Ponds Forge International Sports Centre

Positive experience: Long queue when competition on and lots of chairs missing for spectators you need to seat on concrete

Fantastic experience: Excellent Olympic sized pool

Positive experience: I really dont like the parking facilities...I don't understand how such a large establishment and centre leisure centre has such limited car parking spaces..I come here every year in November and it's a pain to get parking. Espically when it's cold, raining and freezing for my family and the children... Also sort out the facilities, the toilets are also dirty and smelly...

Positive experience: Son's graduation venue. Seats are a bit close together but clean. Good size

Negative experience: The pool is excellent, but it’s super limited in terms of when you can use it, which I didn’t realise until I’d signed up to a membership, which is 1 year minimum. Most weekends there are no lane swimming sessions because of events, so I can’t make the most of my membership unless I spent significant time and money travelling to other venues. It’s also very sad to see the sauna and steam room closed (indefinitely?) and would be great if they reopened. Also, having to queue to sign in to sessions at the same reception desk as general enquiries means that sometimes you’re waiting ages when you just need to scan in - an automated system would save so much time for everyone and mean you don’t risk running late for a session if the people in front of you in the queue spend a long time talking to the receptionists.

Positive experience: Ponds Forge International Sports Centre has become a popular venue for university graduations, particularly for Sheffield Hallam University. I have celebrated my graduation ceremony here ! The spacious hall provides a grand setting for these ceremonies, accommodating a large number of graduates and their guests. The modern architecture and impressive scale of the venue create a memorable backdrop for graduation photos.

Positive experience: From the caring assistance offered from 'JAY' at reception, to the highly skilled attention provided by 'DENISE' in the domestic dept, Ponds Forge remains a pleasant sports venue for families. With THANKS, to the staff!

Fantastic experience: It's a lovely place. It was a bit difficult to locate even with Google map. But it was worth finding afterwards.

Positive experience: Nice venue but the car park seems hidden. Especially when you use the Google map as a first timer, it doesn't take you to the car park.

Fantastic experience: My daughters graduation was held here i was really suprised it turned out to be a nuce venue for the special occasion

Fantastic experience: Good

Negative experience: Could only use a certain part of the swimming pool so I didn't have a pleasant time.

Fantastic experience: We are so lucky to have ponds forge in our city.

Positive experience: Showing it's age a bit but still a quality facility

Positive experience: Watching great granddaughter in puddle ducks with mom, bit tired on decor but hey it's used a lot.

Fantastic experience: My son had his swimming lessons at Ponds Forge and loved it. The place is clean and welcoming

Fantastic experience: First class swimming and diving pool. Staff really friendly and the cafe food is good

Fantastic experience: First visit. Didn't explore much! But pool was fab

Positive experience: It's our local sports centre, my kids and myself enjoy our time there every time we go! Clean area, helpful staff....nice place for family with kids

Positive experience: Nice pool but the customer service isn't good. Turned up to swim having booked a free session, and was told it was a mistake on the website and that I'd have to pay. I specifically went out of my way to go to the time slot listed as free.

Positive experience: Huge and great swimming pool. Badminton courts are maintained just enough and floor is mostly slippery. Paying for parking is a chore if youre a member.

Fantastic experience: What a fab place this is we are so lucky to have these facilities in Sheffield.

Fantastic experience: Great place to train and the staff are always cheerful and helpful (except one or two of the young ones who are unable to smile, but helpful nevertheless). I use the pool and gym, both of which are well looked after, and the changing room and showers are clean. The 50m pool is great to use, with slow, medium and fast lane swimming. But often the pool is converted into 25m lanes, swimming widths, yet there is no rotation in the slow lane. This can lead to a crazy situation where swimmers have to avoid each other going back and forth. I've never understood why they do that, and the couple of lifeguards I've asked didn't seem to know either. So the pool is much better when set up for 50m lane swimming, although I'm told there's no schedule for this. The gym has an excellent array of equipment and the staff are excellent. Some of the C2 rowing machines need maintenance on their chains, but otherwise the equipment is well maintained. I understand that the whole venue is to be under new management soon, so let's hope they will improve on an already strong set up.

