Oasis Sports Centre

The main reason I’ve chosen this gym is because it’s near my work and offers a reasonable student monthly membership (one of the perks of my job). I might have to update my review a little later after it’s completed its refurbishment, but for the moment, for the price you pay, it’s really just an average gym.
The exercise room is very small at the moment, and the machines are not the best to use. I wish they would include some of the traditional spinning bikes as those are much better than the new models of stationary bikes. To my disappointment, there are no rowing machines — what kind of a gym doesn’t have any rowing machines?! And I’m not whether this is because of the work going on at the moment in the building, but there’s absolutely nowhere to easily do some floor exercises after you’ve done your cardio, and I’m not keen to do that with the people in the weight room…
The pools aren’t bad, but they could use a bit of a clean. I like that there’s an indoor and outdoor pool, though, and they do offer kickboards and such for different types of workouts.
As for the classes, it’s nice that with the membership you can get access to any of the Camden Borough Better facilities, but there aren’t too many I can take that fall outside of working hours. The dynamic yoga class on Wednesday nights are pretty difficult, but they are very good and worthwhile. Only problem is that I find the teacher there a bit mean/​rude…
As for the ladies’ changing room, it’s really old. The lockers sometimes jam, the keys are a little gross, being so old and having gone into the pool by different users. It’s also annoying that in addition to the cost of the membership that you have to pay 20p per use for locker storage. So don’t forget anything or the lockers will cost you 40p! The showers aren’t great and can be a little fickle in the temperature. At least they do have a couple of hair dryers for you to use.
For me, only worth it due to the fact that I have to swim to keep up fitness whilst nursing a running injury and that it’s in close proximity to work. If not for that, I would say that I wouldn’t be itching to renew my membership every month.

If you are looking for somewhere to work out, I must admit, I do not even know where to refer you — London is ghastly for this.
However, if you are seeking somewhere to get hepatitis b, you should come here as soon as possible. There are loads of gym equipment with countless years of sweat, frustration and dirt caked everywhere you could imagine.
So basically — clean, intelligently run place to get fit — one star. Central location to get hepatitis b — 5 stars.

Real hidden gem in the middle of central London.
Gym is a little hidden away but a real find!

Mediocre. Staff aren’t particular friendly, changing rooms and swimming pool are quite dirty. But let’s be honest, it’s ridiculously cheap for central London and it has an outdoor pool in the summer. It’s approx £5 for a one-​off swim and around £30 for a PAYG monthly membership.

Let’s be honest here, i have not tried the sporting facilities here. I wish i could but instead i’m visiting the osteopath.
I was in pain and one of my colleagues who comes here regularly told me they are great here.
The osteopath who is taking care of me (Andrew) is really nice and does listen to you and try to distract you from the pain when manipulating your body. He has also been able to give me thorough advice and even email me further suggestions.
Anyway, every time i go there, i am drawn to the big glass wall and stare at the outdoor swimming pool. I realised last week that there is also an indoor swimming pool!
Generally speaking, the place looks clean and well maintained and all the members of staff i have spoken to are friendly.
Hopefully i’ll be able to check the facilities further soon and will update this review

Great place to come for an outdoor swim in Central London. Situated on a roof top in Covent Garden this leisure centre is great place to come, the pool is heated and it’s fun to swim outside in the middle of winter.
For £5.05 you get a swim, just remember it will cost you an extra 20p every time you open your locker. There are also a few lockers that use a padlock so if you happen to have one big enough then you can store your stuff without paying. The pool is a reasonable size and goes to over 3m in the deep end, giving you the opportunity to dive in if you like.
The pool has flats on one side and an office on the other. There isn’t much space around the pool area, but there is a terrace up a set of stair and an area towards the back of the pool where there is more space to put a towel and sit in the sun when you come out (that’s if it isn’t winter or you may want to leg it back inside).

Very disappointed by the staff organisation, they signed me up for the wrong course and made it unnecessarily complicated to get a refund !!
The only reason I stay with them is their squash courts, apart from that I would never recommend it

GROSS.
A word I haven’t used often since I was something like 6… But it’s the best way to describe the pool here.
Indoor pool was closed for lessons so outdoor pool it was, which was a nice idea on the alleged hottest day of the year. But that’s where the good news stops (must say the changing rooms where pretty clean but 5 showers, seriously??)
Back to the pool: too small, too crowded, lane by speed but no one seems to be sticking to them. But most importantly, the water was DISGUSTINGLY GROSS: you literally couldn’t see a yard ahead of you, no kidding. I kept my mouth sealed shut to try not swallow an old rotten plaster or any other UFO (unidentified floating object).
Really needed a swim so gave it all I could bear but had to get out after like 15−20mn I felt so grimy.
NEVER EVER AGAIN.
Oh, and you pay £4.85 for this great experience + 20p for the lockers (yes, indeed they still have those old lockers that actually swallow your 20p, so don’t forget anything).

