The best pool in every borough

Swimming is the facility that separates a leisure centre from a gym, and it is far rarer than the label suggests. Plenty of venues that call themselves leisure centres have no pool whatsoever — they are sports halls with a fitness suite attached.

Across all fifteen boroughs in this directory, this is how the water is actually distributed.

Wandsworth: the clear winner

Wandsworth is not a close contest. Its four indoor pool centres — Balham, Latchmere, Tooting and Putney — are supplemented by Tooting Bec Lido, one of the largest outdoor pools in Europe and a genuine landmark rather than a municipal afterthought. Putney's main pool is an unusual 33-metre L-shape with a separate diving area, built in 1968 to a RIBA award-winning design.

All eight of the borough's council centres run under a Places Leisure contract carrying £24 million of planned investment, including new health suites at Balham and Tooting.

Tower Hamlets: the one making it free

Tower Hamlets has done something no other borough here has. Having brought its centres back in-house in 2022 under the Be Well brand, it used that control to remove the price barrier outright: free swimming for women and girls aged 16 and over, for men over 35, and for all residents over 55, extended to families from April 2026. More than 20,000 residents have taken it up, the large majority of them women and girls.

Whether that is affordable long term is a fair question, and one the borough will keep facing. But as a piece of policy it is the single biggest intervention on swimming access anywhere in this directory. York Hall in Bethnal Green, better known as a boxing venue, is among the four pools it applies to.

The north west: fewer, larger pools

Harrow and Brent follow a different shape from the inner boroughs — not many pools, but big ones. Harrow Leisure Centre has anchored the borough since 1975 and remains one of the largest venues here: roughly 180 stations across three gym areas, a 33-metre main pool, a 12-metre teaching pool, sauna and steam, and a nine-metre climbing wall. Hatch End is its opposite, a quiet 22-metre pool that suits nervous swimmers and older residents better than a busy leisure complex ever will.

Brent's Vale Farm in Sudbury carries two pools alongside a 107-station gym and outdoor pitches, and Willesden Sports Centre adds a third.

Islington: the one that shows its prices

Islington is worth singling out for a reason that has nothing to do with the water and everything to do with honesty. It is the only borough here that publishes a separate monthly price for each of its centres, from £40 at Cally Pool to £64.20 at Highbury, rather than hiding behind a single headline rate. Five of its twelve venues have a pool.

Ironmonger Row Baths is the finest building in this entire directory. Grade II listed, opened in 1931 and extended in 1938, it pairs a 30-metre pool with Victorian-style Turkish baths — three hot rooms at rising temperatures, marble slabs for massage, and an icy plunge pool. Archway takes the opposite approach entirely: a leisure pool with a wave machine, flume and beach entry, built for families rather than lengths.

The City: no public pool at all

The Square Mile is the starkest case here. Golden Lane Sport & Fitness, the City's only public leisure centre, closed on 30 April 2026 after its operator Fusion Lifestyle entered administration; the City of London Corporation is refurbishing the site. Until it reopens, anyone wanting to swim in the City is paying commercial rates — the two pools left are inside Virgin Active and Nuffield Health, both north of £100 a month.

Westminster next door could hardly be more different. Six pools, two of them worth the trip for the architecture alone: Marshall Street's 30-metre pool retains its original marble floor, and the Porchester Centre's 1925 pool sits alongside restored Turkish baths.

The inner boroughs: older water, more of it

Southwark has the strongest swimming provision per venue of anywhere here — six of its eight listings have a pool, and two of them are Victorian baths still in daily use. Dulwich, opened in 1892, is the oldest continuously operating public baths in London; its original main pool was boarded over in 1982 and is now the gym floor, with the second pool still in service. Camberwell dates from the same year and keeps much of its original character.

Camden manages five pools across eight venues in one of the densest boroughs in the country. The outlier is Oasis in Covent Garden — a heated outdoor pool in the middle of the West End, open year round, which has no business existing and is all the better for it.

Lambeth is the one borough here running its centres directly rather than through a contractor, having taken them back in-house as Active Lambeth in April 2023. Under-11s resident in the borough swim free. Streatham pairs two pools with an Olympic-size ice rink, and Brockwell Lido adds open-air swimming at Herne Hill.

Merton and Croydon: the reliable ones

Merton runs the tightest ship of any borough here. Three council leisure centres, all managed by GLL under the Better brand, and all three have pools — a hit rate no other borough matches. Morden's secondary pool has a moveable floor, letting one tank serve infant lessons and diving on the same day.

Croydon has the most council centres of anywhere we cover, with five of them holding pools including the £25 million New Addington centre. Three of those pools received Sport England funding specifically to offset utility costs, which is worth knowing: municipal pools are expensive to run and the ones under financial strain are the ones that close.

Sutton: two from four

Sutton's four Everyone Active centres split evenly. Westcroft and Cheam have pools; the Phoenix Centre and the David Weir Leisure Centre do not. David Weir — named for the Paralympic champion — offers an indoor athletics track instead, which is rarer than a pool and worth the trip if that is what you need.

Richmond: two pools, split management

Richmond's swimming sits almost entirely with two GLL-run venues. Pools on the Park is the standout: a 33-metre indoor pool alongside a 33-metre heated outdoor lido kept at 25 degrees and open year round, floodlit after dark. Teddington adds a six-lane 25-metre pool, a learner pool and — unusually — a dedicated hydrotherapy pool held at 34–36 degrees with hoist access.

The borough's other four centres, run directly by the council, have no pools at all.

Kingston has thirteen gyms and leisure centres and exactly one public swimming pool.

Kingston: the thin one

Kingston is the outlier, and not favourably. The Malden Centre holds the borough's only public pool. Chessington Sports Centre and Tolworth Recreation Centre both carry leisure-centre names without any water. Kingfisher Leisure Centre closed in 2019; its replacement, Kingston Leisure Centre, is not due until spring 2027.

For residents of Chessington or Surbiton, the nearest pool may well be over the borough boundary.

Every venue with a pool

Pulled live from the directory, so this list cannot fall out of step with the data.

And the ones without

Worth knowing before you travel — these venues sound like they should have a pool and do not.

Prices marked Estimate are ours, not the operator's. Council and trust-run centres price by membership type rather than a single headline rate — ring ahead before budgeting.