Atherton Leisure Centre

Negative experience: I saw a bunch of parents strutting through showers in to swimming pool area to watch their kids swim while wearing outside boots. Some people including kids might get some nasty bacteria on their feet.. this is very unhygienic not sure how it is allowed

Fantastic experience: The staff were brilliant, really helpful all the way from entrance, our stay, and then exit. We booked the main pool. Wasn't crowded. Take a padlock with you if you want to use the lockers. There's two electric outlets in the Family changing room, might come in handy for using hair dryers.

Fantastic experience: Had a brilliant kids soft play with party room. Staff Kripa was brilliant and provided an excellent service, well done to all the team

Positive experience: Re-joined here after using another gym for the last 14 months. It seems to have gone downhill; there aren't enough plates in the free weights area (I told the staff this), people were filming themselves with tripods (even though it's not allowed - and they didn't care), and the sled track is always being used as a stretching/yoga area, rather than as a sled track and I cba to ask three people to move every time I want to use it. There always seems to be at least one guy throwing dumbells around at the end of every single set or leaving them in the middle of the floor instead of re-racking them. This place simply isn't worth it for the price, so have cancelled my membership to go elsewhere.

Negative experience: The worst gym in my life, I would never recommend it to anyone. The lockers in the locker rooms don't close, there are too many people and no equipment, you constantly have to wait for someone to finish if they haven't already booked a spot before you, expensive compared to other gyms.

Fantastic experience: Very nice and good service all staff is good

Negative experience: Not sure whose idea it is to have women's only session in the most busiest time of the gym six o'clock to eight o'clock on a Monday can we please change that as there are some equipments only available downstairs, it would be fine if there are replicated equipment upstairs as well but there are some machines that are only available downstairs and it makes zero sense to have women only session downstairs while everyone is fighting for space upstairs,

Negative experience: After Better took over it became worse, definitely not Better) oh the irony. The only thing they did was buy a few buckets of cheap white paint and paint the walls. That’s it. Taps broken in the bathrooms, they don’t work. Mould issues in showers. Hand wash dispensers are broken. Entry gates have a mind of their own, they work when they feel like it, just like the staff I guess…

Fantastic experience: Nice facilities, polite staff, paly area is quite spacious!

Fantastic experience: The staff called 'Sally' massively helped me to fix my issue with the broken locker in the swimming pool female changing room. She was calm, patient and massively helpful! Thank you so much, Sally. I really appreciate it!

Fantastic experience: Brilliant aqua aerobics class, enjoyed it

Fantastic experience: Nice 25m pool can be busy at peak hours. Lessons are good here too.

Negative experience: Worst leisure centre I've been to in my life. Staff are horrible and the managers are no better. This place used to thrive few years back until management changed to better. Would not recommend at all!

Positive experience: I use this centre for my child's swimming classes. When it was under Newham it was not good or not bad, but after Better takeover it's totally gone down. No locks for lockers. No hair dryers. About Swimming classes: when centre was under active newham my child's progress was almost end of stage 2, when better took over they changed as they have complete different levels. I thought that it's okay. During summer break we cancelled swimming classes and mychild progress was 44% during that time. We booked classes again but they made my child's progress to 0% and swimming teacher put her under the class where kids can't swim, then I had to inform swim teacher about this then they did quick test and moved. My question is here if we cancel classes for so.e reason and rejoin then kids have to start from level zero that means they never gonna pass the foundation and its going to take ages. First class my child didn't swim because swim teachers made them sit outside as few kids are misbehaving. It's unfair to other kids, they should have asked kids come out who are misbehaving not all the kids. Price: Under old system I never paid processing fees now they charge 12 for that. They said it's charity, but I think we were better under old management prices were cheaper. I hope centre becomes Better in the future.

Negative experience: Horrible, rude staff. I used to go before better took over, now the quality has gone down and the membership prices are higher than the average gym. Please search for other gyms in the area, there are independent owned and chain gyms that you can pick between stratford and forest gate where the service and equipment is much better quality.

Negative experience: Absolutely terrible. Only forced to keep going because its local. Been worse since Better took over. The go long periods where lockers are out use. I signed my dad up too and his classes get regularly cancelled on short notice. Staff seem disgruntled with new employer. Also not enough weights - if one set of dumbells is taken there isn’t another set of the same weight. I asked for reimbursement when the lockers were out of use and classes kept being cancelled and they refused.

Negative experience: better app is awful, we have such a headache trying to sing for lessons or to register. The app is stuck in 2000s, not 2024! The person on reception could not help us at all! I had to make a separate acc for my 4yo daughter, but still it didn't help to buy lessons as before buying you have to login again and your login and password are not correct! Crazy!

