Swimming

I was being sarcastic, Oliver. they are massive fucking copper pillars :D

Never been to that one, Tiswas. I was the Arlington, the Western, and in Edinburgh, the Drumsheugh. They all have trapezes and are owned by the members. How great is that!

My sort of philistine doesn't like this. I think it looks tacky. It wouldn't be so bad if it wasn't apparently set into a building with some completely structureless glass facade, but as it is, it's just a dreadful style clash. Either do modernism properly, or don't do it at all.

Style tips from ze Germans, eh?

This place claims to be the biggest pool in central london, http://www.ulu.co.uk/content/index.php?page=87495 limited on who can use it though (students and ex-students) and i've no idea what it's like as I haven't used it yet.

This place claims to be the biggest pool in central london, http://www.ulu.co.uk/content/index.php?page=87495 limited on who can use it though (students and ex-students) and i've no idea what it's like as I haven't used it yet.

Aye. It's full of students.

[grumpy]

I find it baffling that people feel they want / need something like this to enhance the experience of swimming. Waste of money, and the best way to ruin a good swim IMO - short of discovering a choccy-floater by your face when your turn to breathe...

[/grumpy]

(chirpy)
Hi Mr/Mrs Grumpy.
I hear you... I really do.
As somebody that has swum regularly for my entire life, I have never felt the need to bring music to the pool, but I just thought I'd give it a go. I may hate it, but it might help.
If you never tried new things out, well... life would be a dull thing eh.
I'll be sure to let you know how I get on.
(chirpy)

@Dooks... +1 to Popov - Legend!
@Dan... good to hear old bean!

Thanks, will check it out. This weather and this thread have made me obsessed with the idea of a swim/sauna/steam. Used to really keep the cold out during the Scotch winters.

i stopped going there in november because it was freezing, it's alright but gets packed in the summer. The staff seem to be the dregs of the jobcentre but thats hackney council for you

I phoned Fitness First at Canary Wharf some months ago to enquire about their prices for casual swimming. I was advised that it costs twenty two fucking pounds.

Nice pool but.

Sea baths FTW anyway.

That's cheap, no? I'm paying thirty fucking pounds at the Queen Mother Sports Centre and I can assure you it don't look anything like that Virgin Active pool! I've not actually swam there yet but that's beside the point. Thirty fucking pounds!

i swam in london fields lido yesterday afternoon, while it was snowing. the water was lovely. good times.

^ mentalist

Per swim, Wools... per fucking swim.

i swam in london fields lido yesterday afternoon, while it was snowing. the water was lovely. good times.

how hot did they have the water?

26 degrees.. after the ten second walk from the changing rooms it's a grateful process getting in the water, then swimming through the steam made you feel like you were in an Antonioni film.. or it did me anyway... great stuff!

it was my first swim of the year, i've decided i need to swim well and i'm hoping it will be a year of improving technique and learning to swim properly, rather than just messing around for half an hour at a time. i'm hoping to go every day now, yesterday was great.

Per swim, Wools... per fucking swim.

Fuck. Off! Ridonculous!

Phil, I take it back. The mentalist here is clearly the fucker who was in charge of setting Virgin Active's prices.

26 degrees.. after the ten second walk from the changing rooms it's a grateful process getting in the water, then swimming through the steam made you feel like you were in an Antonioni film.. or it did me anyway... great stuff!

I love that transition, especially in mid-winter when it's completely freezing. I've only just got back so haven't been yet, but plan to go soon.

i think there might be a strategy behind that canary wharf casual swim atrocity.. maybe they don't want tramps wandering in. or maybe just balki.

They don't care who uses it (except Balki). They want you to join, so you pay lots of moola a month, hardly go then forget to cancel your direct debit.

They didnt appreciate the soap last time. It was Imperial Leather too... nice shit.

Yes. Sorry Balks.

Now that's cleaned up (ba dum), the swimming pools in Berlin are amazing! They have so many (at least 60 if you include outdoor pools, lakes and beaches) and so many different formats (Friebad, Stadtbad, Hallenbad, Sommerbad, Kombibad, Freizeitorientiert..). I've never swum in the Stadtbad Neukölln but it looks absolutely amazing and I intend to fix this soon - click on the link below then select Grosse Hall, although the small hall and sauna are pretty cool too:
Wowzers

You're kiddig me? You're saying it looks shit?

Per swim, Wools... per fucking swim.

that is absurd.

It's a 20m pool.

Do not want.

5 minutes away is a 33m pool, for 10% of the cost.

Actually i think ironmonger is 30.5 metres. Hence much confusion trying to train for my first two 5ks there. Thinking it was a 30m pool i trained for 170 ish lengths only to be stopped after 154.

So the next year i trained for 154 and was told on arrival that it was 168! Even they don't know how long it is. I THINK it's 30.5 though.

It is 30.5 metres. Somewhere it says 33m, I had the same confusion at some point. I also thought outdoors at Oasis was 25 but it is actually 27.5.

Not actually measured it though.

Yes I have always gone by the belief that Ironmonger row is 30.5 metres

It's the .5 that makes the difference.

I got really into swimming when I lived in Scotland, but haven't done it since moving back down south. They have these Victorian swimming baths in Scotland (3 of them in Edinburgh and Glasgow, and I was a member of all of them at different points) which are run as not-for-profit enterprises. they are just completely different to swimming baths down here, at least, I've never found an equivalent. They have turkish warm rooms where you can read for hours, different bits for men and women (and it seems to be a thing that all the women just hang out nekkid, which took a bit of getting used to), with these massive armchairs and all the papers. I used to spend all day in there.

But the best thing was they had these amazing original rings and trapezes above the pools – I got really into doing the trapeze over the pool. You also get a permanent box to leave your toiletries in, and some indoor shoes, and you leave your costume there and they wash it and dry it in time for your next visit. And provide towels so you can spontaneously turn up and everything's there. The pools were so quiet – it was always just me and the pensioners. I went every single day for years, and did 45 minutes. I miss it - I'd love to find a good place down here. Is the Ironmonger's one a nice old place?

Plurabelle, did you ever see the documentary about one of these places? It was aired a few years ago now, but reading your post reminded me of it. It was full of some lovely shots of the pool and members, as well as interviews with old boys who had been swimming there all their lives. I have just had a quick google for it, but can't find anything much. It might be this:

Film: Liquid Paradise - memories of 120 years of swimming in "the Pond" Production of a documentary film, archive and photographic exhibition about a Victorian swimming pool in Edinburgh. This involved wide ranging interviews with local community members and pool users.
from here: http://margin.org/project.html
I'm not sure though as I don't quite see why an architect would be making that kind of film.

36 metres heated to 28 degrees open 365 days a year

http://www.hamptonpool.co.uk/