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| I do not expect you to swim Mr Bond, I expect you to die! |
This week The Urban Swimmer took a trip to Brighton on a beautiful spring-like day. On his way back into London he thought a swim might be appropriate (all that sea air no doubt), so headed to the Queen Mother Sports Centre on Vauxhall Bridge Road. It's just around the corner from Victoria Station. Despite the name TUS is sad to report that you cannot get a Gin and Dubonnet anywhere on the premises, much to his disappointment. The pool falls within the remit of Westminster Council and like the Marshall Street Baths is run by the GLL. Incidentally GLL, your website sucks. The Centre is in a rather nondescript concrete rectangle in a thoroughly nondescript bit of the metropolis; The Urban Swimmer felt he was very firmly in a land occupied by commuters.
The centre feels pretty modern. You have the odd experience of climbing up stairs to the reception to walk along walkways that look down on the pools. Yes dear reader, a plural, pools. For within an aircraft hanger sized space which reminded TUS of the lair of a James Bond villain, there are no less than three pools. A standard broad 25 meter long pool, a slightly smaller pool beyond it with a water slide and a small training pool which TUS expected to be filled with sharks with frickin' laser beams strapped to their heads. Sadly it was being used for an adult learner swimming class at the time of his visit. The water slide wasn't working. This is the second time in the last couple of months TUS has visited a pool where the water slide wasn't in operation, and he's starting to wonder if water slides aren't the great white elephants of modern swimming pools. Things that look great at the planning stage, but are either too expensive or too troublesome to be run by centres on a regular basis.
Visiting at around 5pm, the place was busy, and as streams of office workers arrived it got busier. For part of the time that TUS was visiting a water aerobics class was taking place in the secondary pool at the QMSC, which meant he had not only a medley of upbeats tuned played while swimming (with the spectacular noise distortion that only water can provide), but that he got to watch the hilarious instructor bouncing around on the side of the pool with the kind of insane enthusiasm that only aerobics instructors the world over possess. The pool seemed a little chilly at first, but a thorough hour or so of swimming warmed TUS up nicely.
As you would expect at this time and in this location, the QMSC was a busy old pool; but if you're not too bothered about lane swimming with lots of other swimmers it's a competent enough facility. A single swim will cost you £5.45, which if you think about it is ridiculous for a public pool. Sure Westminster residents and Swim London members play much less, but that rather ignores that one of London's wealthier boroughs, with one of the smallest number of residents and lowest Council tax rates is hardly encouraging new swimmers. TUS imagines that he and his fellow swimmers are as a demographic, much likely to trouble it's doctors and hospitals; not to mention that our younger male participants are much less likely to bother the police, schools system and social services with something constructive to channel all that youthful energy/aggression into. Dear Councillors, some joined up thinking is called for...or it's the shark tank for you.
Visiting at around 5pm, the place was busy, and as streams of office workers arrived it got busier. For part of the time that TUS was visiting a water aerobics class was taking place in the secondary pool at the QMSC, which meant he had not only a medley of upbeats tuned played while swimming (with the spectacular noise distortion that only water can provide), but that he got to watch the hilarious instructor bouncing around on the side of the pool with the kind of insane enthusiasm that only aerobics instructors the world over possess. The pool seemed a little chilly at first, but a thorough hour or so of swimming warmed TUS up nicely.
As you would expect at this time and in this location, the QMSC was a busy old pool; but if you're not too bothered about lane swimming with lots of other swimmers it's a competent enough facility. A single swim will cost you £5.45, which if you think about it is ridiculous for a public pool. Sure Westminster residents and Swim London members play much less, but that rather ignores that one of London's wealthier boroughs, with one of the smallest number of residents and lowest Council tax rates is hardly encouraging new swimmers. TUS imagines that he and his fellow swimmers are as a demographic, much likely to trouble it's doctors and hospitals; not to mention that our younger male participants are much less likely to bother the police, schools system and social services with something constructive to channel all that youthful energy/aggression into. Dear Councillors, some joined up thinking is called for...or it's the shark tank for you.
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