London Aquatics Centre — Attraction in London

I hardly ever write reviews but am so frustrated with the way everyone active are ignoring its members theres no other option other than to complain on a public forum (in the hope they may listen to its members and change or at the very least, it discourages other unsuspecting members of the public to sign up and pay membership to a company that doesn't care about them)

Like myself, I believe most adult members join this centre to swim in the 50m competition pool, for a fitness uninterrupted swim that cannot be undertaken in a 25m pool (25m being more of a leisure pool for all needs, with all ages). However, Everyone active have ensured this is no longer possible for most adults with full time jobs. The competition pool has been/is going to be, closed this year so far to members the public on the following dates: Sat 11th, Sun 12th Jan Sat 18th, Sun 19th Jan Sat 25th, Sun 26th Jan Sat 1st, Sun 2nd Feb Sat 8th, Sun 9th Feb Sat 15th, Sun 16th Feb Sat 22nd, Sun 23rd Feb Sat 1st, Sun 2nd March Sun 16th March Sat 22nd, Sun 23rd March Fri 4th, Sun 5th April Thurs 10th, Fri 11th, Sat 12th, Sun 13th, Mon 14th, Tues 15th, Weds 16th, Thurs 17th, Fri 18th, Sat 19th, Sun 20th April Sat 26th, Sun 27th April

Presumably this will continue throughout the year, however the dates for May 2025 and beyond are not advertised on the app, or in the centre itself, or on the Everyone active company website. They are ONLY advertised per month, a month in advance, on the LAQ everyone (was Better company) website. So not easy to find if you don't know where to look. They are not issuing all of the dates or being transparent about these closures for the year ahead. I am guessing because there is no hiding from the fact the 50m pool is basically closed to the public almost 95% of weekends and this will deter people from signing up to memberships. Everyone active will not offer refunds to members because they tell you that the dive pool and training pool are open. However the training pool is packed and you cannot actually swim in it and obviously the diving pool is not for fitness uninterrupted lane swimming. I don't think anyone really wants a refund anyway they just want to swim uninterrupted in the 50m competition pool, however Everyone Active have ensured this is now impossible at the weekends, (and evenings , more about that in a minute) when most folk are free to use it.

Peak time weekday evenings, and weekday mornings, for the 50m competition pool, again up to half of the lanes are closed to prioritised private clubs, making it really stressful and unpleasant for users swimming in the remaining lanes as everyone is crammed in. Off peak weekdays a bit more room but again they take out lanes for private clubs or for just 1 or 2 people training. Sometimes they block lanes off and theres no one swimming in them for an hour or at all?! During school holidays adults won't be able to lane swim off peak weekdays or weekends in the 50m pool as the inflatables come out so thats a no go too. Friday nights cannot swim in the 50m pool at all past 6pm - reason unknown? Also there is a black/green mould running the full edge of the 50m pool thats been getting grimier since covid - this could be easily cleaned off with a scourer/cloth and cleaning product but they just don't bother :(

Under the management of 'Better' there would also be closures and lanes blocked off in the 50m competition pool, but nothing like on the scale that it is now, under Everyone Actives management. Really, all it is now is a private pool for private users and Everyone Active need to be advertising it as such because this is how they are using it and have no interest in the general public or member experience. They are not enabling members or the public to either swim in it at all or swim in it and enjoy it.

Everyone active management off site or at the LAQ centre are not interested in users feedback or changing anything. They clearly don't care about negative feedback and when they do respond to it they don't respond to the issues users are...

