Public pools in the UK

[Satellite]

They are horrible.

It was only when I went again yesterday did it all come back to me why I stopped swimming when I came here to study 19years ago. The changing area is unisex so that we could not bathe properly before going out in the cold. Then bathe again when we got home with a tone of laundry to do.

What is worse is that threre was no place to just sit and watch if you don't want to swim and had to put all our bulky coats, towels etc in the lockers in the disgusting changing room where footwear is not allowed. (I have this thing about my feet where I don't like it to touch the ground, floor etc) it was wet everywhere.

To top it off, there was no olympic size pool. The biggest (or most common ) is a 25 m pool with miserable no. of lanes. I suppose the children's pool was reasonable for a public pool in the UK. Overall, It was not a pleasant experience at all.

Even the public pools in Singapore had 3 huge pools - one 50m, one 25m and a children's pool generally. Granted, the changing facilitiesin singapore are no better and probably worse, at least I could put on a t-shirt, drive home in 3mins and take a nice shower at home ,w ithout so much as stepping into the singapore changing room at teh public pool.

Anyway, if not for the children I would never go swimming here again !

[Scrummy Mummy]

Unisex? For adults? Never seen that.

It was the wet slimy sticking plasters underfoot that always grossed me out.

Join a private health club? Have you a David Lloyd club near you? I think they're quite reasonable.

[BoD]

Outside in the cold? Are you going to a lido in January?

Never seen a public pool with unisex changing rooms

That said, I go to Virgin Active gyms with pools

[Satellite]

Will look into virgin active and other private ones. Tricky not knowing anything.

[Fat Bob]

Tricky not knowing anything.

Statement of your life?

[Satellite]

possibly. Learn something new everyday.

Virgin active is quite nice. (Didnt look at David Llyod as they didn't have a children's pool) .Way nicer than gyms/spas in singapore. And most things (classes etc) are free.

Too bad their children's pool is boring but good place for them to learn swimming. And good creche too even though it costs more per hour of creche use than their (chilren's) membership fee !

I can see myself using their jacuzzi but would still prefer running outdoors.

Can't wait for some proper sun, sand and Singaporean food next weekend for the next 3 months.

[Spike]

Never seen a public pool with unisex changing rooms

Sounds like she went into the men's changing room by mistake.