Hamilton Fish Recreation Center

Huge fan of anything free, and this pool is an oasis in the NYC jungle … which normally feels like a desert.
My daughter and I went on a whim, based on TimeOut reviews on a Wednesday because fall classes started for kids.
There is an hour break between 3 and 4p, so we had to wait in line for about 10 minutes.
The pool is huge, and well maintained. The depth is about 4 — 4.5 feet maximum, great for kids.
My only recommendation (and why I can’t give 5 starts) is beach chairs. I’m sure for some reason or another, most were removed, but getting more would be something I’d pay $ 5 per entry for a summer for.

I’ve been coming to this pool for the last ten years, it was once tested and rated the dirties pool in Manhattan. Its huge, with the adult side and the kiddie side. A small park and even a gym.
Its dirty and packed, but it was still free. Remember to bring a lock or say good bye to your stuff.

The pool is dirty (dead caterpillar found floating around before. whoops), and I’m sorry, but way too ghetto for my tastes. There was an instance, when I was a kid, where teenagers harassed me verbally and physically. Not to mention, there were more than one instances where everyone had to evacuate the pool because of fights (I believe there was one time where they fought over a pair of Jordans??). Yeah, I don’t even know. But this was back in like 2005 – 2006 so maybe things changed in the past decade?
But the indoor recreation center itself. it’s something that should be abused especially if you’re under the age of 25 where it’s only $ 25 annually. The workers so far that I’ve encountered were VERY nice and welcoming (even the nice custodian lady that was cleaning the women’s bathroom). Inside, I saw billiard tables, ping pong tables, and a REALLY small gym. I don’t recommend the gym unless you’re comfortable with changing in bathroom stalls as there is no actual locker room. There’s a locker area in front of the gym, but it’s shared between both men and women. Have to bring your own lock like most of NYC recreation centers. Their gym is very small, little lighting, and it doesn’t seem like it will have air conditioning during the summer time. Nonetheless, $ 25 for a year is a steal. Inside there’s a few weight machines, probably 4 treadmills, 2 bikes, and 2 ellipticals, but not many people will be doing cardio from what I’ve seen. You will mostly see a couple of older people working out with weights and minding their own business. All in all, it is a shabby looking gym, but it gets the job done.
Yes to the indoor recreation center, hell to the no to the pool. You might as well get the NYC recreation center membership and go to the indoor pool at Chelsea’s.

Pool is filthy and gets way too packed. The gym is too small and the equipment needs to be updated.

Free pool. in the summer. need i say more?
Love this place. Like a hidden magical oasis! Well, full of noisy bratty kids running around all the time. When I was kid, they told us never to run at the pool. Here, its no holds barred.
Except for the ‘gestapo’ at the pool entrance. Yep. Pretty hard core. Nothing goes in. only swimsuits, towels and white t shirts. still dont get the white thing. if you don’t have a lock for your stuff, just walk across the street to Adina’s deli. they go for 4 – 5 $ i think.
huge olympic size pool plus a smaller kiddie pool. be careful it closes for 1 hr in the afternoon for cleaning. its clean. nice. great on a hot gross humid new york summer day.
i agree for the bathrooms. dont go unless you need to. i always come already changed.
only other free public pool in the area is Dry Dock in East Village (10^th b/​w C & D)

The staff here is terrible. The signs all state the pool opens at 11. I have been there at 11 all week. Today they said they never open until 12. What? I went to the front desk where all 3 people raised their voices saying «We don’t have nothin to do with the pool!» the man behind the desk yelled, «We can’t help you! Do you understand?» I asked him to stop raising his voice. He then yelled even louder «I don’t know about the pool! Do you hear me?» I left the pool with the staff using the F word constantly in front of a group of children under 5 years old.

There is no deck furniture and the locker rooms are pretty spartan, but it’s still one of the only free Olympic-​sized pools in Manhattan and just a quick ride away on the subway.

I used to come here as a kid twice a week with summer camp. I haven’t been back since and didn’t really expect much, but I was pleasantly surprised to find that it wasn’t that bad.
Most city pools are generally crowded and dirty, but they have two huge pools and while it was crowded, it was bearable. It wasn’t dirty and overall a pretty good experience.
Being that it is only down the block from where I live, I’ll probably be making this my permanent residence for the rest of the summer.

