Life Leisure Grand Central

I take my son here for the swim and slides and he always enjoys it.
Two nice slides and a big pool aswell as the splash zone. I have to say it hasnt changed much since I was a kid so could do with a makeover, especially the changing area which is a bit manky. The duration of the swim and slides should always be at least 1.5 hours. 1 hour isn't enough so not sure why it changes sometimes. All in all it's a decent place to go though.

It is such a shame how far downhill grand central has gone. I go swimming here twice a week with my children, it is absolutely FILTHY and dilapidated. It is clearly not been cleaned, even looking at the bottom of the pool is dirty. None of the locks on the changing room doors work properly, you have to bring padlocks for the lockers. Multiple young lifeguards hanging around chatting to each other. Pool and changing rooms are freezing. Swimming lessons for children are unfortunately a joke, you end up doing most of the teaching yourself as the teacher is not interested. So disappointing as I imagine there are some people working here who still care. It needs to be shut down before something bad happens.

I've been a member here now for just under a month, and while the facilities are brilliant a lot of work needs to be done. The swimming side of things is a bit of a shamble at the moment, things have been broken since I joined; toilet flush, changing room locks, lockers & the swim barrier in the pool (the latter being the main problem as it causes overcrowding and generally just a bad experience). Honestly, there doesn't seem to be any urgency to fix any of these issues and if you ask the staff the common answer is "I don't know". If you want to come here for lane swimming you can expect a maximum of 3 to 4 lanes open if you're unfortunate enough to have to share the pool whilst general swim is on (again, due to the problems with the barrier in the pool). Despite what I've said I do like coming here, but there's a minimum of 3 months before you can cancel your membership, so I hope to see some improvements in that time. Life leisure - let's see some action for all your paying customers.

Been going here for many years and now I won't return again. I booked a baby and toddler session in the BABY pool. Which was full of teenagers and older kids causing chaos in the baby pool. Life guards watching it all happen not bothered. I had a 10wk old with me and one of the older kids nearly jumped on my baby not looking. I had to leave very early because it was too dangerous. Also, there was people in the pool on their mobile phones taking pictures? Again, life guards not bothered.. as if they were too scared to say something. I mentioned it all to them and they just said "oh". On top of that, it's run down and old. Hard to book something in and when you call they hang up and don't answer

Been going regularly for a couple of weeks now. Only 1 functioning ladies toilet. Only 3 dirty showers. Fun session which promises inflatables etc, has no inflatables, it doesn't even have any toys, noodles or anything.
The main pool seems to get colder every time I go. To the point where today I've left after doing a few 50 metre lengths because i was still shivering. Oh and don't bother getting anything out of the vending machines, I ended up with something that was stale and out of date, but the staff can't do anything about it because they can't access the machines 🙄.
I wish I could access my local pool but of course then I'd have to pay more for my membership... ridiculous.

The facilities are not great at all. Everything is rusted, mouldy, broken or bodged to fix. To get to the sauna you have to walk through a pool of water that has collected near the entrance, and because there is no drainage it's brown and discoloured. The metal fixtures are badly rusted, the lift is a human health hazard, there was a large patch of mould near the entrance to the jacuzzi. I could go on. Not a great place to visit at all.

Ok so this has been a difficult one for me to review.
The staff are lovely & on the ball monitoring the pool, the vending machines are well stocked, a little pricey but aren’t they all! Theres ample seating in spectator style seating.
I love that i can lane swim & the kids can play on the slides and i can see them. The kids love the interactive slides.

However…..it’s just a bit tatty! dated! In desperate need of a revamp!
The paint work everywhere is chipped, the showers are a bit grubby, the toilets need a good clean. Locks are broken on changing room doors & it generally needs a good spruce up!
Now it is one of the cheaper swimming baths around at only £3.05 for children £5 for adults & a family of 4 for £11.90! Bargain! Slight annoyance is that you have to pay extra for the slides at £1.15 each, yes only a bit extra but it’s my pet hate when things are not included!

Lockers are a padlock and no alternative! Again slightly annoying as I don’t tend to carry a padlock with me and then I have to not lose the key in the baths! If you forget your padlock you can buy one from reception for £4. I suppose if you’re a regular here & you’re not as forgetful as I am then it’s not too bad! If you’re like me then it’s a £4 padlock every time & a load of padlocks at home that you don’t need 😂(sorry went off then)

🅿️They don’t have their own car park but there are a few around, one being the NCP at the back. It’s free Sundays & bank holidays. The rest of the time it’s only £1 but you have to download the NCP app as it’s cashless parking. I’m not too sure about other parking options as I have only used this one.

It is massively lacking a cafe too.
But….. you get what you pay for 🤷‍♀️

Will I return with the kids now & again….probably as it’s affordable especially in the school holidays! I would probably give it an overall of 3.5 (just keep your flip flops on 🩴🩴 )