Positive experience: Your run-of-the-mill neighbourhood leisure centre. The staff is really nice and friendly, but like any leisure centre there's too many cardio machines and too few free weights. The price is kinda cheap and you can use the swimming pool, but the machines keep breaking and it always takes weeks to get them replaced.

Fantastic experience: Nice and warm workers and good facilities. Some of these are not working. Hope this issue be fixed soon!

Negative experience: My daughter was wearing a completely good wearable swimwear and they didn’t let her go don’t come here it’s bad and the changing room smells of pee

Negative experience: Unfortunately, the gym has many issues presently. There are multiple buckets scattered around the upstairs gym, because the air-conditioning is faulty. This not only makes it a 'trip' hazard, but the gym is very warm to train in. Unpleasant to put it lightly. The equipment is also outdated and many machines are 'out of order'. We are now paying for the highest costing membership ever and in return getting a sub-standard experience. Come on GLL, re-invest in the gym or people will start leaving in their droves. You're quick to put the prices up, now be quick to show that you don't just care about your profits and repair the Aircon and update the equipment.

Negative experience: Absolutely disappointed with this leisure centre and one of the staff members. I booked myself in for the ‘WOMENS ONLY’ swimming session and only 10mins into our session, there is a male lifeguard in the pool area. When speaking to the female lifeguard, she was utterly rude and told us to leave the pool if we did not like it. This is unacceptable? The whole reason for women’s only swim is for women to feel comfortable knowing there will not be any male staff or swim members around?!! Such appalling behaviour from the female lifeguard to tell us to leave instead of sorting the issue and replacing the male lifeguard with a female. Me and many other members left the pool and spoke to the staff member at reception who apologised and offered us a refund. However the leisure centre must work harder to ensure this does not happen again if they wish to keep their members.

Negative experience: Today i witnessed a very shocking incident at the pool, a female white safeguard with glasses who addresses they are the manger, shouting at one of the customers who was swimming in the pool. I over heard her shouting “rude customers will get rude staff” which left a lot of swimmer shocked with this behaviour.

Positive experience: Only use for swimming at present. Pool temperature is on the cooler side, I prefer it a little warmer. Family changing area is a shambles. No locker keys avaliable, 2 of three shower doors removed, so only one shower with privacy. Lack of changing cubicles means waiting around for others to finish on a regular basis.

Positive experience: Nice swimming facilities, only issue the lockers don’t have proper locks yet and during the female only session some men were arriving too early and accidentally came close to the pool. Some of the lifeguards were abit rude regarding swim wear to other swimmers

Positive experience: Be prepared to take your clothes etc to pool side as no bands for lockers. Waiting around for ages for staff to help you when you are new to the centre because only 1 member of staff on front of centre reception. Make sure you keep an eye on the clock as no one tells you when you have reached your time limit.

Negative experience: FIX YOUR STAFF EXTREMELY RUDE , ANOYING AND THERE DOING EVRYTHING BUT THERE JOB.

Negative experience: Don't bother coming tonight as there are no wristbands for the lockers so if you need to get changed or store a valuable they can't provide lockers. Been left waiting 45 minutes and no sight of any wristbands.

Negative experience: Extremely rude staff especially this one life guard who literally degraded a man for making a mistake. Extremely disturbing and unprofessional

Negative experience: Grown men walking around absolutely naked infont of little children. No separate changing rooms for kids with parents. It’s a horror show there.

Fantastic experience: The kids had fun in the soft play area.

Fantastic experience: Visit this centre twice in 1 week. 1st to access the sift play area which was an affordable and friendly price that kept my 3 children (2-8) entertained. I decided to check out the gym and was pleasantly surprised with the spacious accessible corridors , large well equipped gym facilities and studios that are well air conditioned and clean.

Fantastic experience: thanks to the center worker for helping me go to the water park

Fantastic experience: This is so much Better than normal Better centres. Class teachers are way more professional and on the case. Facility is clean organised, really friendly staff. Let’s hope it doesn’t fall to the normal Better centre standard!

Fantastic experience: It's a nice place. The lady at the reception, Winnie, was very helpful.

Negative experience: I have been paying a monthly membership for over a year and for the most have been using the gym 3-5 times a week and the staff knows who I am, I have lost a lot of weight and I'm grateful to have these facilities close by. However on the last occasion I went to the gym there was a lot of redecorating going on, the entry barriers were open so I walked through, then a member of staff who knows that I'm a member said I had to come back and scan. So after a little back and forth the member of staff had the audacity to say "you're just being difficult". At what point does a member of staff feel like they can speak to me as if they're my wife or family member? The only reason it's not 1 star is because I don't blame Better as they've recently taken over control of the facility and existing staff, also the rest of the staff have been great, however a certain staff member needs retraining especially on how to deal with conflict resolution. The attitude on her was horrendous.

