Arnos Pool

I use regularly the swimming pool at Southgate leisure centre and today tried the Arnos Pool. I couldn’t believe it. Aspects that definitely need improvement in Arnos pool: hygiene, changing rooms and reception. I’m not planning to return any time soon.
You pay the same amount and southgate is so so much better. Also, in Arnos the lockers don’t return the coins and we have to pay extra if wanting to use the hair dryer, or hand dryer as it is.
Very difficult to park.
Will only return after a good refurbishment.

As part of my régime to have a washboard stomach by summer 2012 I decided to try and suppress my ick-​reflex and give the local pool a try. I always enjoyed swimming as a kid and it’s supposed to be fabulous for toning up so thought it’d be a great first stop on the road to my bikini body.
Now, this is a tiny little pool run by Enfield Council and their site reliably informed me that 6:30am — 8:30am during the week was ‘Adult Swim’ time. In keeping with my ‘healthy mind, healthy body’ attitude I decided 6:30am would be a reasonable hour to swim on a Monday morning and I was right. It was me and a handful of ‘older’ ladies and gents. This is a nice way of me saying it was me and the OAPs.
Not to be outdone by their age and disorientation I actually was confused the moment I walked in as I had taken my specs off in the changing room (obviously) and could barely see where there was space to swim. The lifeguard told me to go in the lane at the end which turned out was the fast lane… she clearly had higher expectations of my swimming ability than I!
It’s a relatively clean pool and I was glad to be allowed to wear flip-​flops to leave by the side — helped to deter me from getting the ‘icks’. I didn’t see anything gross like floating plasters either, which is always a plus! How those old people managed to swim and gossip incessantly at that hour is beyond me but I felt awake and refreshed when I climbed out of the pool after a half hour or so of swimming, and knew an awful lot about Mavis, her daughter who was supposed to call and how her dodgy hip was doing.
The changing facilities certainly need a bit of work. There was just one giant changing room with no working lock on it and most of the ladies had left their belongings in there, most probably Mavis and her crew. I opted to use a toilet cubicle which was grim but where else was I supposed to change?
All in all a handy little pool in a handy location and considering it’s open early-​doors I’ll definitely be popping by again soon — for £4 a swim you can’t really expect much more!