I attended the Swim For All here between 11am-12pm. I drove so the building was easy enough to find through Google Maps but once I'd parked up, the entrance was on the other side of the building. You do have to pay for parking but the signs seem to direct you to nowhere and there is no signage leading you from the car park to the actual entrance. I ended up going up the steps and around the whole building before seeing a notice on the door that the actual entrance was downstairs. I followed the steps around again and took a guess by walking around the outside of the steps when I saw a Better Leisure flag outside the door. Checking in was easy enough, staff were kind enough to direct me around the building as I hadn't been here before. But I was astounded at how tired and worn out the inside was. The changing rooms and pool area were dirty, wet and clumps of hair in the shower drains, I just wish I'd taken pictures. I expected more upkeep from the cleaning crew/staff seeing as this was the Olympic pool. The lockers take £1 coins which are returnable. The actual pool was nice and warm, online it stated around 30⁰ which seemed accurate. They had 2 lanes each for Slow, Medium and Fast and 2 separate lanes were being occupied by parent & baby swimming which was fine. It wasn't too busy when I visited as there was an average of 2-3 people per lane. I can imagine that it must become way more crowded at busier times though. The lifeguards were helpful in directing me around as there are 2 separate pools. There's the competitive pool and the training pool. The training pool links onto the changing rooms. The changing rooms are unisex but I did see separate female changing rooms on my way out. The state of the changing rooms was pretty bad. I was surprised to learn that the shower cubicles are pretty tight with no hooks on the inside to hang your swimming clothes once you've changed out of them or your shower things i.e. shampoo, shower gel etc or even your towel! The regular cubicles are also pretty tight. Checking out was a bit of hassle though. The machine that you enter your car registration details on, firstly couldn't find my car, and secondly, once I'd put in my approximate time of arrival AND paid £4.00, it couldn't give me a receipt! I asked the staff at the desk what to do and by their reaction I expect this is something that happens quite often. She gave me a telephone number to call saying it was the number of the car park owners. I called them and again, had a strange conversation with him. I explained the situation and he said it was fine and that he knows I've paid and left, I asked if he wanted my registration number to check but he said no, it's fine as long as I've paid. I said I was worried about getting a fine as there is no receipt either, and again he said it was all good and I shouldn't worry. It was a strange set of events and I don't quite know what to expect of it. I don't want a fine but at the very least I have proof of payment on my account with the timing and they'll have CCTV of me paying. All-in-all, it was a good swim, poor cleanliness in the changing rooms and a weird set of events regarding...

It's been just over a year since Everyone Active has taken over the management of the London Aquatics Centre. I'm afraid to say that despite this timeframe, things were still better with Better.

Let's just quickly do a glance at membership prices. Better used to charge around £55 for a monthly membership. Everyone Active charges £40 - a lower cost is of course welcome - but they didn't actually move me to that lower price automatically. I was still paying £55 months after Everyone Active took over and they only changed my price once I actually queried them about it. If you're a current member of this pool, I urge you to check your billing cost. They didn't give me a refund for the overcharge - but maybe it'll work for you.

As I said previously, the building on the outside is still marvellous and it really makes you think what we can do if we just have the resources to do it. But that being said, the wood on the northwestern part of the roof is still rotting and needs urgent care.

Let's start with the pool. The 50m pool is more often than not on the dirtier side. There's often small green spots alongside the edge of the pool, and this is particularly noticeable when there hasn't been an event held in a while - more on that in a second. Half of the lockers in the changing room don't work. You'll put your coin in, and then it just won't lock. This has been pointed out many times to the reception but nothing has been fixed.

I can give props for the gym restoration though, there's some nice new equipment. The problem is though, during summer and during busy periods, it'll get very warm as the AC doesn't appear to be working - it once peaked at 26° in the summer. Beyond that, the space for the gym is extremely small and it's very cramped. You'll also have the luxury of 12 lockers to share between the entire gym. As I said, luxury.

The venue constantly holds events. In fact, in the first two months of the year, the competition pool is closed for 16 days, including weekends. During the pool closures, the training pool is often overcrowded as everyone tries to cram into the tiny 25 metre pool (of which only one is usually open). This overcrowding then also extends to the gym area as well with non-members/event attendees sitting on the pylo boxes outside the gym and the security simply not caring. Despite all of this, I'm expected to pay full membership fees - and when this is questioned, I just get ignored.

Case in point, I've emailed them about the ridiculous pool closures and queried for a refund but there's been zero response on it yet.

Anyway, I still cannot recommend a membership here. I was really hoping that the early issues were just teething issues - but I guess that's just how...