Freedom Leisure @ GL1

Negative experience: So freedom take on from aspire who did run the facilities. But am i right into thinking you boast their spa facilities, whilst still charging the same amount as before the spa was open to join the membership!? But in hinds sight you had no desire to keep the spa running cutting costs but charging the same as before? For 2-3 years now.. Why is this?!!!

Negative experience: Not impressed at all. So much confusing information from the staffs no one seems to have the right info. I booked swimming class for my kids but had to cancel it after making payment due to not given the right info at the start. It’s been nearly 2 weeks still waiting for refund. Emailed the manager still no reply.

Negative experience: Terrible. If youre signing up for gym, just know their hours suck. didnt even update it to tell people they were closing early yesterday and the mens bathroom! disgusting. absolutely filthy. remember using it 3 days in a row and the same mould, rubbish and dirt was still in the showers and by the seats. plus bugs. then limited equipment. dodgy vending machines. people with no hygiene or manners going there. who will just stare. and you’re paying £60 joining fee?? for what??? to use a dirty pool and a gym half the size of most. standards are dreadful.

Negative experience: Training period is rather too short for a non swimmer to caught up with. I think 1 hour won’t be a bad idea rather than just 30mins

Negative experience: Half an hour swimming lesson for kids . Means they will learn absolutely nothing .. lots of kids in one group . Total waste of money and time. Reception needs training to Explain How to cancel and How much to pay when cancelling . V v v disappointing

Negative experience: We like coming to GL1 for their Tad and Elver swim sessions but multiple times now we have turned up at the time their website shows them being on, only to find out they’re not running swimming due to staffing issues. They need to come up with a better way of making people aware of this at least 30mins before the swim session starts to save people getting ready, driving there, paying for parking and having disappointed upset children. I’ve tried calling in advance before to check they are still running but no one answers the phone

Positive experience: Some good facilities. But some of the prices have gone through the roof sadly!

Fantastic experience: really good gym just need to change the benches shoulder blades always slip off when benching

Fantastic experience: Great pool, but can be busy. Facilities for many events. Limited on site parking, use local town centre car parks.

Fantastic experience: Full amenities and now managed better.

Negative experience: Wow, where do I start.. been using the adult swimming lessons since June.. and all I can say is what a complete waste of my money.. they spend more time talking amongst each other.. and when they do bother its spent with one person.. in my 45 minute lesson they spend about 3 minutes with me.. as a non swimmer I do the same thing every lesson, which is nothing.. I asked one Instructor to show me the correct way to put my head under water, to which she replied.. I wish Matt was here...lmfao.. matt isn't here you are.. I just got out of the pool in the end.. I'm never going to learn to swim as long as they are teaching me.. complete waste of my time and money.. Sorry if this offends but I'm only saying what everyone else in my group is saying.. And oh yea, I will be cancelling my membership

Fantastic experience: Attended the European Kempo championships here recently. It's a great venue, with great facilities and the centre was clean and well serviced. Just one little, little thing was it would have been great if the cafes were at full operation levels as it have a profitable spell for the centre. We had to go and get drinks and food so think they missed a trick. GREAT PLACE

Positive experience: I've only sat in the reception area, to wait for a friend who was asking about swimming sessions. It's clean, warm and the staff are polite.

Positive experience: Firstly I'm greatful after what happened with the Aspire closure that there are swimming facilities in Gloucester still available. I really don't know how much longer this will be the case though. I tend to use Chelt Lido in the summer, but went swimming in Glos today. The pools are fine, however the changing village, lockers, showers and toilets are awful and badly need refurbishment. At some stage they will become unuseable. Such a shame, I have been coming here since it opened 20+ years ago. Also, rules are not enforced, outdoor shoes on Twyver poolside, people using phones on poolside. The lifeguards said nothing, no interest. Freedom Leisure please please stop the rot or the city will be left with nothing again.

Negative experience: Pool freezing cold! Shower, toilet, changing rooms so dirty! Haven’t been in a good few years and won’t be going again!

