Swimming Pool and new Gym

[mrcee]

Monster gym in cheshunt - lol, brings back memories. I dont think the latte drinking men of east dulwich are ready for monster, i used to work next door to that place

[tricia172]

The pool and gym are excellent. However the women's changing room for the pool are continually wet and hence dirty. As so many people are using the pool, the changing rooms need to be cleaned or at least mopped far more frequently. Many more people are now joining, so Fusion has no excuse not to pay for regular cleaning. I wonder if James Barber can take this matter up.

[ally3188]

Sure the new gym is fine but, as before the refit, the gormless staff mean I won't be joining. Was a member of harris gym for a while but the inability of the staff to even man the front desk, refil the water, replace the towels, eventually drove me to a chain gym. This time I got a text offering membership without admin fee, went to claim it and join and was told I was a day late. Assumed they might still want my 50 quid a month or whatever and so would honour the offer, but of course it didn't occur to the dopey receptionists this might be a good idea and so when I said I didn't want to pay the admin fee they simply said 'oh, ok, bye" and went back to their gossiping. So I went back to the chain gym.

[mrure]

I found the gym very hot when I used it early morning the other week. It was a warm day but it would be good to have some air. I used the pool on a regular basis and have the same complaint as a previous thread, the women's changing space needs to be more regularly cleaned/mopped up.

[Jeremy]

mrcee Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

> Monster gym in cheshunt - lol, brings back

> memories. I dont think the latte drinking men of

> east dulwich are ready for monster, i used to work

> next door to that place

I went to school in Cheshunt. I've never heard of Monster gym, but I can see how lifting big lumps of metal repeatedly might be one of the more entertaining ways of spending an evening in that part of the world.

[v_the_gelfling]

How funny, my boyfriend goes to that place in Cheshunt sometimes, there's a really well known martial arts guy who lives and teaches up that way but I cannot remember his name.

On another note, I went to the pool for the first time in a couple of years and although the pool was really nice I probably won't be going back. I went on a Tuesday lunchtime for a swim and the pool was packed to the point of it actually being irresponsible to have that many people in there. I counted 15 people in the lane I was in. Can you actually swim like that?! And the changing room despite being new was still pretty dirty. Not a pleasant experience but at least the pool won't be so crowded with one less ;-)

[Bellenden Belle]

Agree about the swimming pool - I went once on a weekday evening and it was overcrowded to the point where people were actually getting quite aggressive with each other.

It's such a shame as it's a lovely pool but I just won't go back.

[snowy]

I've got a three day free membership pass if anyone wants it?

I won it (as mentioned by another poster above). I was told to go and collect it at Brockwell Lido, and was overjoyed at the idea that I could use the lido and the gym there for three days. Alas not.

I live closer to the lido than ED, so if anyone wants to take it from me, I'd be more than happy.

Edit - Now taken.

[bluewallpaper]

The new gym is so bad! Worse than it used to be and I wish I was exaggerating...

- About a third of the running machines there used to be. They are now time restricted and yet still you have to wait for one. This seems like a terrible oversight, I'd rather have the old ones in without the fancy screens than have to stand around waiting for one. They've laughably placed them in a partial circle to use the new bigger space inefficiently, thus masking the fact there's now fewer cardio machines.

- No urinal's in the ironically named 'dry men's changing room'.

- One of the two things I didn't like about the old gym were the terrible air conditioning/ventilation which, as someone else cited above, hasn't been improved.

- The other thing I didn't like about the old gym was that the speakers were far far too small for the space (I don't mind whether they play music or not, but if all you can hear is tinny mid range it's just annoying). It seems that there was no money for new speakers (or ones suitable for the space) and yet more than enough money to have lots of flat screen TVs (which for some unknown reason just loop adverts for the gym you're currently in, and so likely a member of....).

I know the last two points make me sound like someone that complains about everything, however I actually used to really like the old gym but they were the two things I would have improved about it and for sure would have thought would be dealt with in a refurbishment. Instead they seemed to have thought that flat screen TVs cycling through adverts of the gym would somehow improve the experience.... something to look at while you now have to wait for the running machines I guess. Urg.

[northlondoner]

James - any plan to make the pool available to men at all tines ? Seems a shame to fork out for membership and then find you're barred at certain times. Or is it possible to get membership that excludes the pool?

[milk76]

Fusion in ED has always been great value for money.

The greatest shame as mentioned above is that the air conditioning in the gym is so bad. The temperature is regulaly well over 25c in the evenings and one of the trainers said it got to 30c on a busy Friday. This is far too hot for a workout area.

[James Barber]

Hi northlondoner,

their will always be times the pool isn't universally available - everything from kids swimming lessons, kids swimming parties, etc.

what is the time you're really missing being able to use the pool?

Hi bluewallpaper, milk76,

Let me find out what the reality of this is and how things can be improved for us.

[Cassius]

I really don't want to moan about the gym as I appreciate how lucky I am to have one so close to where I live, but I do have to re-iterate how bad the air con is - and not just in the gym. The two studios upstairs are often either freezing or boiling - bad for aerobics if you are too hot and for your muscles if you are doing yoga or pilates in too cold a room.

