Recommend me a South London swimming pool
- Thread starter RubyToogood
- Start date
London_Calling
Pleasant and unpatronising
If it was at New Addington, your best bet now is ebay.ska invita said:
RubyToogood
RubyTwobikes
HackneyE9 said:
.London Borough of Lewisham said:
lang rabbie
Je ne regrette les gazebos
RubyToogood said:
Was I the only one brave enough to venture into the "bracing" waters of Tooting today sans wetsuit.
(I was a tad concerned I might have heart failure having spent the last week swimming daily in the Med, but it really wasn't as cold as I'd feared - just the psychological downer of all those clouds!)
It was a darn sight emptier than the sunny last day of the summer season last year.
ice-is-forming
Good kids caught down in the never never
London_Calling said:
heh
ScallyWag II
New Member
I used to go to the one in Balham when I lived in Tooting. It's quite small (25 meters). It's on Elmfield Road nearer the Bedford Hill end.
ska invita
back on the other side
London_Calling said:
you know that!ice-is-forming said:heh
I used to swim there as a kid - me and my mates used to get stuck half way down the tube and have fights - ho ho! Memory of nearly getting beaten up outside by older kids till my mates mum pulled up, took off her slipper and chased them away! ... happy/crappy days...
RubyToogood
RubyTwobikes
I braved the temporary adult swimming arrangements at Crystal Palace this evening and it was actually pretty good, mainly because it was totally empty. I am less fussed about having only 25m length and 1m depth if I don't have to share it with anyone. And I hadn't realised the training pool has its own showering and changing facilities, which are pretty new and in good order (although seemingly no hot water, but it wasn't cold).
RubyToogood
RubyTwobikes
Good news - they're going to keep the small pool at Crystal Palace open until the main one reopens. It's a bit dismal going to the ghost ship that is the sports centre at the moment, and not ideal for the serious swimmer, but at least it's local (and there is hot water now).
Last I heard they still hadn't decided whether to knock it down and build a new pool or refurb the existing one. I can't wait as it's my local!!!
There was only a small cost saving in using the existing building, but the facilities would be a lot poorer and need more yearly revenue to maintain. Personally I think the building is worth it.
There was only a small cost saving in using the existing building, but the facilities would be a lot poorer and need more yearly revenue to maintain. Personally I think the building is worth it.
RubyToogood said:
david dissadent
New Member
Latchmere has a wave machine....
dynamicbaddog
run for your life
Wavelengths in Deptford
I really like the place, had membership there for years and go at least 3 times a week. The pool is a bit on the small side(they are in the process of adding another larger pool) but if you go there in the day there's not too many other people in there so there's plenty of room
Also they have very good sauna and steam room facilities.
I really like the place, had membership there for years and go at least 3 times a week. The pool is a bit on the small side(they are in the process of adding another larger pool) but if you go there in the day there's not too many other people in there so there's plenty of room Also they have very good sauna and steam room facilities.
snowy_again
Slush
david dissadent said:
speedo paedo speedo paedo speedo paedo speedo paedo
Met them a couple of times, was determined not to like them, but they turned out to be quite charming*
I'm missing the Lido, the beer belly is beginning to reappear and cycling isn't shifting it. I shall brave CP next week and report back.
* the band, not the paedo's.
RubyToogood
RubyTwobikes
I could do with another form of exercise really. I'm just not motivated to go to CP as much as I was to the lido, and now it's dark in the evenings, long walks are less of an option (although I refuse to be curfewed).
snowy_again
Slush
Might try and attempt the cycle from HH to CP as part of the belly shifting routine. Unfortunately I only have one (front) brake at the moment and that might make the journey home down the hill interesting... 
RubyToogood
RubyTwobikes
Any more recommendations? What's Tooting Leisure Centre like?
I have actually just stopped swimming because I don't really like the small pool at CP and am currently getting no exercise
Nearly all pools seem to be 25m which seems really measly to me now I've got used to the big pool at CP, Brockwell Lido and Tooting Lido. You do 5 strokes and hit the end. And the warmth of the water, yeuch!