Negative experience: Swimming pool is freezing. Scott of the Antarctic came once and remarked 'it's a bit fresh'

Negative experience: Facilities are okay but the way they deal with customers is awful and a nightmare. In January this year myself along with some of my friends signed up for a membership, however seeing as we were paying alot for a variety of facilities which we didn't use we swapped gyms. On the 25th of January we cancelled our memberships which had been acknowledged by email however, we were still charged at the start of February. It then took both myself and my friends emailing and phoning the gym multiple times and being told repeatedly that we would receive it in the upcoming week before we finally got our refund in April. After receiving the money back i wanted nothing to do with this gym and unsubscribed from their emailing list, however i would continue to receive their marketing emails despite going through the unsubscription process several times. In the end i had to go through the company they use to advertise to be taken off their emailing list. The final straw for me to write this review is that even though i have cancelled my membership, unsubscribed using their link and selected do not contact on all options i am still receiving text notifications, the cherry on top being that to stop these texts you must text a mobile number that charges you for texts. If you are considering this gym be 100% sure that you want to go there because the cancellation process is hell.

Negative experience: closed spa and sauna facilities

Negative experience: What a dive! And no, probably not in the way you're expecting! It's almost unbelievable that this is Gloucester's flagship swimming pool! Sure, it's 25m long with 8 lanes but it may as well be a paddling pool! It has a "moving" floor which I swear is raised as high as possible. Despite being a somewhat short bloke, it is hard to swim length to length without my feet touching the floor! Great! It's supposed to be heated but this is questionable - getting into the pool is a somewhat chilling experience! The floors are absolutely filthy and to top it off half the showers don't work! Finding a working shower is somewhat of a lottery! But at least they have cordoned off some of them to help you out! Honestly, it looks like the place has not been renovated for at least 25 years! On the bright side, the staff were incredibly helpful - probably because they had to kick me out after just 10 minutes to make way for an aqua aerobics class. Not my thing, but they did at least give me a free pass to come back another day. Though, honestly, I think I’ll pass. Literally!

Negative experience: Awful experience with adult swimming lessons. Teachers spend most of their time chatting amongst themselves or spend over 10-15 minutes with one student. You have to call them out if you wanna learn something only to get a minute of their attention in a 45 minutes session. Even nervous new swimmers are left unsupervised.

Negative experience: Visited yesterday for toddler splash. Was frustrated to not be able to take pushchair to changing rooms and then find all toddler safety seats had broken straps so there was nowhere to safely put toddler whilst changing and floors are very slippy. Also adults aren't allowed on slides but you can't see children come down slide so you can't properly supervise your child as they use the slide and toddlers can't go on as they would have no one catch them the other side. Also the pool wasn't accessible during this session.

Positive experience: Good gym and very good swimming facilities. The spa area is in need some much needed maintenance. The sauna showers and hot beds don't work quite as they should.

Negative experience: My 6year old daughter attended Gymnastics class for over 6yrs after months of begging to attend. First taster session was brilliant but the 2nd session my 6 year old was bullied by other children for wearing a crop top and being a 'bigger' child. My normally happy child came out of the group with tears in her eyes completely shut down. Emailed the teacher and Gymnastics manager (as instruction by reception, apparently you can only cancel memberships and raise concerns through email!) regarding this and no response! No acknowledgement from the centre, no follow up, no invitation to come and discuss issues, just complete ignorance. Absolutely no safeguarding of children and unprofessional management. Due to this I have pulled my 6year old Daughter out from both clubs then they had the cheek to represent the direct debit stating due to t&c I have to pay another month, after already prepaying for 3 sessions my daughter didn't attend due to bullying and GL1 not caring in the slightest! Absolutely disgusting service. Be careful putting your young children in this centres clubs.

Negative experience: Don't know never been there

Fantastic experience: A solid, long standing and great value centre with a real community feel and staff who are prepared to go the extra mile and really want the best for the members, A real truly understated facility very much worth a look if youre shopping around for a gym membership locally.