When selecting a new gym, do you look for those details that really make a place special? Stagnant, foul pools of water that remain as such for months? Mats sticky with the sweat of the masses? Showers with a single, unadjustable temperature?
Do you hate air conditioning? And wouldn’t you prefer to do an aerobics/​dance class in complete silence because the stereo has been broken for 4 months, in both studios?
It’s hilarious that this place is called «Oasis». That’s a joke, right? But seriously, folks. This place is pretty bad. The cardio is room alright, albeit windowless and there are only 3 ellipticals. The staff is very friendly.
Oasis is part of the Better franchise. Better than nothing? That’s debatable.
Oh, and the photos of the pool make it look amazing. It’s not.

I’ve had to revise my original review as a monumental change has taken place at the Oasis. The previously dilapidated changing rooms have been replaced with the best possible materials (marble wash basins, attractive showerheads, and a swimwear drier).I feel that no expense has been spared in this renovation, which was may’ve been funded by the revenue generated by the lockers which withold 20p coins.
The design and layout has been carefully considered as opposed to the cramped conditions at the nearby Marshall st. pool. Thankfully, certain aspects remain unchanged: the homo-​erotic frisson which tends to occur in the changing rooms, and the outdoor pool where you can savour the 60’s concrete architecture as you swim up and down. The staff are exceptionally friendly, and the cleaning tends to be much more thorough than at comparable pools. Again, i wonder if this extra trimming has been funded by the witheld 20p from the lockers-​a feature unique to this outstanding swimming pool.

A couple of my friends and I go to Oasis for the brilliant Boxfit classes with the fantastic instructor Chris. I cannot recommend this highly enough, mainly because he is awesome!
Unfortunately this is where the great reviewing ends because the Centre is terrible due to the below!
*Their booking system is completely ridiculous, whether you book online — and if
you need to cancel (for whatever reason) they take your money and don’t refund it
— or on the phone, which good luck as they take forever to answer if at all.
*The changing rooms are grim, really grim. To the extent where the majority of users do not use the showers. This sounds gross and believe me you feel it but I would rather that than catch something due to how completely unhygenic they appear.
*Speaking of showers and changing rooms, my male friends have been eyed up
— and not in a good way! — in there.
*The staff on Reception seem to flit between incompetent and rude to sometimes
friendly.
*The locker situation — these are of the ancient variety where you pop in your 20p
and they keep it, if you’re lucky it works and you get to turn your key and pin it onto
your clothes. Unfortunately usually said locker just nicks it and you have to try
your luck with another locker. My advice — take a stash of 20p’s with you.
*Oversubscribed and very popular classes are not run at decent times and
sometimes you can’t even get booked into classes.
Not impressive for a central London centre, even if it is handy and in a fantastic location.
Must try harder.

A disgusting place ! I was swimming there with my team for some time and its the worst pool (of many) I have seen in London. Unacceptable hygenic situation (carpets…, fungus…, body hair all over,…showers…) — just stay away if you can !!

A pay-​as-​you-​go open-​air 27m swimming pool in London’s west-​end is pretty special.

Okay, as part of my new resolve to write more Unilocal reviews, I’m finally going to tell you about my extensive experience with the Oasis.
Positives: it’s walking distance for me, about ten minutes walk from our flat in Covent Garden near the Strand. It has two pools, although since my last experience in the outdoor pool, I will only swim in the indoor pool (more later). It has large spaces and plenty of lockers. There are lots of hair dryers in the outer portion of the women’s changing area. There are plenty of floats and pullbuoys to use for varied swim routines. I manage to get myself a good one-​hour swim workout when I go.
I’m struggling here, to find many positives…
Negatives: The place is filthy. Truly, madly, deeply, filthy. Dirt is everywhere; old, ground-​in, never-​been-​cleaned-​off dirt is tracked on the stairs, trailed along the walls, discolouring the tiles, and coating the sides of both pools. You can write your name in the gunk on the sides of the pools at the water line, I kid you not!
Lights are burned out, to the point that several spots in the women’s change room are in almost total darkness, as are the stairs leading down to their basement location. Showers are either freezing or scalding and the toilets are dark and unpleasant.
There are always lots of other people swimming in one’s lanes, no matter which one you choose, and although the lanes are signed slow, medium and fast, there isn’t a lot of encouragement from the lifeguards to enforce that. But that’s not such a big deal.
Dust on the intake grills in the ceiling ventilators must be an inch thick. Ceiling boards are broken or missing. Tiles are missing and broken. But actually none of that matters so much if the pool is clean and well-​kept.
However! (Warning, those with weak stomachs might want to stop reading now) the pools themselves are the worst part of the whole place.
The water is full of black dirty flakes, flaking paint or soot or who knows what. The outside pool has additional mystery bits that might be plant material, leaves and bark and what not from trees or whatever has come floating down from the sky.
But the truly worst thing is that both pools are full of human dirt — globs of floating mucus people have coughed up, sticking plasters that have come off of cuts, and the worst for me, clumps of floating hair everywhere.
The last time I swam in the outdoor pool there were so many of these human hair jellyfish floating leisurely by underneath and around me that I started to gag as I swam and couldn’t stop, had to get out as fast as possible because I was retching so hard I couldn’t breathe. The water smelled of roofing tar that day, too, and was full of black bits washing back and forth in bushels all over the bottom. This is the downside of wearing swim goggles — you see everything!
It used to be that the Oasis was a good deal, but they’ve raised their prices to just under £5 per swim and worse, from my perspective as an older swimmer, they’ve discontinued allowing over-​60s to swim for free. Now we can only have the Freedom Card swim from 9-​noon on weekdays. Any other time and we pay the full price, no discount or anything.
I am naturally a bit disgruntled about that, but I would understand if they used the extra income to clean the place or buy some lightbulbs! But no chance, apparently. I really feel they should be paying ME to swim there in the state the place is in.
So why do I go? Need exercise. Can’t run anymore due to joint issues. Desperate times call for desperate measures. And this place is truly desperate!

