Charlton Lido and Lifestyle Club — Attraction in London

If you want to actually swim for fitness look for another place. The pool itself is nice, but all the times I went for a swim for fitness session (£11.50 for non members and £9.50 for members of Better gym) I’ve encountered several issues:

1. in the medium and fast lane there are people just walking or standing in the middle of the lane. The staff doesn’t really tell them to go to the slow lane, even though there’s the risk of crashing. In other Better facilities like the Aquatics Centre they would direct clients to the suitable lane.
2. toilets and showers are extremely dirty, people just throw toilet paper everywhere but in the right place. I even found the packaging of some goggles inside one of the toilets.
3. most of the toilets and showers cannot be locked, resulting in people opening the door continuously when you’re trying to have a shower and relax. Maybe let’s fix them?
4. mothers going to the female changing room with boys and leaving them roaming around. One of them today opened the door of my shower multiple times because he was left alone in there by his mother (again, let’s fix the door lock).
5. even though the price is not low (see above) there will be a guy that kicks you out after your 1hr slot is over. And, considering the issues with all the people not swimming in the medium and fast lane, it’s really hard if you have a training programme to follow and a target distance. The only positive thing I can say is that the swim doctor classes for adults are good, hence I’m giving 2 stars and...

Sunday 29th May, this is the seventh alternative BETTER swimming pool and the second lido I visited during the closure of the Aquatic Centre(for 2016 European Aquatics Championship). Very pleasant morning swim in the outdoor until I saw a wound dressing at the bottom in the middle of the pool. More vigilant cleaning work needed!

I arrived at the venue at 9:45am, staff at the reception reminded me and my friend that we'd need to change some 20p coins to operate the non-refundable lockers. I did ask her if I could leave my huge backpack aside without locking it as there's nothing valuables inside, and I'll need to take things out and use two lockers instead. She told me no, however the pool guards told me otherwise.

The pool itself is 50 metres in length, with half of the pool at 1-1.2 metres in depth and slowly increased to 2 metres at the other half of the pool. Water is super clean comparing with the London Fields Lido, HOWEVER, I did spot a couple of hair pins and a WOUND DRESSING at the bottom in the middle of the pool!!! By the state of it, I suspect that it's been sitting there for quite some time. Something that the management need to focus on soon!

The showers were really good and changing room is very clean. Free hair dryers for customers to use in the changing room as well. (Take notes, London Fields!) Only other thing I'd like see is a spin dryer for the swimwear as they're really handy to use after a nice swim.

I'm definitely going...

I came here today due to the warm weather and suitable for outdoor swimming, otherwise I wouldn’t visit if temperatures were below 25c as the pool doesn’t feel heated at all. The cost for a child at £5.50 is very good value but £11.50 for an adult is overpriced. I don’t understand why adults always have to pay twice the amount when we go to do the same thing! I did not enter the pool and let my son swim for the hour due to skin allergies. he is also a strong swimmer but an adult must accompany him as he is 7 years old. I would advise maybe lowering the cost of an adult ticket and maybe for those parents who won’t be using the pool to charge a small fee. Overall though the place is kept clean with lots of cubicles and showers. The staff at the front was overwhelmed there for more staff needs to be available as families were not entering on time for their time slots, there is also someone who comes round asking you to show your time slots which was not the easiest when you are trying to sunbathe! To police this better I would suggest that at every hour you have everyone leave the pool, and then the next lot of customers can enter. Some families weren’t leaving and it can become...