Negative experience: I came a year later to see if there any changes but was disappointed. This is the worst swimming pool i have ever swam in. Dirty facilities, hair and dust in the water, cubicles are disgusting and the man showeres were full with moths or something. Hence i preffer the Cheltenham pool and it is cheaper. Gloucester deserves better swimming pool.

Fantastic experience: Nice community, excellent instructors and staff, so many options and affordable prices. My membership included swimming pool, fitness classes, gym, sauna, jacuzzi, squash courts, tennis courts, basketball and table tennis.

Negative experience: After the new change to freedom leisure, it has changed and gotten worse. Rules for booking badminton courts keep changing and is extremely inconsistent. Even with membership, you can only book one type of court for one hour per day and can't book again for another hour. It would be understandable if it was to give other people a chance to book as well but courts are empty and still can't book at the beginning of the new hour, which used to be allowed. Also costs too much to pay for another hour separately which makes it pointless to get a membership if you want to play badminton. Most people who seriously play badminton don't only play for an hour. You'd basically only be playing for half an hour after warm up and cool down. The policies make no sense and is a rip off.

Fantastic experience: It's so amazing doing gymnastics there

Fantastic experience: Had a geat swim and a great moment there. First time. French on a visit. The chlorine didn't smell that much and the pool was nice, the facilities are clean and easy to get through. I recommend pal.

Negative experience: What a complete waste of money the spa is! A few plastic loungers and plastic plants around a small hot pool. No staff to be seen anywhere. The steam room was out of action, no bubbles in the spa pool, and the sauna door was held closed with a plastic water bottle. Everything looked grubby and uncared for. It's supposed to be a quiet area but the group of men in the sauna were talking loudly and the other soundtrack was a man loudly spitting as he showered. That was the worst £15 I've spent in my life.

Fantastic experience: Good facilities, great swim lessons for the kids

Negative experience: I wanted to start going to the gym, they made me lose my desire. Gym staff including manager is not friendly plus they don't know what to do. No help, advice or explaining how to use treadmillf... ‍♀️If you ask any question, they try to walk away with the excuse... Unfriendly, unknowledge No anymore GL1 gym

Fantastic experience: I started taking my son to the toddler sessions a few weeks back and have been so happy that I did. Catherine is so lovely and has helped my son gain so much confidence in the water already. Would recommend!

Positive experience: The facilities are here and safe, but it looks poorly managed, really could do with more thought at a management level. Staff are helpful but not supported and over worked and there aren't enough of them at busy times.

Fantastic experience: My son swims here at GL1 and I'm really impressed by the commitment of his teachers, they really do go above and beyond to support their students even at times when they have had staffing issues. He has settled in well, and the facilities are brilliant.

Fantastic experience: Good place at Gloucester to learn swimming, classes available age groupwise.

Fantastic experience: Lunar city is great !! The staff were excellent with the kids. Highly recommended!

Fantastic experience: Am a member and visit several times a week. A great inclusive resource with a wide range of activities. Great value membership.

Fantastic experience: It is clean, reachable place. It is cheaper then other luxurious sports places, it has spa. I should say it has everything whatever tou think, spa is a plus.

Positive experience: Best swimming coaching centre for kids.. mine one is in yellow team and the other one is in red team.. sometimes very rarely the coaches will not do the job properly...otherwise it is really good fees is little bit high..im paying £45 for 45 mins...

Negative experience: Cant get though the reception by call calling now for 3 days today u wenz there while i had my phone call on to the reception when I got there, there were 2 Boys messing around the the phone at the reception was ringing it was me so ive asked them why they not picking up the phone they just waved there hands

Negative experience: I went to gymnastics here and when I joined I liked it all the coaches let me do what I was comfortable with & didn’t force me to do anything. However , Many months later the coaches started caring about us less and only focusing on the younger groups , which is fine, but I’m a person who gets hurt easily and not having anyone go through a proper warm up or stretch was awful , they needed to get us a coach but never did . I learned absolutely no skills from being here !! If you’re thinking about sending a secondary school kid here , don’t !