After swimming here I had a layer of dirt in my swim suit and hair from other people stuck to my body. Now, I’m not a germaphobe or big compainer, but it is worth a trek to Brooklyn for cleaner water for lap swimming. The bed-​sty and Red Hook pools are SO much more clean. You can actually see through the water.

This review isn’t really about the «Ham Fish» pool, but about the experience I had there last night. The pool itself is a regular ol’ three stars for murkiness and plain 50-​meter rectangular shape. But the facilities plus the event that brought me here balances out this evaluation for a solid four stars.
Having gone up to Massachusetts several weekends in a row and spent my weeknights clocking miles at Lasker Pool (because you need to commit to one pool in order to count up laps for the Adult Lap Swim Program), I was visiting my first new pool in quite a long time. The occassion: the Annual Lap Swim Awards Party to celebrate the 28^th year of the Adult Lap Swim progam!
An only slightly annoying ride on the F-​train and a bit of a walk through alternately depraved and gentrified surroundings brought me to the open doors of a lofty stone building. Another set of doors on the other end of the airy foyer revealed the wading and lap pools, and I could see balloons set up. Incongruously, a random dance troupe was practicing a dance routine to «Thriller» on the terrace.
The bathrooms and locker rooms were insanely new looking and clean, unlike the endearingly bent, soiled, and rusted facilities at Lasker. A bit confused, I had to go out another set of open double doors and walk across a large, open area to gain admission to the pool.
Tray after silver tray of mystery food sat upon endless cloth-​covered folding tables. I spied jugs of generic soda and a tank of coffee. Above a fence, foil balloons spelled LAP AWARDS. A lump rose up in my throat as I contemplated the end of the program.
The first person greeting me at the registration was a guy I’d talked to on the phone when he called from the aquatic center at midnight to confirm my registration. Advancing to the t-​shirt distribution area, I saw a plastic bag with my name on it propped up against a box that said «LASKER.» My free t-​shirt for completing 25 miles of laps as a Night Owl (swimmer in the 7 – 8:30 p.m. slot)!!!
A good half of the pool was roped off into lanes for relay competitors who were warming up. The other half was open, and was a bit of a free-​for-​all, though quite tame because of the conventional shape of the pool and the dark lines painted on the floor, which could even be seen through the insanely cloudy water.
Obnoxiously, I asked my party guest to take advantage of this one-​time exception for the no-​camera rule. Mercifully for her, my camera died after a couple good shots of me frolicking around in the water.
The relay races began, accompanied by enthusiastic but sporadic announcements. I have no idea who swam from what pool, or who won. Leisurely lap swimming continued on the side while the competitors swam their hearts out. I did a few laps, too, but the coffee I’d enjoyed made me feel all crazy, and the whole time, all I could think was «summer’s over summer’s over summer’s over this is over this is over this is over,» so I contented myself with floating at the pool’s edge next to a kind of stinky moat. I think if I’d come here to swim serious laps, I would have been annoyed at the hobby swimmers and their stop-​go ways. On this evening, though, I was glad to be in like company.
Soon, all the guests were called to sit at round tables while Parks Commissioner Adrian Benepe gave a rousing speech about the success of this year’s pool (hottest summer of the year, 9000 participants, no cuts in funding as of yet, the importance of swimming as a survival skill). I accosted him afterwards to ask him a couple questions, and he was really quite nice.
After this a strange musical medley juxtaposing Bruce Springsteen’s «Born in the U.S.A.» with «Celebrate Good Times» ensued to accompany a former Olympic synchronized swimmer’s solo waterdance. More bizarrely, an unplugged live musician jammed along on his weathered flamenco guitar before it was his time to take the mic with some soft acoustic song that almost made me cry.
The food was revealed; beefy pastas, sausage with onions and peppers, and chicken and pork ribs smothered in the same tangy barbeque sauce. I ate way too much, then consoled myself with nameless grape soda.
The awards ceremony began, and my friend and I started walking out. But then, I begged her to stick around, just out of curiosity. It’s not that I really thought I’d win anything, but I’d swum pretty consistently, and maybe, just maybe…
So imagine my surprise when I won 2^nd place in lappage at my Lasker pool! Unable to control myself, I ran tripping and guffawing up to a podium shared by the embarrassingly athletic male winner from my pool. A heavy medal with a scratchy ribbon was handed to me with a genuine smile.
It was finally time to leave, so we strolled out of the park through the 90-​degree night. But oh, how I did looked back over my shoulder as we went. It was like the last day of school for a kid who loved school.