Negative experience: Went and played badminton on 10/9/2024 and there was great facilities but, the staff there are completely incompetent to have a civil conversation with clients. Doesn't mention when booking how many badminton courts you are getting. They yelled at me and my friends when we used more than one court, and had a go at me. Like they put out 5 courts and told us to use one, clearly it was misleading on their website on how many courts we could use. The worst part was there was a lack of common courtesy when talking to clients, and managing the situation. What I want to ask is, Is this how you treat your customers on a daily?

Fantastic experience: My daughter has swimming lessons here. She absolutely loves it. Instructors and staff are friendly. There's an instructor in the pool at stage 1 and one on the side which my daughter finds really reassuring. She used to go to Zest and this is SO much better. Changing rooms and facilities are always clean. You can also grab a snack or bite to eat after the lesson. Highly recommend!

Fantastic experience: Great place well run swimming regularly and gym 3/4 times a week

Fantastic experience: Took our one year old and he loved it. Make sure you've got a floatation device for anyone under 4.

Positive experience: Place is clean and functional but reception staff are useless and rude. Can take 20 mins just to ask what your court number is… badminton court is £10.50 for 45 minutes. I think with some work to make it more accessible to people with easier booking and price systems it could be a lot better.

Fantastic experience: Excellent leisure center with brilliant staff

Fantastic experience: It is a really good facility for its age would recommend

Fantastic experience: very polite and nice

Fantastic experience: Easy access swimming pool and surrounded by tons of hotels.

Negative experience: Staff at ponds forge are incompetent, please don’t park your car there as many other members have been fined even after you pay for parking. BE CAREFUL!!!!

Positive experience: Great facility to take the kids, reasonably priced.

Negative experience: Horrific place to swim. Very very busy, many alternative centres - do not attend a centre run by the Sheffield City Trust. Use an alternative.

Fantastic experience: Easy to find, good parking nearby. Fantastic pool with lots of room for spectators. Really enjoyed the gala.

Positive experience: Good place for swimmers

Fantastic experience: An exceptional and diverse international experience, complemented by first rate facilities.

Fantastic experience: Went to watch my grandaughter diving very impressed with the facilities

Positive experience: The gym is very good decent equipment , kind staff but what is abit annoying is that both the saunas have been discontinued or not working and to get into gym changing rooms you need a wristband even if you have a card .

Fantastic experience: We are so lucky to have this facility in Sheffield. People must use it or we will lose it. The cafe is reasonably priced so stay for food after your sport!

Fantastic experience: Absolutely brilliant pool, great location in the town centre - Q car parks give you 50% discount for parking if you validate your ticket at reception too

Fantastic experience: Excellent facilities in an easy to access location. Brilliant

Fantastic experience: Great place plenty of space and staff are great plenty of parking

Negative experience: Rather go to Hillsborough Its rubbish at ponds forge now theres a lazy river yes but there is about 5 floats to go on then to top it off they take the slides out and wave machine hasn't been on the last 4 times iv been the price they charge for a "lesure swim" when theres nothing ther but water is ridiculous

Negative experience: Family fun day turns to misery. On 30/12/23 my son took his 3 sons and myself to Ponds Forge. We entered the car park and eventually found a parking spot. We weren't able to pay at the machines so my son paid for two hours using the app. We had a session in the leisure pool then afterwards had some snacks and viewed the olympic pool and diving pool. It may be inspirational for the boys. We then left. We were parked up for less than 2 hours. Then the misery starts, my son received a parking charge notice, we had been inside the car park for 2hrs and 2 mins. My son decided to appeal via the Parking Eye website (Parking Eye are the agents for this venue), so he entered his appeal and waited for their response ........ He has now received a bill from a debt collecting and bailffs business for £170. He can ill afford this but appears to have no redress. I am very disappointed at how Sheffield City Trust and their agents treat their customers

Negative experience: Great during non peak hours, but generally not recommendable during evenings/weekends. Had a fair share of people jumping the gated access to the gym, or tailgating behind members. This resulted in equipment being used by people who hadn't paid to be there. Large groups of people also crowding equipment, meaning you'd have no chance of getting on it all evening, whilst also being rowdy.