Positive experience: Took my preschooler to the Tad Splash session this morning. Parking was a little hard to find - it's directly behind the building in a Council carpark that looks a bit like an alleyway, with spaces marked GL1. Two very helpful members of staff on a break directed me to it from the entrance (drive past if coming from Glos, then go left and left again) and also told me that you can get the parking reimbursed if you tear off the bottom of the ticket and hand it in to reception. There was a good selection of swimming kit to buy, and a buggy park just before the changing rooms. The changing rooms for the Tad Pool are nice and big, with changing table, bench and child seat, but there aren't many of them and a couple of the coin-operated lockers were out of order so we had to leave our bag on top of them. My 3.5yo loved the pool but I was very glad I'd bought her armbands as the main attraction is a slide which leads into shoulder-deep water on a child, and it is literally impossible to drop your child off at the steps up and walk around to the bottom of it before they go down. She also loved the little fountains and bubble jets, and that it was deep enough in places for her to float and pretend to swim. I appreciated the seats along the edge! Note, the changing rooms and pool were both very warm - not unpleasant normally, and would be perfect for smaller kids, but it was 36 degrees outside so very reasonable. The café was lovely if a little worn, and all of the staff were friendly and helpful.

Negative experience: Not a lot of seating in spectators area for the swimming pool due to lots of missing and broken seats. Not good enough for hosting swimming gala’s

Positive experience: Simple leisure centre in the city. Nothing special. Has all you need from swimming pool, gym, sports hall etc

Negative experience: Our 2 children had swimming lessons there. The teachers were good, some had issues coming in which messed the classes around (17 kids in a class). One teacher had to go home as they had got drunk the night before, and according to her colleagues not the first time. The admin side lets it down a lot no reply to e mails or phone calls especially on this issue. Duty manager Glen who would listen concerned but never reply to you as promised. Centre looking dated and not maintained very well. Shame as it could be a good place to go if managed properly.

Fantastic experience: Very helpful and very pleasant to deal with got discount aswell as paid 4 months in advance happy customer

Negative experience: Overall the facilities are good but had to wait almost an hour to swim I remember you used to be able to just walk in and swim which is so much more convenient and saves time

Fantastic experience: Went to GL1 for Neville Gra/4/22, the staff did him proud. I worked at the old GL1 as a barmaid. GL1 is a great place to work, visit, workout, and enjoy. Highly recommended GL1, I often recommend to friends.

Fantastic experience: Went in. Played Badminton. Left. No problems

Fantastic experience: Took my daughter and she loved it in the Tad pool. Pool was heated and clean, jets were bubbling and toddlers all having a turn on the slide. Fun little activity to pass an hour away. Changing rooms were clean, with lots of room to get changed. Only down side is you have to pay to park your car, which is ridiculous and over priced for an 1hour stay. might as well pay a membership at a gym and get a monthly pass and parking all included. Other then that it was a good time of actively. So will rate it a 5 star. Staff were friendly also.

Fantastic experience: My sons loves swimming here. The floats are a great idea

Fantastic experience: Helpfull staff great relaxed fun swim time for me and my children . Would fully recommend

Fantastic experience: The 5 stars is for the reception staff. You couldn’t get a nicer or more helpful team. Thank you. It makes all the difference.

Fantastic experience: My kids love the swimming lessons here :-)

Fantastic experience: It’s great GL1 has reopened! I love a good swim

Fantastic experience: Great fun sessions chilled atmosphere chlorine not too strong.

Negative experience: Lots of facilities, but everything I saw was extremely run down. Ordering tickets for Luna City didn't allow adults, then arrived and was told we have to go buy adult tickets to accompany our toddler. This took almost half of hour time slot. The toddler bit was an empty square with whats essentially a death slide for toddlers and loud music with extremely bright flashing lights, which seemingly seemed to be aimed more into the toddler section. Outside the toddler area was a ball pit, with literally one ball in it and a slide which you stick to, which is kind of counter productive to a slides purpose...Sliding. Then went to get an ice cream, to find the freezer was locked, the lady came to open it and hovered over us as if we was going to run out with a £1.20 Calippo?! There's big signs saying make sure to sanitise your hands, yet they've failed to provide sanitisation areas.

