Athletics track. But not the pool that’s been closed 3yrs.
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I doubt that pool will ever open again.
As it’s a listed building, the owners are doing the classic trick of not investing in it and allowing it to rot. I can almost guarantee there will be a leak / fire than damages the wooden floors of the gymnast area and basketball courts meaning the only things inside will be the gyms and badminton courts.
They’ll then plead poverty after a report suggests the concrete in the structure is also f**ked (as they haven’t invested in it) and how it’s not economically viable to repair.
It’ll be knocked down and then eventually sold to a developer for peanuts.
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As you know @joex I coach there every week, swim and run. We can now use the track again as its summer so there is light. Swim is in the paddling pool downstairs, an utter shitpit of a place. Every week i walk through the pool area and shed a tear for my time I spent there in the past. Utterly disgusting the way its been left to rot since 2007 when the Olympics were announced.
18 months ago the Mayor promised £50million to repair the pool, now it’s single millions to repair the whole centre. He’s a lying fraud. The pool will never reopen, the only 50m pool in “Kent” (yes I know but original boundaries) The Kent Swimming Champs this year had to do 1 weekend in Crawley. What an embarrassment this country is when it comes to aquatics, well basically anything non football related. Think how much money is invested in getting a handful of gold medals at a once every 4 year event, yet a borough that has 330k people has basically 1 competition ready swimming pool (Beckenham Spa) and even then only 25m
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I have so many questions about the practicalities of that guy’s hair. Yours sincerely, a bald guy.
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This is so sad. I remember travelling from North London to Crystal Palace swimming pool in my youth, so we could get the feel of a 50m pool before some important races. Also remember the London Youth Games happening there, represented Barnet 100m Butterfly. Oh man, now I feel really old going down memory lane and realising this was in the mid-80s
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What’s the life expectancy of a building like that? The swimming pool environment can’t be good for a building 
A lot of pools of that vintage have been knocked down, but you are then at the mercy of the local authority to build a fit-for-purpose replacement when we know that most public pools run at a loss. The trouble with council leisure centres in London is that land is in short supply and very valuable, so the chances are that if a public pool is replaced, the new facility will be pushed into a smaller site by a residential development.
Leeds International pool was the only 50m pool I ever swam in as a kid and that’s long gone. I’m pretty sure they built a replacement somewhere.
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Leeds International Pool… I swam in that hole three times a week all through university. It was my penance to the beer monster’s toll. Often I had the entire pool to myself. Freezing cold and dirty it was little used in daytime working hours. I remember studying the sand, grit and grime on the bottom as I chased the boring black line. It was on a par with Edinburgh Commonwealth Pool before its refurb… perhaps a bit worse.
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Which is more important than you’d think, when i was early teens, I remember coming second in a race by a few milliseconds as my goggles had filled with water and as i got to the 25m mark, i automattically put my hand out expecting to find the wall to turn, forgetting it was a 50m pool.
I forget where the pool was but it was Lancashire somewhere but even Wikipedia doesn’t list it so it must have closed down a while back.
It’s a real shame at how few there currently are.
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Only one I know of near me is Ponds Forge. Im not a good swimmer (even worse now I haven’t done it for 5 years!) but was shocked at how much slower I was swimming 50 m than 2x 25 m even though I couldn’t flip turn which was obviously a symptom of my lack of swimming fitness I guess!
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11 (Olympic standard) in the UK, with a 12th being built in Cambridge
There are a few 8 lane 50m pools that can be used for Regional and level 1 meets as well, probably < 20 , but that not even 1 x 50m 8 lane pool per county.
Sunderland was built for £20million. Taking away the London and big city tax, and building them in the burbs or close enough to main M and A roads that’s not a huge investment to dot a few more around the country. We went to a meet at the LAC the other weekend, events were £9 each, adults had to pay £10 per day each to watch, they are looking at taking £15 - £20k per day per gala. They rent the place out for 10k for the day to the club/region running the event. Add a fairly decent set of facilities, hall, bar/restaurant , gym; swimming lessons end up ~£10 for half hour and there are waiting lists at every local pool to me, 50m pool with boom, that’s a lot of lessons and public lanes still available, club hire etc. Surely one of these places can be run at a profit or at worse break even.
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looking at ~2sec per 100 for a decent or club level swimmer
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Yep…that…
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Really? I thought there would be more.
Just googled, though, and didn’t realise that 50m and Olympic pools were different.
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Yer olympic 50x25, 10 lanes, 0 and 9 not usually used for finals, although they have green lane ropes along wall so are used in a lot of meets. We have a few 50x21 so 8 lanes with a small gap after the green lane rope, so lanes 1 and 8 are usuable without too much detrimental effect to swimmers.
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