Positive experience: I want to ask a question rather than a review if someone can answer it please... Is the water in the pool both shallow and deep end is the water cold warm or hot at these times 6am 7am 8am

Fantastic experience: Clean, easy to use, no rushing. Good staff.

Negative experience: Gym is ok. Defo needs more equipment like a Smith machine. Would also like to add that when it's closing time, the staff run into the changing room like some sort of Atherton police banging on the doors like we are children, yelling like what the hell. This is just ridiculous if you ask me. We ain't children, and sometimes it does go past the closing time, which shouldn't be an issue. For this reason me and 10 others are contemplating whether to join THE GYM FACTORY.

Positive experience: Very modern comuterised system for lockers and booking...very quiet not as busy as other pool.. Overall very good pool in a somewhat drab area of london

Positive experience: Update: Black lady at the front seems very stand offish for no reason. People get changed in the shower which is selfish because you're stood there waiting an extra 15 mins for someone to get dressed. But this could also be due to the lack of cubicles for dressing although I found they were available when I needed them. Also it's SOOOOO dirty. It was always dirty but it's got worse. The cleaner lady at the Newham centre is ALWAYS on it and keeps it so clean whereas I don't dare drop anything on the floor in the changing rooms of Atherton. Love this pool. Love how deep it is. Only downside is that there is a ridiculous amount of lockers but not enough private cubicles and showers. Also the floors in the swimming changing rooms don't get cleaned enough. They're disgusting. But other than that I love swimming here.

Negative experience: A particular rude staff, totally dismissed I was even standing at reception. She quite happily favours her own and ignores others. Continues to use the PC and blatantly ignores customers who have been waiting. I wholeheartedly agree with 1st review comments about front reception staff. Not all like this, but one in particular. Totally, put me off. This individual needs training in customer service. Totally unacceptable behaviour. Feel scared to even approach and ask for help, in case you get your head blown off. Sad really.

Fantastic experience: Great place to be to be honest. Swimming is the most enjoyable as I've only done that.

Positive experience: Me and the children spent some time in the soft play section and they had fun!

Positive experience: I can only speak for the pools. They are fine: a normal pool with a deep end and a shallow learning pool with an adjustable depth. The general facilities are kept clean, especially since the pandemic. Repairs are slow to materialise, probably a result of Borough inefficiencies. The staff are efficient and friendly. My only quibble is that the senior management are somewhat reluctant to act on feedback.

Negative experience: If I could I'd give it 0. My daughter attended lots of swimming lessons for months and then she was moved to another stage with another instructor, India. After 1 lesson I was told that "my child doesn't listen at the point that's hazardous" in front of everyone. Miss India learn some manners if you want children to listen to you. Rude

Fantastic experience: The gym was huge. The pool is a bit smaller than my expectation.

Positive experience: Very nice, newly build and very convenient to travel to the leisure centre, clean, womens gym is my favourite

Fantastic experience: Membership is great value for money. Gym, swimming, good variety of exercise classes, friendly and helpful staff.

Negative experience: I would give 0 if possible! Rude receptionist. Teachers miss their classes. Because the cycle studio where the body balance class was supposed to happen was empty I asked someone if their were familiar with the gym and the lady said ‘not really’ and for my surprised I see her as the yoga teacher!!!!!! Asked 3rd!!! time someone downstairs which seemed somewhat helpful, explained the situation and he offered to speak with a manager. I accepted, being already over the class time, had to wait 5min and no one showed up!!!! Just useless gym!!!

Negative experience: Unfortunately is the only close swimming facility near Forest Gate, otherwise i would not use it. Why? 1. Poor management of the swimming pool; 2. Weekends gets extremely crowded with people splashing, not swimming 3. During the week closes very early, so if you work you dont arrive on time to the last session 4. In 5 months i have raised tbe issue with unsafe lanes to proper swim ( people dont respect the swiming system and life guards do nothing); nothing has changed 5. Management unable to train lifeguards to ensure that they establish rules So on and so forth. If you like to swim ( really swim not splashing) this is the worst place.

Negative experience: It's a shame because many parents wait for their children doing swimming or karate or another activity to sit on the floor because they have removed all the chairs.

Fantastic experience: A whole new building after the renovation. Equipped with modern entry system and gym equipment. A nice swimming pool. Large changing rooms with showers and toilets, mirrors and hair dryers. Lockers with modern locking system. Personal trainers available. They have activities for children. Roadside parking available outside the building (free on the weekend).