Fantastic experience: The family swim was brilliant lots of different floats for the kids and great that the pool was the same depth

Positive experience: Excellent facilities for swimming. My kid took her swimming classes here. Well maintained changing room and showers too. But the membership payments was maintained by DFC and for any changes you have to speak to Aspire and then DFC which was really irritating but otherwise I very much recommend GL1 Aspire.

Positive experience: Nice big place with multiple pools for all age groups. Place is clean and staff are friendly.

Negative experience: I agree that a venue is a lovely place, however, my issue is with the customer service and the booking process is what I am concerned over. My sister booked online for all of us to go by when we arrived for our session there has been a mistake and our booking came upon their system wrong and we were not able to go in for our swim session disappointing 5 very excited children who were waiting to go swimming .

Fantastic experience: We're enjoying our swimming very much here. It's one of my daughter's favourite places to be.

Fantastic experience: Lap swimming across the pool worked well even if the lanes were a little wide and busy. No fins unfortunately

Positive experience: It's a great place and has a lovely environment however the opening times need some work since I end up not being able to go there some times because of the times.

Fantastic experience: Excellent customer service from all staff. Impressive facility. Highly recommend for swimming!

Fantastic experience: Very good facility. Starting to get a bit tired and worn.

Negative experience: The venue in itself is lovely, my low rating is due to customer service once again. Several instances I have awaited calls from various departments within GL1 that have never been received, the latest being...due to Corona virus you now have to book any sessions and pay in advance, that's perfectly understandable, I head to the website and attempt to book swimming for myself and my teenage son, I find the session I require and click to book, I'm then asked for a membership number to book, I am not a member, I then follow the links to get a free community membership card which will allow me to book sessions. I have now completed the forms and submitted successfully, I get a screen overlay message saying that I will be called shortly to complete membership, nearly a week later and I have still not heard anything, no call, text, email or standard mail. I have tried calling the helpline every day at various times and there is no answer, it rings and rings and then cuts out. GL1 your customer service is dire, your system is obviously flawed, as it stands I cannot use your facilities due to your lack of communication, sadly we have no other facilities local enough for me to use, so eventually I will have no choice but to pay to use yours! Given how much revenue you must have lost during this ongoing pandemic, I would have thought every opportunity for custom would have been urgently chased up. I know I am not the only person to have fallen foul of your lack of customer service and your antiquated/poor system.

Fantastic experience: Perfect!! Staff on the ball. Clear signage to maintain social distancing. Cleaner disinfecting surfaces constantly. My granddaughter really enjoyed enjoyed her swimming lesson given professionally as always. Restrictions did not spoil the experience for her.

Fantastic experience: My daughter absolutely loves swimming, if we spend quality time together just me and her this is her first choice!

Fantastic experience: Feels well managed in lockdown, been for a swim twice since the reopening. Queues are well spaced, all booking online (with good availability in mornings, evenings and weekends). Turn up, get changed, swim , change go. Showers available for a rinse, some lockers available. Everything you NEED and no more.

Positive experience: Nice selection of pools to choose, whether you have a young child or just a couple, its a great environment. Although the big pool can get extremely cold.

Negative experience: Wouldn't use this place for swimming especially for children who wish to learn to swim. As I've heard that swimming instructors are willing to throw them into the pool regardless if they can swim or not.When I find out the name of the person or people involved I will be naming and shaming

Positive experience: Played squash here, facilities are adequate though holes in the plaster of the court make for an interesting game.

Negative experience: Swimming and changing areas in desperate need of investment and repair. Staff friendly but facilities for casual swimming are poor.

Fantastic experience: Used the pool and inflatable city and have to say it was very enjoyable and we had a tonne of fun

Positive experience: Great place for kids swimming lessons. Cafe pretty poor. Staff half asleep.

Fantastic experience: Love it! All sorts of activities from Yoga classes to tone & fit, personalized gym classes, SPA and swimming as well. For a full membership you are getting everything you need for getting back in the shape or spending leisure time ! Totally recommended!