Though Oasis is certainly not a state-​of-​the-​art, high-​end gym, it’s definitely a good value for the money! As a student, my 22 pounds per month gives me access to an indoor and an outdoor pool, weights, cardio equipment and a slew of classes (including yoga, pilates, kickboxing, etc.). If you’re looking for something inexpensive that does the job, this is the place! If you’re looking for a high-​end gym with trendy classes (e.g. trampoline-​based exercise and pole dancing classes), you’re probably better off looking elsewhere.

It was a hot humid day where even the air was still… The city was packed but I thought I go to the Oasis pool. It has an indoor and outdoor pool with a roof terrace. The whole place could use some grout and new tiles. However it was blissful to cool off on a hot day sightseeing in the city centre.
The place is not that big but it’s popular with the swimmers and sunworshippers. There are loads of lifeguards on duty which is reassuring. There is also a terraced café by the outside pool.
A word of warning for the guys. It’s rather homoerotic experience for some because I was aware I was being watched in a slightly creepy way in the showers. He must have been a chubby chaser! Fortunately they are completely open so nothing goes on…

I used to be very fond of the Oasis, as it’s lovely to be able to go for a swim outside, in a heated pool, in the centre of London, adjacent to Tottenham Court Road — pretty bracing deep winter and really relaxing in the summer.
Unfortunately our relationship ended — partly because the Oasis can get really, really busy (which is fair enough– it’s good value being a gym co-​operative) but partly cos it really needs some TLC. I absolutely understand it’s not-​for-​profit but the changing rooms generally were somewhere between ‘acceptable’ and ‘skanky’ and gym equipment was constantly out of order.
I also used to get all-​too-​frequent swimmers ear when going there regularly. Maybe it’s not connected, but the cleanliness of the outside pool– hmmmm.
All in all, I enjoyed it when I did go there, but wouldn’t really choose to go back unless I worked very close by.

When I first moved down to London and long before I discovered the lido in London Fields, I thought it would be a great idea to go for an outdoor swim with some friends. After much searching about we discovered the Oasis Sports Centre, smack bang in the middle of the West End. «An outdoor pool in the middle of London– how lovely» we thought. We were wrong. My flatmate came back with an eye infection and I came back with a sore throat.
I didn’t go expecting luxury, but it was pretty disgusting. There are plasters in the pool and the water has a shimmer from the amount of sun tan lotion and after sun that has been applied to the swimmer’s burnt bodies. It is full of screaming kids bombing into the pool and conjures up images from the Beano.

One of my favourite things to do when I worked in Holborn was to come here in the evening to use the outdoor pool. One of the few public pools in central London, it’s amazing how much you’ll put up with for a bit of a gimmick: the pool is pretty small, it’s full of people who can’t really swim, in fact, it’s full of people non-​stop, and the changing rooms are pretty underwhelming and as far as I can tell not equipped with hairdryers, not good if you want to do anything after your swim. But, the joy of swimming outside in central London is pretty strong and it’s also quite cheap.

The oasis sports centre is located and funded by the borough of camden and so prices are less than other private run organizations The centre itself is located close to covent garden and the facilities available are top notch.
There is an indoor and outdoor (heated all year) swimming pool, group exercise classes, women only sessions, sauna, gym, squash, a café and barand even a meeting room.
Whether in the mood for a heavy workout or a light and relaxing swin followed by a nice cup of herbal tea, the oasis sports centre caters for all.
If you live in Camden or are a frequent visitor to the centre, check it out, I am positive that you will not be disappointed!