Highgrove Pool and Fitness Centre Reviews

The staff are great and the gym is good but the recent change to their entry gate system has been a nightmare. I have to get a staff member to let me through about half the time as the gates and the app aren't working as they should. Pool is good but the public are often crammed into two lanes to accommodate for swimming lessons. This can sometimes be made more frustrating by the fact that the lessons are not always taking place in all of the designated lanes at the time.

Arrived early for the first swim with my young primary school aged daughter, who had a swimming competition later in the day and felt nervous about her backstroke, poor thing, but we've all been there with nerves. We paid a stonking £9 for her to swim (I wasn't going in). However, the pool was packed. There were three people in each lane, every lane. 8.10 in the morning! I'd say the vast majority were older than 40 or 50, though it can be hard to tell. Of course there were lanes of various speed, but my daughter was going to be swimming the 25 metres in less than 20 seconds, she would quite clearly have had to slow down (therefore not preparing for the competition) or just steaming through and colliding with the person in front. That wouldn't work for anyone. She hadn't even gone in, so I politely asked for a refund for her. The swim manager said no as she could join a lane as the fourth person. Yes, of course she could in theory, but in practice it wouldn't work. The manager still insisted no, it wasn't possible. He went to walk off, as he did I asked him his name (I won't write it here) and asked whether anyone had ever done him a favour, you know let him off. He looked at me sheepishly and said yes, they had, but he wasn't going to do us a favour in this instance because he'd have to explain the refund to his boss and he didn't want to go through that. Honestly, the pool was jam packed, they didn't look like they needed our £9. I thanked him for his time and left with my daughter to Northolt pool, just a ten minute drive away. £2.60 for her swim and a lane to herself! And she achieved the sub-20 seconds in the race a few hours ago, no thanks to Highgrove Pool. Honestly guys, this was so mean. A child wanting to practice swimming for a competition, making no fuss, just asking for her £9 refund, and you couldn't do it?! The lady at reception was lovely, and she had inspired me to join the pool at £40 for adult membership and £23 each for my 3 children as the pool is so local and convenient to us. Doing the maths that would have been £1308 per year. Lost over 9 quid! This pool is not for me, but if you want a busy swim, with lots of feet in your face and staff who shrug their shoulders at you as they walk away, this is right up your street.