Negative experience: The irony of telling me not to use my phone at the pool side during lane swimming and then I see a lifeguard using her phone as shes walking past the pool. Maybe think about enforcing the pool side rules with your employees who are meant to set an example and then the rest of us will follow. Cheeky and embarrassing

Negative experience: Sorry to mention that but Something makes no sense !!! All 7 venues funded by UK government and Sheffield city council they have no FIRE to warm the sauna, steamroom or jacuzzi but have plenty of fire to drop on some countries around the world !!!

Negative experience: I parked on the street due to the height Restriction. There’s no sign for the entrance. After a while I found an unsigned door right In the far corner of the carpark and it lead me to reception. I paid to swim. There was no signs for the swimming pool. After finding the changing rooms I realised I needed a fob for the locker (which I wasn’t told about ) so I joined the queue. Finally after wasting 25mins messing about, I got changed. Then.. no sign of the pool, just a plan door. Luckily it lead to the pool (why no sign?) After my swim I had to join a queue again to get my £2 fob refund… I passed comment that it wasn’t a great system only to get a foul look from the young attendant. In her defence she directed me back upstairs where there was no queue.. It was my first & will be my last visit here. Buy some signs & train your staff to explain about the locker fobs when you pay.

Negative experience: Swimming was fine, had to create an account pre book online though, no slides anymore, parking machines didn't work, reception can't take payment for parking it's nothing to do with them.. you have to register an account and mess to pay for parking.. just don't go it's not worth it

Positive experience: Great facilities but if u have any concerns regarding parking or swimming lessons and email wanting any answers in regards to them concerns then don't expect an answers back. Disappointing on customer service.

Positive experience: It was OK I suppose... The rings are still mouldy I tried to ring 8 times with straight to answer phone so I tried again when I got there and ohh surprise surprise answer phone they weren't even busy

Positive experience: Pool is good but often shut for events and the timetable you first come to online isn’t actually the timetable, just how the timetable would look if it was consistent, so you have to follow another link to see the actual timetable (begging the question why the first, wrong, timetable is even there?). The gym is also good but the music is usually so, *so*, loud. Everyone in there is wearing earphones, so the music only needs to be loud enough to cover the farts and groans, but it’s always deafening, so you have to turn your earphones up til your ears bleed to drown it out. And it’s super lame generic electronica, so not having your earphones makes being there really tedious. Without those gripes it would be five stars, with them it’s a bit of a chore to use.

Fantastic experience: We used the leisure pool. The grandkids loved it. The river experience was great and also the wave machine was fun.

Fantastic experience: My wife is learning, swim classes over their, teachers are very understanding. Gym has latest equipments. It’s good

Fantastic experience: Very friendly and helpful staff! Swimming pool is also very nice, everything was reasonably clean. Water in the pool is also nicely warm.

Negative experience: I booked for my tow children.we went,kids very excited couldn’t wait to get into pool.but before we go into pool we have been stopped.by one of the life guards,said we are not allowed in because tow of your children need tow supervisor.which is not true by the end of my review I will put there term and condition.any way story short.we have been refund it and disappointed.we got let dawn.by looking at what happen there they just didn’t like our kind to be in pool other wise while we were at reception we have seen same a man with tow kids went in but I wasn’t allowed .if I broke term and condition why did they refund me the money. Sent them email I complained about what happen no one has send me a email back at all.never again.

Negative experience: Beware parking charges!!! If you pay at the machine you can claim back the cost but not if you pay on the app. Be aware that they charge from when you enter the car park to when you leave - NOT when you pay. I took 5 mins to get my small children out of the car and they gave me a very expensive ticket!!!! Will not be returning. Average swimming pool - not very clean at all.