One of my neighbours who belongs to the club at Tooting Lido was pressing me to join (you can swim all year round) but I'd much rather do that at Brockwell if it was available which of course it's not <cross>
I have actually just stopped swimming because I don't really like the small pool at CP and am currently getting no exercise
Nearly all pools seem to be 25m which seems really measly to me now I've got used to the big pool at CP, Brockwell Lido and Tooting Lido. You do 5 strokes and hit the end. And the warmth of the water, yeuch!
One of my neighbours who belongs to the club at Tooting Lido was pressing me to join (you can swim all year round) but I'd much rather do that at Brockwell if it was available which of course it's not <cross>
Tricky Skills
Well-Known Member
Clapham has been my pool of choice recently. The 33m pool is great and the changing rooms are basic, but adequate. Nice friendly staff.
London_Calling
Pleasant and unpatronising
I've mentioned West Wickham before - it's 33 metres - but I guess it's too inconvenient without a car. Excellent pool though.
gaijingirl
Well-Known Member
RubyToogood said:
Ruby - that's all well and good but I did join Tooting and did swim in February and believe me you won't be doing much more than a width - one length if you're really brave - I did the same at Brockwell in December. It's bracing but not exactly exercise in the sense of a proper swim! Brockwell will be open from May this year and for anything more than a bodyshock "icicle" dip you probably couldn't go a whole lot earlier in an unheated open pool - maybe a month or so at most.
lang rabbie
Je ne regrette les gazebos
Tricky Skills said:
[A pedant writes...]
Has anyone actually measured it?
I'd always assumed that Streatham and Clapham were both 100 feet long = 33 1/3rd yards = only 30.48 metres, meaning that you've got to do 17.6 (round it up to 18 for masochism) lengths to cover a mile and 32.8 lengths (round up to 33) to do a km swim.
But someone then suggested to me that some Imperial pools were actually 110 feet long (i.e 5 chains or 1/6th of a furlong) = 33.528 metres. So do you only need to do exactly 16 lengths for a mile and 29.8258 lengths for a km
Tricky Skills
Well-Known Member
An interesting point, possibly soon to be made irrelevant with the proposed shortening of the Clapham pool to a 'standard' 25m. Why on earth anyone would want to fill a part of a pool in is beyond me.
Try those cuddly Lib-Dems in Bournemouth - when the town built the godawful conference centre in the 80s, it's one saving grace was it had a big pool plus fun pool incorporated.
Two years ago the local council decided to fill it all in to make more space for conferences. Their argument? some of the B&Bs have their own pools (ie about the same size as a bath), and there was an out of town job somewhere or other for the locals. So instead of a city centre pool, walkable, and with views over English Channel, you now need a car to drive out of town. Genius.
London_Calling
Pleasant and unpatronising
First guess, to make it available for gala's and team/league swims?
Be easier to ask them though if you were that interested.
RubyToogood
RubyTwobikes
You're right <sigh>. My neighbour told me herself that she only manages a couple of widths this time of year.
I'll give West Wickham a go, it's not that far to go occasionally.
[A pedant writes...]
Has anyone actually measured it?
I'd always assumed that Streatham and Clapham were both 100 feet long = 33 1/3rd yards = only 30.48 metres, meaning that you've got to do 17.6 (round it up to 18 for masochism) lengths to cover a mile and 32.8 lengths (round up to 33) to do a km swim.
But someone then suggested to me that some Imperial pools were actually 110 feet long (i.e 5 chains or 1/6th of a furlong) = 33.528 metres. So do you only need to do exactly 16 lengths for a mile and 29.8258 lengths for a km
Do you mean the other way round - miles are longer than kms? (a km is 5/8 of a mile)
lang rabbie
Je ne regrette les gazebos
Forgot to multiply by 3 for feet to yards ratio!
I think it should have read
lang rabbie said:
... will correct again if necessary when sober in the morning
Forgot to multiply by 3 for feet to yards ratio!
I think it should have read
... will correct again if necessary when sober in the morning
I'll check it then !
RubyToogood
RubyTwobikes
Whatever it is, it's still short when you've got used to 50m and 80m. I hadn't realised how spoilt I was.
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