It’s FREE !
It’s HUGE !
It’s COOL !
It’s SUNNY RIGHT NOW !
It’s time to go SWIMMING !

«OMG! OKAY! Let’s get sugar sweet sunshine cupcakes!!!»
«OMG! OKAY! Let’s go eat them in the park!!»
«OMG! OKAY! Which park?!»
«…ummmmm.»
So, we wandered around for what seemed like miles looking for a good park to eat our cupcakes. Every park was either a little seedy, or filled with screaming kids. That is, until we came across hamilton fish park! This place was great in that it was quiet and clean and even a little secluded. It had a fun playground and plenty of good sitting space. There’s a huge pool in the center, which wasn’t open at the time (so, i’d imagine it gets more crowded when the pool is open for swimming). Kind of wish there were swings…

Where do I go where I want to go swimming? The Pitt St Pool! Its HUGE and its Free!!! Its opened for the summer season and I try to take advantage of this since I don’t have a backyard with a pool. Yea there are tons of kids being loud, lifeguards blowing their whistles non stop, concrete floor to lay on due to lack of patio furniture but hey, when I have the urge to go swimming, this place fulfills my needs.
They have LOTS of rules as others has listed and I will highlight the annoying ones that I have encountered before…
— Guys! You MUST be wearing a swim trunks. No shorts, No boxers, No cutoff jeans. SWIM TRUNKS. The securities check before they let you in so swim trunks or no swimming for you!
— You MUST have a lock to put on the locker. If you dint have a lock, they wont let you in with all your bags and such to the pool area. They now have a new rule. The lock has to be one of those locks with a little key on it. They used to allow those numbered locks but since it’s easy to break that, they advised me that moving forward, I have to bring the lock with the little key.
— 3pm-​4pm the pool is closed for an hour. They literally kick everyone out of the pool area so make sure to avoid going there at 2:50pm cuz then you’re screwed.
— Water is SUPER COLD! It feels good though, and you get used to it after a minute or so.
I recommend it for the blazing hot summer days!

I swim here often in the summer because it is free! Whooo!
But it is a public pool and is kinda dirty. I guess living in nyc = kinda dirty all the time. Oh yeah, and I once found a razor blad in the bottom of the pool. I’m not even joking.

5 stars for the outdoor pool, one star for the dumb-​ass rules and the people who enforce them.
The pool itself is beautiful. Free, Olympic-​sized, about 3.5 feet deep, and clean. There’s enough room for lap swimmers and rec swimmers (there are definitely more of the latter) and space on the deck for sunbathers as well. The same complex also has a wading pool for the little ones.
Of the NYC pools I have been to, this place has and enforces the most extensive and stupid list of rules I’ve ever seen: they almost turned us away for not having a Master brand lock, and on the pool deck itself you can only have your: plain white t-​shirt, swim suit, sunscreen, paperback book or magazine, and flip-​flops (not sandals, flip-​flops; Birkenstocks will have to stay in your locker).
The outdoor pool is open from late June to early September. Just a warning that they run two shifts: 11a-2:50p and 4p-​7p, and during the interim everyone must leave the deck.

My friends and I call this the Gestapo Pool. It’s a little scary with the intensely specific rules you have to follow: particular kind of lock, white shirt only, etc. Apparently the t-​shirt thing has to do with gang colors (obviously…).
But it is a big (olympic sized), beautiful, free pool, and though it’s surroundings are sparse — I dare you to find any kind of deck furniture — it’s a good place to lay out in the summer that doesn’t involve more than a subway ride to Houston and Ave. C (technically PItt street, I suppose, but who the hell knows where that is…).
Until I can afford a SoHo house membership (any day now…) this’ll do. Watch out for those kids, though — you never know where they just peed.

One of the only Olympic-​Size Pools in NYC, and it’s open to the public. This is an amazing Beaux-​Arts recreation center built during the great depression and recently renovated.
You need to get a parks card to swim, work out or take part in the wrestling classes on Tuesdays and Thursdays– $ 50 bucks for the year.
The faint of heart should be aware that the women’s and men’s locker rooms are pretty spartan and there are no benches to sit down while you are changing. I hang my stuff from the hooks because I wouldn’t want anything I own touching the bathroom tiles at this place.
I’ve never gone to the pool on the weekend. I bet the place is bumper-​to-​bumper bathing traffic…
From Village Voice: The pool was training ground for the U.S. Olympic team before they competed in Helsinki in 1952.
Cool pic of the pool, empty, in March: