White Horse Leisure and Tennis Centre

Fantastic experience: We had to sort out our kids swimming lessons, and Lily at the front desk has been extremely helpful, she is such a star and did the extra miles to help and provide support. We are so grateful for all her help. And the swimming instructors had been absolutely fantastic, they are also super helpful! Our kids enjoy swimming with them a lot.

Positive experience: in a period of perpetual renewal but honestly it's a good place to go for physical health

Fantastic experience: Lovely place, good facilities, swimming pool looks great, nice little cafe just in entrance, staff are friendly and kind

Positive experience: We have been to this leisure centre over a number of years swimming with our grandchildren always had a pleasant experience here.

Fantastic experience: Good facilities and fairly priced food and drink

Fantastic experience: First time I have been. But looks good for those who use it.

Fantastic experience: Friendly, clean They do not accept cash, card payments only

Fantastic experience: Clean - helpful staff - very friendly swimming instructors back when my little ones were little

Negative experience: I was very disappointed, the hygiene of the toilet and changing rooms was beyond discusting, I was almost sick , The place ither needs to be inspected or closed down until clean Not pleased at all

Positive experience: I love coming here the staff are lovely could maybe do regular pace of music in the gym but still great. One thing I would like to say though is I would like to see some more staff in the gym recently found on the quieter days you hardly see them and it's disappointing that they don't take cash. I paid for someone's gym session the other day because they had no money in their account or not enough after finding out it was £15 per session. So they give me the money after I paid it.

Fantastic experience: Machines are nice quality, members are majority calm. Changing rooms are clean. Wide range of machines are available too. However, broken machines have not been replaced for over 10 weeks. Not getting all your paying for. With that said however, this is easily the best gym in the area. 4.5 stars.

Fantastic experience: The staff here are great, extremely helpful and not judgemental. Always happy to help! They keep the pill clean and tidy, and always have great lifeguards on duty!

Fantastic experience: Use it or lose it. Nice coffee and snacks

Positive experience: The positives The water in the toddler swimming pool seems warmer lately. They’ve added a few swimming toys and balls which makes the sessions fun. The staff are friendly. The one big negative - The whole place needs a bloody good clean and it seems to be getting worse week by week. On our latest visit the nappy bin was overflowing (clearly more than a days worth of nappies) and the floor was grim with clumps of hair, dirt and mud in the changing rooms. There were similar levels of dirt and grime in the main walkways as you go to the swimming area.

Fantastic experience: Effortless booking through the Better app. Friendly greeting at front desk and helpful member of staff when I explained it was our first time visiting. The Splash pool was perfect for taking 6 month old baby: it was warm and clean, and a limited number of people meant it was not crowded. There are plenty of family changing rooms, which were clean and spacious. Lovely cafe with friendly staff.

Fantastic experience: Great layout for easy access to the pool. Clean, tidy, and with helpful and friendly staff. Ample parking with plenty of disabled spots too.

Negative experience: To start it off the facilities at this leisure centre are mediocre especially for the price of the membership, (that has continuously been increasing over the years as the centres popularity has been decreasing). I remember when Active Nation used to run this centre and it was always packed now it's like a ghost town other than, Saturday mornings and after schools finish when it's slightly more popular. Don't get me wrong the centres not awful but it's definitely not good, I feel the management has been worsening over the years and it all started when, "BETTER" took over or as everyone else calls it, "WORSE". The staff are lovely, however aren't consistently at reception which I think is poor, and it's a miracle if they answer the phone or respond to an email. The indoor tennis has always stood out to me as it's best feature of the centre as coaching is always great and courts are nice, however the price to book a court if your not being coached is unbelievably expensive it's laughable for a casual player £22.50 per hour. The outdoor courts are mostly unusable other than a few artificial grass courts, but theirs like 6 grey clay courts that have been left to nature and have pretty much turned into a nature reserve which just makes it all look so run down. They must know the courts are poor as the gate can be unlocked easily by reaching your hand threw. I think the management is to blame with a few lazy staff. Very little over the years has been noticeably improved and just made worse. They stopped doing les milles workout classes which were always popular and great fun, though now we've got just 30 minutes session which just do not compare. Some of the sessions are even virtual so you pretty much just watch a YouTube video whilst you workout, there's also no one else in the room because no one is going to waste their hard earned money on that ****. Swimming pool temperature has been creeping down slowly also even in the kids pool, this makes you want to get out after half an hour when your extremities are blue. I've booked a badminton court their before and the courts were not set up and wasted about 15minutes of my paid for hour getting the staff to come and set up my net, absolutely appalling. The cafe could also be far better by actually making some of their own sandwiches and lunches and making it a bit nicer and bespoke. I think it is such a shame this centre is going down hill as it is such a brilliant facility. I would say, stop cutting corners and make it a high quality centre like it used to be, people often don't mind paying a little more if what their getting is good quality and have a good experience. Keep the pool warmer, get the receptionist staff to actually act as if their at work and do their job, and get some classes run by actual human beings and for a solid hour long, (no point travelling 20 mins there and back for a half hour session). Give the outdoor courts some TLC and just cut away some of those weeds, also give the indoor courts a little clean to remove the stains on the floor. Also have some homemade good quality product options at the cafe. These are my main things though there are still many bits and pieces that could be improved but these should be flagged up in a quick assessment of the facilities by the management team. Sorry for the long winded review but I really do hope this centre restore itself to its former glory and becomes great again.

Fantastic experience: Best leisure centre in whole Oxford and shire. Highly recommend. Never mind rude staff, place still beats that.

Fantastic experience: Very good and convivence local leisure centre.

Fantastic experience: State of the art gym, nice cafe and lots of sports facilities.

Fantastic experience: Well equipped gym free weights and machines, good changing rooms with showers sinks toilets ect friendly staff who are always willing to help.

Positive experience: Constructive feedback. Cubical walls and surfaces haven’t been cleaned in a long time, toddler pool has one bubble area but no other play or water action areas. Also some mosaic tiles on the corners are sharp and cut me. Positives. Friendly staff and good lifeguards. Water was warm and other facilities were fine

Negative experience: Occasionally work next door so go in the gym but the cost now for a day pass is £13.75! I pay £17.99 a month at home. Won't be coming back.

Negative experience: Badly managed, no one ever answers the phone or answers emails. Pool water is cold and overall the place is not very clean!

Fantastic experience: Love the gym, staff are very friendly and helpful. Very clean

Negative experience: The temperature of the water in the children's pool was not comfortable, plus the air conditioning was turned on (or there was a draft) We were very cold. We swam for 10 minutes with the child and left.

Positive experience: Great atmosphere, very friendly and helpful staff. Large gym with lots of equipment and floor space.

Positive experience: My child is having swimming lessons here. The quality of teach varies. Most teachers are great but one of the male teacher is just part-time teaching, part-time chit chatting

Fantastic experience: New to the area and visited for the toddlers world group. Was fab, not busy, well set out for the children to explore. Thank you. We'll worth £5.50 for 2 hours in my opinion.

Fantastic experience: Nicely setup for taking toddlers swimming thats not too busy, as well having good swimming lessons for various ages. Handy to stop off at the cafe afterwards too.

Fantastic experience: My husband who is paralyzed and cannot walk unaided and I are using the pool several times a week as part of his rehabilitation. We cannot praise the staff enough for their attentiveness and friendly attitude to us. They get the hoist out every time for him and nothing is too much trouble. The changing room for disabled users is extremely clean and very spacious.

Negative experience: I do not recommend this Leisure Centre. There is a culture of bullying at this centre that is centred around management. Staff have a very lazy attitude and are poorly trained (excluding a couple). The building is filthy and not cleaned properly. Gym equipment is often out of order for months. There is little regard for hygiene as members are allowed to walk from the pool to the gym, soaking wet, which then creates a wet and hazardous gym floor. Given the membership prices, you can get much better for less.

Fantastic experience: Well run tennis grade 3 LTA tournament! Worth travelling! Great experience superb indoor courts and facilities. Many thanks!

Fantastic experience: Staff friendly. Pool wasn't cold. Changing rooms were clean when we visited and lots of space. Wasn't overbooked and we were able to swim quite freely. Check timetable before visiting

Negative experience: I booked a badminton court the day before, when I arrived the court was not setup in the correct location and I was not informed of the change, we were waiting for 15 mins to get a court sorted as people were on it. I paid £11 for an hour and the couldn't set-up the court. This has happened 3 times before! It is not good enough. The games were good but did not get the time a paid for.

Fantastic experience: Excellent swimming sauna and steam room. The staff are friendly and polite and a true credit to the centre and community.

Positive experience: It’s a good Leisure Centre. Just the toilets and other areas could be cleaned the toilets are always dirty and with never no toilet paper, it’s super dusty in all areas possible the sinks look yellowish where no one NO ONE gives them the scrub they need. I’ve also got children and there is no toys on the play mats nor any sound on the TV which is frustrating as the children then want to play with automatic doors.

Negative experience: Rarely see any staff, it’s not the cleanest or well equipped. For the membership prices it’s an absolute robbery.

Fantastic experience: Really relaxed to just have fun or get help achieving your goals.

Fantastic experience: Fantastic facility, great staff. Worked so hard during lockdown and new Covid arrangements brilliant. Well done.

Fantastic experience: I go there and it helps my mental health

Fantastic experience: Could be lil warmer air con makes the learners pool cold

Positive experience: The baby/toddler pool is usually freezing cold.

Positive experience: Generally I love this swimming pool and I travel 20 minutes to get here rather than using my local. I find the booking process easy and it's usually much cleaner than others. Lately though the Learners Pool isn't heated to the same celsius as before and it's been much less appealing for babies/ very young children. Their skin is turning purple after half an hour despite lots of splashing about and we struggle to stay the full hour. On the other hand the showers are then scalding hot so we also can't stand under them for long as it's unpleasant. Not sure what has happened to the management of the pool area recently, it doesn't seem like anyone is checking the temperatures.

Fantastic experience: Very nice gym and swimming pool. The entire facility is recommendable.

Fantastic experience: Fantastic facilites and staff. The new improvements look fantastic!

Fantastic experience: Friendly service as always and the perfect spot for late night badminton.

Fantastic experience: Great place! I love the 5 quid swimming pool. All clean, nice and safe. One of the things worth mentioning is respectable staff who is helpful and nice. There is a coffee but when I went there it was closed. The website one which you are booking the activities is easy and straight forward. Really like that place and would recommend to everyone.

Negative experience: Since 2 years ago floor is week after week worse and worse. We train there twice a week and mine and my 10 year old daughters doboks are literally black after each session. There is also nail sticking out from the floor and we are training barefoot. In winter it's so cold that sometimes I think that they save on heating on purpose. I was questioning this on multiple occasions in the past however they always had one explanation which is not enough staff. After lockdown cleaning should take priority especially when kids are around and definitelybetweenclasses or events. I normally don't do such a feedbacks but I think this is now too much.

Positive experience: The White Horse Leisure Centre is a Great place but the floaty is 9 Pound and they don't take cash

Negative experience: I used to love this centre. On rejoining, it doesn't seem to be good value. Lots of classes have no teacher, you mights as well use YouTube. The centre is grubby too, changing rooms never seem very clean. The gym equipment has broken bits and pieces. Some of the weight machines you can't read the weight value which I think is dangerous. You charge enough and are open less hours make the facility clean and not dangerous.

Positive experience: This is a great asset for Abingdon. Plenty of sports to do, great for children and every piece of Gym equipment you could wish for. The cafe does nice drinks but could be a bit better with food choices.

Fantastic experience: Gym is great. High quality equipment machines and rarely have to wait to use. Because of this membership is well worth the price. Staff are also very friendly and helpful if needed. I don't understand the negative reviews as I've only had positive experiences! Thoroughly reccomended if considering a gym to use in Abingdon.

Positive experience: Cool that is like a separate bit for a kid. All swimming pools in UK should have something like that or even better.

Fantastic experience: Great place for a child's birthday party. We got half the sports hall, and they threw in a bouncy castle, a bouncy climbing thing and something else, chairs and tables were already set up. It's a big space that will accommodate a lot of kids. There's a small cafe for tea and coffee for adults. Great place!

Positive experience: Good facilities. Chilly if viewing and not participating

Negative experience: Baby pool was freezing cold and my son got very cold and upset. Later turns out that the heater for the pool was broken but the staff didn't seem to care and still were more than happy to take people's money without even a sign being up explaining the situation. Babies getting hypothermia is just not acceptable. If you have a shred of decency you will get in touch with my and offer a refund.

Negative experience: Bad customer service filled with incompetence tried to set up member ship nothing worked and no instructions

Fantastic experience: Good toddler pool and free bananas. Coffee in the cafe wasn't great but the cookie was and my 2yrold was happy.

Negative experience: I dunno what vouchers people got saying the kids pool is good, it's FREEZING , my lil girl been there at least 10 times since 10 weeks old and we kept trying again after a few months apart to see if it improved. No. Its always seriously cold and we leave with a upset baby who has blue arms! Avoid until your child's 4 onwards. 2 star as showers are warm

Negative experience: Baby pool freezing cold now, we had to leave halfway through our session because our kids were so cold and won't be back. It's a shame, we used to come and swim a lot (when it was warm) because there are 6 baby changing rooms (where blackbird leys only has I think 2?) However they could still do with more family changing rooms as families without babies were using them, leaving those with babies stuck.

Positive experience: Nice gym with good vibes and good swimming facilities

Fantastic experience: Lovely pool for the family will definitely be coming back again !

Fantastic experience: Well looked after facilities and one of the best sports hall flooring to play badminton at. Could do with a slightly more regular sweeping as it seems a bit dusty sometimes

Positive experience: Water too warm and not deep enough ( no diving). Booking system works well. On arrival a bit unclear if you had to check in or not.

Fantastic experience: So far I joined just the swimming pool: Swimmung ist very good organised - I'm so impressed. Lanes are separated into slow, medium and fast swimmers. Lots of staff to look for safety and service - I feel more than well protected! Showers are hot. Photos are not allowed - good thinking!

Negative experience: Why is nothing being done to improve this place? It's been going downhill for a few years now (check the reviews), yet the prices go up as the experience deteriorates. You can get a much cheaper and cleaner gym membership over near Tescos, or if you want a pool too, go to Milton or Oxford.These guys are just taking the p***. Somebody's head needs to roll.

Positive experience: Efficient booking system but the male toilets were out of order with no instructions on where to go instead. As they don't let you go in the pool changing with outdoor shoes on, they need some benches so you can put your shoes on or take them off

Negative experience: The facilities are great but a little run down and could do with some money spent on them , front reception could be used to greet people coming in and the clothing area restocked of removed and make use of the space , well the car park has rats running around it in the daytime because of the vast amount of rubbish laying around because the bins are full or lazy people throwing the leftovers of McDonald's on the floor instead of putting it in the bin , café is over priced and a poor selection of food this once great facilities is now run down and losing trade ,

Negative experience: Tennis courts are increasingly unavailable at this sports centre since they changed their booking system. They take online bookings and advance payment of £20 then send an email three days later saying the booking has been cancelled "due to a change in the schedule". However, they do not automatically refund the money, instead sending an email which says "a credit has been awarded to your account", by which they mean they intend to hold on to the money in the expectation you will book again. When you request a refund they literally state "there is a heavy delay to the refund process" before requiring you to fill out a long online form giving justifications for simply wanting your money back.

Positive experience: Staff are friendly and facilities are decent. The booking system is still far from perfect, though. Must learn its quirks. Prices have surprised me a few times, both in a good and bad way.

Positive experience: Staff is nice and friendly. Good selection of classes, specially like that the group classes are about 50min long. But it needs a bit of a refurbishment to be spot on 5 stars

Negative experience: Is worst experience we had, woter is so cold. One of staaff says is normal another says is some issues with it. No one even say sorry. Staff so rude.

Negative experience: The toddler pool was too cold having air conditioning facing the pool is no ideal will stick to didcot wave i think

Positive experience: The gym has got some really good equipment, it's just let down by the staff and maintenance. I think Better pay the staff so little that there is normally no one working in the gym. There must be zero maintenance and checking on the equipment, especially the cardio. Most have faults, can't connect to the Internet or have a working TV. Spin bikes seem to keep disappearing and are often missing the monitor to time your workout of have low batteries so they turn off. For a company that call themselves Better, it could definitely Better.

Positive experience: Rather what you'd expect from a large and well-appointed but soulless leisure centre... except with great staff who are super helpful and make up for the awful Better website and app.

Negative experience: Baby pool too cold & understaffed. Christmas week - kids off school so parents want to do activities with them though this pool was not staffed to allow for enough people to go swimming (and stay within capacity of pool). We got in for a few mins but baby was screaming because it was too cold anyway. Web & app booking system is terrible and no phone assistance available. This used to be a nice place to visit. Won’t be returning.

Fantastic experience: Great place to visit. One of a few leisure centres with sauna and steam room in the area. Has two separate shallow pools for small children.

Fantastic experience: Visited for table tennis, vrey helpful lady, easy access, no hassle, good prices

Fantastic experience: Spaced out, nice atmosphere. Easy place to go and exercise.

Negative experience: Absolutely appalling customer service. I tried to follow the sign up procedure online for a new membership last week. There was no confirmation screen at the end, but rather when I clicked on the last step it went right back to the beginning of the process and asked for all of my details again. I found out soon after that I'd been charged twice. I immediately emailed their customer help address to ask for a refund and also explained the situation at the desk when I went to the centre. I never received a reply, so I called a customer service number. After a very long time on hold, an agent told me that getting a refund is a long and complicated process and it isn't worth bothering. He would only offer to cancel one account to avoid future payments on both, and credit the other account. But the experience of the centre so far has been so poor that I don't want to pay for a second month anyway. However, I'm now locked in and a fraudulently acquired payment has been taken in advance.

Fantastic experience: Overall lovely place to take the family swimming. Accessibility: Entrance: full ramp access to the building, swimming pool, and gym. Lift access to some courts. Pool: disabled changing room equipped with hoist and electric raising changing table. Good sized shower and chair, and a "wet chair" provided. NOTE: the anti-fall barrier on the changing table has been broken for 6+ months. Pool-side lift is available on request.

Fantastic experience: Very clean and well organised. Not too crowded. Easy to book slots online. Best pool in Oxfordshire!

Positive experience: Booked a swim couple of weeks ago, it's one hour, but asking us to leave 10min before the end of the hour is 1/6 = 17% of the time i paid taken off!!

Negative experience: Unable to speak to member of staff about opening hours / very unclear, self-looping website / rubbish, I will just try to go to some other swimming pool. Shame on you for trying to blame your laziness and disorganisation on covid!!!

Positive experience: Used lane swimming. Booked in advance, one way system in place in swimming pool. Well organised covid system.

Fantastic experience: This place is great easy booking helpful staff lots of things available a little cafe and kids love it the Little pool is also heated

Positive experience: Really impressed with the 25m pool, it was clean and well run. Pool could be deeper though to allow for diving or synchro.

Positive experience: Great gym, I wish the internet was up more often so I could use the tracking features on the equipment!

Positive experience: Tennis tournament outside. Couldn’t go in due to Covid and election counting! Mobile coffee machine and posh-portaloos Plenty of parking space Waitrose 1km away. Lovely walk down to the river 10 outdoor tennis courts but not all usable. Quality of those in use was good When we last went the indoor courts were excellent. Hopefully there can be investment in the outdoor ones to make them as fantastic

Fantastic experience: Well organised re covid precautions, good facilities and quite reasonable in price

Fantastic experience: First time there to use the pool. Pleasantly surprised.!

Positive experience: The changing rooms are alot cleaner than what they used to be, no more used nappys laying around and the app is easier to make bookings on now.

Fantastic experience: They are making the best of the COVID situation (although the "Better" App used for booking is pretty buggy). Swimming is simple, wide lanes, limited people. Although if you like a lot of space and are conscious of being close to people without a mask avoid times when it is nearly fully booked (you can see how many spaces are left in the app). I can't comment on the gym or classes as not been. Changing, showering and toilet facilities are limited, but to be expected I guess. All in all, I think they are doing the best they can.

Negative experience: they quickly changed the price to the gym, and nowhere was it written about from £ 6 to £ 12

Positive experience: Nice staff, average but somewhat dirty facilities. Shame the Better booking app is still terrible years on

Negative experience: Shocking experience here today. On arrival we were told the baby pool would be “a little cold” - it was freezing! My baby was blue after 10 mins. Also very confusing instructions around the Covid guidelines. “Our changing rooms are closed” but they were open and people using them. No advise on the website or when booking that you should come swim ready. Have to leave your bags on the side of the pool as not allowed to use lockers. Was a snickers wrapper on the baby change table.

Fantastic experience: First time at the leisure centre since lockdown back in March. Happy I went early today, I enjoyed the swim and also there's nice and clear layout to make it safe. I recommend for the scepticals out there. Thanks to the lifeguards and reception staff.

Fantastic experience: Great facility. Well done for opening the pool, slick operation.

Negative experience: Tired several times to contact the gym regarding my membership, but not able to speak to anyone and e-mails and have not received responses to e-maid or letters