Positive experience: Went recently to Lunar City here, the inflatable is rather tired with many holes patched with duct tape. an ok visit, although with the 10 minute safety briefing, you don't get your full hour

Positive experience: It has a big pool with lots of space plus a small pool for younger kids.

Positive experience: Always been happy with the facilities when we've gone

Fantastic experience: Great community resource and excellent open design. A good reason to move to Gloucester!

Positive experience: Good facility's but looking quite worn. Needs some investment in the pool areas.

Positive experience: Love taking my toddler here, it is clean and the toddler pool is great! The staff on the till are very slow and the queue is always small, so I dont understand why it takes so long to pay.

Positive experience: We went to Lunar City with our 2 1/2 year old son and a friend with their 8 year old daughter. We paid £4.50 for my son and myself on a Saturday. At first he did not like it at all as there was loud music and the room was darkened with different lasers to make it seem more moon like (I assume). One he saw our friend he was happy to jump around. I stayed on the viewing deck whilst they were playing. I found it quite hard to see all the older kids with my little man. I wouldn't recommend sending the littles into general admission, but rather go to the dedicated under 4 slots. I would recommend this to parents with older kids! They have a type of "assault course" and a tower they can climb etc. Although it can become rather smelly when you are on the lunar city landscape itself!

Negative experience: Very disappointed with the website and that the opening times on there are different in store. We planned our day around their online times only to find they were wrong. A disappointing experience

Positive experience: Went swimming today was cleaner than last time so that's a bonus, but the pools were so cold, my daughter was shivering and her lips were purple. Not impressed other parents were complaining too, people huddled in the showers warming up..

Positive experience: Lots to do here; I'd really rate the kids' swimming classes and love that access to Oxtalls is included in the membership. Can't quite do 5 stars though because 1. On-site parking is limited and costs (albeit not too much) 2. Kids changing room cleanliness is often found wanting

Fantastic experience: Very clean and friendly place and a good cafe

Fantastic experience: Grandchildren love GL1 especially the swimming but have also enjoyed laser tag this summer

Negative experience: My daughter used to attend swim classes, she was never particularly happy so we took her out eventually, however school curriculum now have made it compulsory to attend swim lessons. My daughter attended with school, the way she was treated has left her with a complete fear of water, she won't even shower has to bathe. It was all because an instructor that taught her said my daughter needed to jump into the pool from the edge (my daughter can't swim, so was fearful of this) she asked the instructor to hold on to her hands, the instructor agreed and still let go of her and she fell into the water and panicked.. The following weeks she struggled at school, I was called to collect her on swimming days as she was crying and saying she felt sick. We've recently been on holiday and when we went to a water park she wouldn't even go in the children's pool, she's a pre teen too. We are now left in a difficult situation of getting her confidence built back up.

Positive experience: Purpose built Leisure center in the heart of Gloucester with limited parking Completely changed from the old Leisure center which had slides and diving boards. Great swim school for developing kids from an early age. 4 different types of pools with Barton pool being the main one. More focused on swimming than having fun as competitions are regularly held here. With lots of variety of sports and activities played here. Cafe area and facilities for the disabled also free wifi is available. Most of the staff are very professional and the lifeguards do a fantastic job which don't get noticed. To sum up one of the best Leisure centres in the country.

Positive experience: Staff are obliging. I attend adult swim classes and most of the instructors are supportive, but a couple are next to useless.

Positive experience: It has been a long time since I went swimming do I visited...and for a about a month I enjoyed doing yoga

Positive experience: Great Leisure Facilities, Client, interesting and well staffed. The Swimming facilities are outstanding

Positive experience: Go to the ladies only gym and take things at my own pace. Plenty of variety there, depending on what you want to do. Staff pleasant.

Positive experience: Great for gala finals but some broken seats and parking is a nightmare.

Fantastic experience: Really nice toddler pool, big clean family changing rooms.

Negative experience: Ordered chips with melted cheese at the café. Was waiting for 40 min. It was very quiet day. They forgot about our order and sent pregnant lady to apologise. Appalling service.