[sequinstars]

I have to say I'm largely very happy with the new gym and feel very lucky to have such great facilities so close to my home. I also love the fact that I can use Brockwell Lido in my membership and find that I attend a class there most weeks.

However - I would also agree that Dulwich gym itself is far too hot. Also I have found that the classes are far too over subscribed. It seems nearly impossible to sign up to a early morning Pilates class or a week night aerobics class. I've been trying for 3 weeks now and each time I look, they're all fully booked!

[northlondoner]

James,

actually decided not to join when I realised I'd have to check a timetable to see if I could actually get in for a swim.

[richfish]

I like the new gym too ad I am very happy to add my congrats to the team that has made this happen. I agree the air conditioning/ventilation is not good. It gets very hot and stuffy in there even by 8.30am so it must be awful as the day progresses. Someone needs to look in to that. We need some more cycle parking too as it is getting increasingly difficult to park on site. I think it is good value for money and it is great having it on my doorstep. My only other suggestion is that the East Dulwich Road side needs some landscaping and trees. It looks a real forgotten spot now turned into a staff car park (should there be a staff car park at a gym?) and needs some natural features to set off what is a very attractive but rather abandoned old front. It wouldn't cost much and would be more in sympathetic keeping with the original and lovely images of the old building hung in the gym. Other than that its fab!

[sb2010]

I love the new updated pool at Dulwich but do have a couple of little moans:

- It is good to have new changing facilities but the women's changing rooms have a few annoying problems: a massive draft goes through the space when the door is opened from the pool; also when the pool door is open, women changing can be seen through the mirrors at the end; most of the seats are in front of the lockers so people leave their things or are sitting in the way so have to move when access is needed by someone else; the clothes hooks in the showers have started to fall off (the hooks in the old changing room cubicles were lovely and had been there for years without falling off the wall - I wonder where they went.....

- I have filled in a complaint card at least two or three times and have had no reply and nothing has changed

Thanks

sb

[kennethw]

I love the pool, but they could do with having 4 lanes instead of 3 in the "lane swimming" session. It would make it a lot more comfortable for everyone, particularly if there's a lane where folk can swim freestyle only. Given that there's a lot of leisure swim time, there isn't too much need for a massive "slow lane" at these sessions.

Councillor James, are there any plans to extend the "swimming only" membership? I bought that last year as it was fantastic value for money, but it doesn't seem to be advertised in any pricing literature now.

[James Barber]

The DLC manager KAy has helpfully provided the following responses - and as I've been unavailable to post since she provided it last Tuesday 26th:

- TV's displaying messages - will see how this can be changed.

- tests music system and couldn't hear any distortion - please if you ever hear this ask to see the duty manager.

- The building has brand new Building Management System and it will be double checked as it does have aircon booster capability on hot days. So it can cope it a matter of the settings and controls.

- gym designed to pair machines so people can excercise together when they want to (research suggests people more likely ot stick to training if they buddy up). 50 items of cardio equipment for cV training and the same number of running machines as before 13.

- limiting treadmills to 30mins Mon-Fri 6-8pm, Sat/Sun 8am-noon. one of the side effects of the extra popularity. But I would say if someone if gonig to run for longer then breaking up the excercise with other CV is not a bad thing.

[mrure]

Had a swim Sunday morning, and the water was so hot, it was like a sauna and not at all refreshing. The whole building was too hot.

[Cassius]

Water was a bit warm Monday morning as well

[alachlan]

It has been pretty hot in the pool the past two days, but other than that pretty good early in the morning.

What I was pretty annoyed by is the late open/early close on a weekend and the disgraceful pricing, or should I say disgraceful pricing given that I already pay full council tax and am not one of the many concessions available... and if I should forget cash but have my debit card they will charge ?5 min and not give change - what is this about??

[savage]

Water was too hot this morning. good for a bath not for swimming.

[Jumoak]

I am a beginner swimmer and have some lessons at the pool. I was encouraged to use a float and go during the women only sessions. I did that today and apologise profusely to those swimmers who had their session disrupted by having to wait for me. About 1/4 of the pool was in use as there was an aqua aerobics lesson on in the bigger section. So there were about 15 swimmers plus the buffoon with the float (me) trying to share the lane. I didn't experience any hostility but felt a bit bad, I really want to swim but am a little disappointed with what's on offer. Even with the revised summer timetable there still isn't much on offer for the 'lane' swimmers. A shame as I love the revamped pool.

[rifleman harris]

I know I've said this before but JAGS sports is ideal. Its only 37 beer tokens a month its open from 6am to 10pm Saturdays and Sundays, 6am to 8am and 6pm to 10pm mondays to fridays term time (in school hols I think its open 6am to 10pm)

they have free weights that go to 25kgs so they cater for the adonises (like myself B) ) and it has a cross section of users, plus squash, badminton, swimming and other activities are free.