Dulwich Leisure Centre, seriously - how do you book a swim?!

[Coco_123]

I haven't been swimming at Dulwich Leisure for years, and since they reopened including a new website, it seems impossible to book a swim.

Has anyone cracked it? I'm not a gym member there, so you'd think their swim timetable was fully viewable, but it isn't. You sort of have to make a guess about exactly which day, time and type of swim, (e.g forcing you to decide whether to click on medium lane 45 or slow lane 60 - madness) before you've even found out if there's any slots generally? And then if you do see a S'pace Available', by the time you click forward, it then always says 'Fully Booked'.

No joke, I've been trying and failing for weeks. If you email Southwark Leisure they don't reply. If you call Dulwich Leisure Centre there's no human to answer the phone (and it says voicemail is full). What the --? Do Southwark want us to be healthy or not? Seems madness to me that we live on Crystal Palace Road yet we have to go to Forest Hill Pools to swim.

If anyone's cracked it please do shout

Edited Monday at 14:57 by Coco_123
typo

[NewWave]

good luck booking forest Hill, I've been trying to get in a fitness class there (I'm a member) for two weeks and they're all fully booked..I go on the waitlist by the time I've recieved an email to tell me a slot has become available its gone and sessions are all fully booked.

really really depressing. 

[march46]

Do they still operate a waitlist for classes? I thought the policy changed and you now have to check repeatedly to see if a space becomes available - not sure how this is an improvement btw!

[bonaome]

Are you able to use the app? Search your App Store for move Southwark and it should come up. One downloaded you can see sessions by the day. You don’t need to be a member, but you do need to set up an account for the app so you can log in. You can pay as you go from there.

dm me if that’s still bamboozling for you and I’ll try to help more.

it really should be easier than it is!

[Alec1]

If you live on the same road as leisure centre, might be worth dropping in and finding out what the problem is?  I think, you have to have an account. 

 

[MonkeyNews]

I've just logged on to the app and there are plenty of places available in the evening for all the lanes, every day this week. It seems like you are not looking in the right places.

[Nigello]

It is a bit (and unnecessarily maddeningly) complicated because you have to choose a type of swim (lane/over 60/men only etc. and even which speed you’d like to swim at), so I sympathise. I have no idea why Southwark won’t repeal these rather daft restrictions or at least some of them and just have most of the day as open swimming (with one lane always roped off for those who want to do lengths). 

[KalamityKel]

Its worth noting, you can multiselect the types of swim to show more options... 

[Alec1]

21 hours ago, Nigello said:

It is a bit (and unnecessarily maddeningly) complicated because you have to choose a type of swim (lane/over 60/men only etc. and even which speed you’d like to swim at), so I sympathise. I have no idea why Southwark won’t repeal these rather daft restrictions or at least some of them and just have most of the day as open swimming (with one lane always roped off for those who want to do lengths). 

Because some people want senior sessions to swim gently and perhaps socialise. One lane for lengths wouldn't work.  Some swimmers are incredibly fast and some are very slow, it is just unworkable. 

[Nigello]

I said that only some of the time should be set aside for general swimming by removing some of the ring-fencing - see above for proof. Nobody was clamouring for such timed access before Covid; now, lots of people book (often at night when slots open) then sometimes don’t turn up in that hour. It’s hardly the epitome of accessibility (which is one of this council’s pet phrases), and therefore doesn’t encourage would-be swimmers to dip their toes into the water. 

[the_hermit]

They used to fine people for not turning up, but I think the reception staff were overwhelmed by mistakes/people trying to appeal their fine.  I think instead they should just temporarily reduce the booking window for people who don't turn up as a deterrent.

Edited 22 hours ago by the_hermit

[Nigello]

Or have both special sessions and turn-up-and-swim sessions (with the emphasis on the latter, because that’s the most accessible and historically and socially acceptable way of doing things, which was only jettisoned because of the effects of a pandemic. 

[the_hermit]

Having turn up and swim isn't efficient.  Either they're too packed and everyone loses, or there are vacancies which people aren't aware of because there's no booking system.

[Nigello]

Efficiency? It’s LEISURE TIME! Fine if you want to lanyard up and go full spreadsheet when you fancy a bit of a paddle, but that’s not really the best MO when speaking of a council-funded recreation centre. 

[the_hermit]

Yes it's leisure financed by people's gym subscriptions and taxpayers.  It's not magicked out of thin air.  So it's important that the resource is allocated efficiently.  .  It's also not leisure for the people working there for whom it's presumably a pain to deal with an overcrowded pool.

[missyelliott]

There is now two threads on this. I am really struggling to understand why people have such issues with booking their swim.  Most things in life now require prebooking whether for leisure or not.  Do the same people find booking a table at a resturant or a seat at the cinema just as annoying?  We are very lucky to have 3 local swimming pools.  Since the booking system was introduced I personally find the expeience so much better. If you book you are guaranteed a swim at the time you want in the length you want.  Yes you have to be organised for Dulwich but some of the other pools are never full. 

[Alec1]

I imagine they also legally have a limited number of people they can have in the pool at any one time, so if it was just a case of turn up and swim, there would likely be people turned away after they might have cleared part of their day to swim. 

    

[Sue]

33 minutes ago, Alec1 said:

I imagine they also legally have a limited number of people they can have in the pool at any one time, so if it was just a case of turn up and swim, there would likely be people turned away after they might have cleared part of their day to swim. 

    

I know a couple whose twelve year old son drowned in an overcrowded swimming pool on a day when no lifeguard was there.

This was a long time ago, but maybe just be thankful that these days more safety measures are in place, however inconvenient they may be for some people?

[missyelliott]

Exactly Sue!  

[Nigello]

Whether a pool is overcrowded or not, the absence of the lifeguard is the critical factor here. To use this tragic anecdote as a reason to disregard valid points about accessibility is a reach too far and designed to emotionally blackmail anyone who disagrees with the status quo. At least some - not all - of the hours of operation ought to be for drop-ins as has been standard for decades. (Overcrowding is easily prevented with the use of wristbands and/or headcount at ticket desk, etc. - as was the case before Covid.) 

Edited 1 hour ago by Nigello