Edinburgh is a city that is blessed with some great leisure centres, and the WHEC is one of these. It's got some excellent facilities, and it's the swimming pool that I will be focusing on in this review.
The first thing to mention about the WHEC is that the changing area, for the men at least, is fairly open plan. The 'cubicles' are basically low tiled walls that come up to about waist level, so if you get a bit self-conscious bear this in mind. There's then the normal selection of lockers before you move through the showers and into the pool area itself.
The pool is a 25 metre free-form (i.e. of no particular shape) pool, that has a separate toddler pool, and a 3.4m diving pool that has a 1m springboard and a 2m platform board. The main pool will occasionally have lanes set up, with a circuit in operation for those that want to swim lengths. All swimmers can use the diving pool as well, unless there are diving lessons taking place.
I've come here three times now with a children's charity I help voluntarily with. All three times have been great. For at least a couple of the times, they had some large floats available, meaning that the kids had a lot to keep them entertained.
Although it may not have the flumes that Leith Waterworld has, it is aimed much more at the person who wants to swim, and it definitely succeeds in providing a great swimming envrionment. read more