about this place in the docklands...I started doing some research about it the very same evening. Let me preface the following paragraphs by saying that I really like going to saunas: I treasure the whole spa-like experience that goes along with it. Yet, I'm not a fan of the high-end spas that have popped up everywhere these days. I prefer the down-to-earth saunas where locals go and where you don't have to save up for months for a single visit. The New Docklands Steam Baths fit this bill perfectly: upon my arrival I already sensed that I had discovered something unique. The bath is located in a very much deprecated area; many Londoners probably wouldn't set foot here. Outside the place I saw many black cabs parked as well quite a few Mercedes. Once inside I found my way to the café-area where the register is. I paid £14 plus a £10 deposit for the locker key. I went to change and dressed up in my bathrobe and my pechtemal (a traditional Turkish towel used in hamams) and then I ventured down into the baths. And let me tell you: it's gritty down there: not in a dirty and disgusting way though, but because of the kind of characters you find there and the way they interact with each other. I first walked around and familiarized myself with the localities: two dry saunas, and various steam rooms with varying degrees of humidity. While doing my online-research about this place I came across an article, in which the author talks about the two main sauna traditions being nurtured here: The Russian tradition of 'Venik' where you first heat up in the sauna and then beat yourself (or each other) with oak or birch branches that have been dried first and then soaked in water. And then there's the Jewish bathing ritual of "Schmeissing", where the men take turns in scrubbing each other down from top-to-bottom. This is done where one guy lays down on a bench in the very hot & steamy room and the other guy lavers him up, using what looks like cleaning mop and it works like a giant shaving brush. The "Schmeissing" seems to be a very ritualized and cliquish undertaking. I was talking to a regular, who mentioned that these guys are a club and meet regularly. According to my source, there's even a pecking order and it's quite hard to become part of this club. The Russians or Eastern Europeans seem to be less organized, but during my visit they would all arrive in pairs or small groups. They would all wear these funny felt hats, which protect the hat from the intense heat. (Note to myself: I need to get one of these!) When I arrived I was reading about the possibility of booking a massage. My inquiry with some of the locals resulted in the following answer: "Yeah, talk to Simon, the heavily-tattooed guy who's relaxing in the steam room over there." Non sooner advised than done. I went up to Simon and he told me that he'd be happy to give me a massage in about half-an-hours time. Deal! I made the best use of the 30 minutes and went into the hottest sauna and beat myself up with oak branches... Turns out that Simon had actually grown up in Germany and so we chatted in German for some time. Then he suggested that I should just relax and let him do his work. It was really a very nice massage and I felt great afterwards. I paid £15 for a thirty-minutes massage. (60 minutes would be £25.) Aside from the Jewish and Russian men, there's a third group of men here: the can drivers (my guess). They mostly sat in the common area, chatting and washing themselves ritually. It's really a funny bunch that hangs out here...including myself! All in all, I find this to be a wonderful oasis of some old-world London. I'm so glad that a place like this still exists. I might not become a regular, but I will certainly be back!

All I can say is avoid this place! It's situated in a rough area of London that appears to be a…read moregiant scrapyard - lovely! When you go in it's just as bad. People are rough, unfriendly and the place seems to be occupied by East End ruffians. It could be so good and the treatments could be superb. But nobody talks to you, nobody helps you on your first visit and nobody offers a massage. This place is terrible. Avoid at all costs!