Positive experience: No swimming trunks dryer is a real pain, as are some of the clientele who appear to be unaware that cutting their (unsure if pubic/armpit or head) hair in the shower and leaving the remains to be swept up by staff is not appropriate. There are other similar issues which we will leave for now. A set of rules for users would go some way towards resolving the issue. I could go on about people drying their shoes with the hairdryer and people leaving toothpaste and shaving remains in the sink, and not taking any notice whatsoever of the slow medium and fast swim lanes but it probably won't make an iota of difference. Ho hum.... On a positive note the water isn't overheated and there is usually space to swim ( it's not like the Norfolk broads in school holiday time)

Fantastic experience: 50m/25m swimming pool for lane swimming and leisure pool for kids/family and beginners. Also a great gym. They provide a very reasonable swim + gym membership.

Fantastic experience: Great gym - part of the SCT - the best are the Les Mills fitness classes and amazing instructors. I’ve been a member since 2005

Positive experience: £12.50 for one adult and one child is really steep especially when there's only around 10 people in the pool including the baby pool and you're still called out after an hour!! Understandable at busy times but for part of the time the two of us and our two friends were the only ones in there! Disappointed there are no slides anymore and a charge to park!!

Fantastic experience: Very nice venue with a deep pool very friendly environment for freediving training.

Fantastic experience: So wonderful day, last tuesday, for our family! One of our daughter is graduated now , at Hallam University. They arrange the official Ceremony down here! It has been fantastic, all perfect, and we spent very touching moments all together. It has been our first time, cause we are italian, and our daughters are studying in Sheffield. Thank you to all the staff for these unforgettable moments

Positive experience: Went for my daughters graduation. The hall was far too hot and stuffy. Had to go outside for fresh air so I didnt pass out. Drinks at the cafe were a rip off.

Fantastic experience: Had my graduation here. Really nice place

Fantastic experience: Went there for my daughter's graduation was really good

Negative experience: No discredit to the place as I'm sure others will love it just wasn't for me here. Maybe the atmosphere or the layout of the place felt lost, changing room set up to the gym and gym lay out and equipment just didn't like not for me

Fantastic experience: Great pool .. fast pool .. converts to 25 n 50 meters

Fantastic experience: This is a good venue for a big or small event. The hall is large with more than people's capacity. The environment is neat and safe for children. There is wheelchair access and parking. Maximum security is guaranteed. I love the place because it has great atmosphere conditions.

Positive experience: Great facility for the swimmers, as usual not much thought for spectators, coaches, parents & families. Seating is very tight on legroom, not particularly comfortable Access and roads into Sheffield are easy to navigate. Food and beverage facilities are pretty basic and theres often a large queue. Staff were polite and helpful Parking under the structure is very tight with not many spaces. There's a multi story just up the road which is much larger and not really.any more expensive

Fantastic experience: Amazing day. Well worth a look

Negative experience: I went to the gym on the Tuesday Bought my car park ticket £2.00 and came out after 1 hrs and 15 mins so under 2 hrs. Imagine my shock to receive a parking fine for £100 no idea for what but glad I saved my ticket. What a SCAM make sure you save your ticket I a. A paid up member but after this not for much longer .they have lots of competitions at ponds forge just think how much they can get out of this fiddle still waiting for a reply

Positive experience: It's an amazing swimming center shame they closed down the sauna at every venue. But the leisure pool is a lot of fun

Fantastic experience: Joined recently after 2 decades of saying I'd never join another gym. At the moment I come swimming 3 times a week. The pool is amazing... So BIG. Membership facilities are good and the staff are super friendly and helpful

Negative experience: We drove 100 miles round trip to attend a tattoo convention. When we arrived there was nothing to indicate any such thing was taking place and none of the staff were aware of it.......a word of warning.......if you see events advertised for this venue, DO NOT assume they will take place, a d decinately DO NOT travel without phoning to check first.

