St Leonard’s Land

I am reviewing this place as a user of the pool.
I bought an «off Peak» gym membership to use the uni pool facilities (which this is) in 2013. I can tell you about my memories of that pool.
First of all: The opening times are terrible. With my off peak membership excluding the final swim session of the day it left only a brief morning slot a lunch slot. I diligently got to the morning session maybe 20+ times.
Cramped swim lanes that you have to share with 5ish people.
And worst of all: The showers. They are open plan, unisex and have a view onto the pool! Getting your kit off and properly washed was not an option. I also didn’t like that there was no cubicles in the women’s changing rooms.
Good: The staff and cleanliness.

There seems to be a trend in the reviews of St. Leonard’s Land that revolve around it being a pretty terrifying place because that’s where we forced to release all the information we’d hastily crammed into our brains the night before. It’s sincerely a painful experience and most of you know exactly how it feels. So how to get over that experience? Well, I won’t.
St. Leonard’s Land isn’t only one of those buildings in Edinburgh that reminds one of terribly experiences, it’s also just plain ugly. I mean, the Holyrood is infamous for having weird incongruous architecture (which is why it’s such a non-​place to me), but St. Leonard’s Land is just a bit too much.

I am only familiar with St Leonard’s land because of my exams that I have had there rather then using any of the gym or swimming facilities.
St Leonard’s Land’s main sports hall is absolutely huge and this is why it is picked for hosting exams which are taken by hundreds of people. I must admit that I rather not be in such a big room when it comes to exams and rather more enclosed, smaller environments. This is because when you are in such a large room, you can get distracted more, and I am very easily distracted.
Before the exams, it is also a pretty stressful experience, not only do you have to fear the impending three hour exam, but you are forced to be squeezed into a small corridor to wait to enter with people who stink of caffeine or cigarettes, which makes the whole experience even worse.

I only know St Leonard’s Land from sitting first and second year exams in its halls. Thus it’s not my favourite place in the world, but as far as exam halls go these are pretty good.
The whole place feels large and spacious with lots of little stairways leading to ‘hidden’ gyms and rooms. I had an exam in the main hall and I was pretty surprised at how large it is, fitting in hundreds of tables and chairs at a time.
The gym which I was in last year wasn’t quite as large or lush with scuffed floored, dated décor and not the cleanest of windows. Nonetheless, all the curtains for the windows did a good job of absorbing any echoes which is perfect for when you’r etrying to concentrate.

St Leonard’s Land is very well known to students of the University of Edinburgh. It has a swimming pool and is home to a gym and other sporting facilities. It offers good rates for membership as well.
However, what most students won’t know is that when this building originally opened in the 1970s, the main gym hall was described by one commentator as a ‘Neo-​Fascist gymnasium on the south side of Holyrood Road — its flights of steps a test of fitness!’ Now, some students might have these thoughts when they are taking exams in the large halls in the building, but this was certainly not my first thoughts when I saw this building!
The building is one of the more modern ones in this area and is situated right across from the Moray House School of Education campus. It is only a five minute walk from George Square campus as well.