Negative experience: Wouldn’t bother. Booked for a swim for myself, my 2 year old and a friend. Was made to buy arm bands when we’ve never had to before. Turns out the baby area was closed which is why we had to, even though we were never notified of this so that was a fight when my 2 year old wanted to go in that part. Wasn’t allowed to access the pool via the lazy river, had to carry my 2 year old across the bridge whilst pregnant (would be safer to go through the lazy river right?) then we were only allowed in the main pool, no waves on and got told to not let my toddler sit on the side walls where he was happily splashing his legs. Had to carry him around a pool for an hour pregnant. Cheers guys paid money to be in a water prison essentially oh and on the side there was a water bottle of what appeared to be urine?? Hygienic. AVOID.

Positive experience: Went for an event in the main sports hall, didn't seem to be any proper changing rooms nearby which seemed strange for such a large venue. Otherwise brilliant sports centre!

Negative experience: Lovely swimming pool, but parking is atrocious. We paid to park and still ended up with a parking fine and no way of disputing it because the company they use has no contact numbers. Only an appeal form, which they up the charge should they decline your appeal. No proof of payment to park as the machine never issued a ticket and we paid cash so nothing on bank statement.

Negative experience: Two days ago my daughter and I visited. We went there 11:25 for a 11:30 session. The Receptionist ask for a Qr code even though the day before her colleague just looked at the barcode and we got in within a minute. I had to go upstairs and asked my husband to send me the Qr code. After which i returned to the desk, she then ask for me and my daughter's surnames 6 times. After which i was very annoyed. Everyone else she just looked on their codes and sent them through. I strongly believe i was discriminated against because I'm black. We lost 25 minutes which was no fault of ours. Simply put (if you're black be prepared to be discriminated against by some of these staff.

Positive experience: The swimming pool and staff are excellent. There's no water slides here but the lazy river and wave machine is great fun. Reason for 3 stars is the changing rooms. Staff do their best to keep them clean and it shows, the changing area doesn't smell and is clean. Lockers are £1 coin refundable and a good, large size. The changing area is where I felt let down. There's apx 8 family changing rooms which we used and we're spacious. Then there's a male and female changing area which we did not use so I cannot comment. I would of liked to of seen unisex individual changing spaces because my children are 10 and 11 years and I wasn't comfortable for my 10 Yr old son to go into the male changing area by himself but having said that, we used the family changing rooms individually and when we visited it wasn't busy, no one was waiting and there were spare family changing areas.

Positive experience: Great pool, visited for the British and English summer nationals and the organisation was brilliant. Diving pit was used for warm up and cool down during races which was good for the swimmers, cafe serves really good food and isn't ridiculously expensive either!

Fantastic experience: Lovely place for families, awesomely clean, the staff is friendly

Fantastic experience: Very surprised at how nice the gym is, just joined to get back into exercise and loving it so far, it's comfortable clean airy and has a great selection, would highly recommend

Fantastic experience: This sports centre is my favourite. The design of the building is iconic and the public facilities are good. The pool is also good in either 25m or 50m configurations. I highly recommend trying this leisure centre

Positive experience: It was okay, the main entrance was grand, the hall was a bit tired. Also we booked until the end of day but it would appear the customer service desk was telling everyone it was court one, this lead to us being disturbed and confusion for others

Fantastic experience: After waiting in the wrong queue for 20 minutes, my family of 6 were directed to the relevant queue for a leisure swim. Due to how busy the second area was, we were almost 40 minutes late for the 1hr block we were due for. The lovely and helpful staff member by the name of Faye, took it upon herself to have us accepted into the next hour of swimming! It really made our day great instead of disappointing. Thank you so much.

Negative experience: Considering it's a sporting facility I am quite disappointed that there is no air conditioning. There isn't any on the multiuse sports hall where I was playing badminton anyway. Might be different elsewhere in the building.

Positive experience: The marketing photos on Sheffield City Trust website currently (June 2023) for Surf City Leisure Pool at Ponds Forge are misleading, the flumes were removed as part of the deterioration and safety review in 2021. They did make some improvements to the existing facilities like the Lazy River, Wave Machine & Baby and Toddler Pool, which are not bad to be honest, however at a total price for a strict 1 hour leisure swimming session of £40.10 (inc parking for two cars in their car park) compared to what you get for the same 3x adults, 1x 4Y & 1x 2Y and free parking for £44.20 at Barnsley Metrodome Calypso Cove for a 90 minute session with lots more facilities, I know which one we’ll be going back to. Step-up your game Ponds Forge, 4Y+ swimmers need a training diving area and flumes to encourage their confidence and reach for greater things, there’s more locally that what you offer.

Negative experience: Over the last 6 months pondsforge has gone majorly downhill. Prior to these last 6 months I would always recommend here to anyone looking for a gym, to go swimming or just general activities. Now I'm telling people to stay clear. Multiple pieces of equipment in the gym broken and have been for months. Overcrowded swimming due to another venue being shut and then prioritising lane swimming space over the people with memberships and outside people who're paying. They have also taken out both the sauna and steam room facilities in the male and female members changing rooms stating it was a luxury and therefore justifying them being able to keep membership prices the same or even INCREASE them. Not to mention the on and off heating problems with the male changing facilities and then the constant boiling hot female changing room conditions which have both been going on for months also. It is safe to say this venue is not what it once was and I will not be continuing my membership here once it expires in June.

Positive experience: This is an iconic venue for aquatic sports in the UK. We have attended swimming events for which the pool is great. The main pool is a ten lane, 50m set up with decent blocks at both ends. There is a boom that can be used to form two 25m pools. The diving pool is often used for warm up/swim down during races. There is ample space for swim teams and coaches on one side and spectators on the other. There is a fairly basic but less expensive than many cafe and good access by public transport. It is marked down to 4 start as the venue is tired in parts and facilities like toilets are worn. The cleaning teams obviously make an effort but there is only so much that scrubbing can hide! If you get the Fagan e to watch an aquatic’s competition here I would say go for it!

Positive experience: Could do with some tidying up around the edges but it is over 30 years old I guess and it's a great place to swim and be active. The swimming instructors and desk staff are brilliant and helpful. One star reduced due to lack of cycling parking, being such an iconic building should be providing the best bicycle parking the city can offer, the lockers advertised aren't available and my bicycle gets drenched when it rains.

Positive experience: Went to watch the basketball there, sharks v flyers. Venue is OK and the seating is comfortable enough. They have a food area selling hot and cold drinks as well as hot dogs and other snacks. A double win for Bristol this season in the shark tank, come on @bristolflyers

Fantastic experience: Great swimming spot for little ones, lovely interactive toddler pool with plenty of water features to enjoy! If you're taking your pram, make sure you bring an extra £1 so that you can lock it up in the buggy park outside the changing rooms.

Positive experience: Decent leisure pool, cheap enough, easy to get to. Only downside is parking is a nightmare. More of a Sheffield issue than Ponds themselves.

Fantastic experience: Amazing and helpful desk staff on the day of our visit, life guards attentive too. Clean and plentiful changing rooms. Pool nice temperature, lazy river had lots of flotation rings, wave machine decent. Lots of safe fun to be had

Negative experience: People are trying to improve their health to deter from long and short term illness. NHS saves money from those people being pro active and positive. However! Ponds forge! Zero places available for those that want to swim! Swimming has less of an impact on peoplws joints. Ponds forge just isn't booked up for two weeks, it's booked up for months and months. Really dissapointing and just not good enough because its well known, not just in Sheffield but in the country and even internationally. Ponds forge doesnt have the facilities available to cater to the people of Sheffield. Ponds Forge have also taken over 90% of swimming centres in Sheffield and they all use the same booking system so its impossible to use a swimming pool. Maybe there is just too many people in Sheffield now, I dont know, not my area of expertise but it's definitely not catering for the people of Sheffield. If there's any business men/women who wants to build a swimming pool, even a Lido... go for it!

Positive experience: Amazing centre. A very small issue was with the space in the facility to organise an international para swimming championship. Nevertheless things went smoothly and everything was great!

Positive experience: 50m swimming pool, our son was at the Swim UK regional finals, well organized, the public gallery seating little cramped but to be expected. Time board clearly visible what more do you need at a swim meet