Fantastic experience: Cheap swimming and gym subscriptions…no fuss. Love that the pool isn’t too cold

Negative experience: Paid £5 for one hour. My baby is 2 years old and enjoys a lot. On the other hand, their floor and equipment are very unhygienic. The floor was slippery and small juice bottles were there. It can make any kind of small baby choking. The second thing I noticed was the staff was very rude. I called one lady to open the toilet she just ignored me and the third time she just loudly replied to me “Can’t you see I am talking with my colleague”?! This is very ridiculous. Management should improve the soft play area and increase safety for the babies. On the other hand, staff should be well behaved.

Positive experience: Would be perfect if they had a steam and sauna room like before and more aqua aerobics classes

Negative experience: Very old facilities, probably the worst running thread I ve ever seen for ages! Don’t train here if you are serious about gym choices.

Fantastic experience: I really enjoy it here. It has a solid swimming pool, terrific gym and friendly gym-goers. Just bear in mind, on some days the swimming pool is quite warm (it's best when it's cold, otherwise it's quite nauseating). It's never crowded from my experience, so long as you booked via the app, you're good to go!

Fantastic experience: Never had an issue. Go classes here. Big place. Friendly staff who are willing to help. Can't complain. Is a wide array of classes and facilities.

Fantastic experience: It's such a ideal for holding a toddler party in the soft play area. It's a two hour booking. Amezin it was more than enough

Negative experience: All is OK, but there is no viewing area or waiting area for parents to sit and wait while their kids take their swimming lessons..

Positive experience: Well I prefer Atherton leisure centre for swimming sessions and their pool is far better (in terms of cleanliness) than all the active newham combined. I really wish they had more women’s only session.

Negative experience: The hole place is a absolute nightmare i have been waiting for a refund for 7 weeks now and not got anything from anyone!! Been emailing "Amanda peacock' the so called manger but shes been ingoreing me absolutely disgusting service!!! Terrible management.

Fantastic experience: My kids goes there for swimming lesson on sunday nice ambience kids friendly and family friendly centre. Separate gym area for women there is soft play area for kids first one hour is free pls check before you book.

Negative experience: If you want to cancel your membership they will tell you to send an email to cancel it , but nobody will answer and they will keep taking your money. if you call them they will say the same . also I every time i was in the gym I didn't have space to use the machines they were always busy . people will sit on some machines for the whole day .

Negative experience: I love the swimming pool at this gym for the family splash. WHY IS IT ONLY OPEN A COUPLE HOURS A WEEK?!? My kids look forward to it so much and it is fully booked 4 days before the next session.

Fantastic experience: Swimming pool is great. Very polite and helpful staff. Will be coming again.

Positive experience: In the soft play there are only 6 seats when 20 kids are allowed in at any one time and a parent has to supervise them. Put more chairs in. Stood for 1 hour 30 mins

Fantastic experience: Soft play is well worth the £5 for 90 minutes, my grandson thoroughly enjoyed himself

Positive experience: Nice soft play and reasonably priced, but could *really* use a clean

Negative experience: Just went to the leisure centre for soft play, one of the staff was so rude and abrupt, it was as, she just came out of the jungle, no manners, no training no NOTHING, her name is Natalie !..... her mouth opens only for lies, just like the end bit of her name.

Negative experience: Worst place!!! I've been there with my little girl several times, it's always closed because there was a party. it was 4 o'clock and the soft play closed at 6 but she didn't let me in. The lady who takes care of soft play appointments is rude and speaks badly.

Positive experience: Good centre with lots of facilities and equipment. But Christmas closing time is too long.

Negative experience: I am very disappointed about the staff that works there. They don’t know to do their work properly. I wanted to cancel my membership a month ago, and they took the payment from my bank account for the next month as well. 30£ for nothing. What a shame!!!!

Positive experience: Pool is small need to make ACC and easier if you book online

Positive experience: Small yet good play area. Nonetheless the water pump wasn’t working. It’s got picnic bunches for parents and families.

Fantastic experience: We use the soft play. Nice and clean and never too busy. It's not huge so suitable for the recommended age 4-8 years. Booking system is a bit sometimish online but can book in the centre.

Negative experience: Crammed together with very awkward space wise , old fashioned equipment only 2 bar bells for around 50 people never again staff are no where to be seen and literally 1 of everything

Negative experience: More chance contacting the dead than their customer service team. Called at 9:30am, waited 30 mins before being connected and then they deliberately hung up. Called back again, waited again, call connected and hung up again. Literally wasted an hour and a half trying to get a membership because the website has an error. Everything seems disorganised and mismanaged.

Negative experience: The awful attitude of the staff members at the front desk is one of the worst I’ve ever experienced, they completely ignore your presence and keep their backs turned to you whilst they remain fixated on their computer screens. When you ask for help, they don’t even turn around to face you properly, they turn their heads (sometimes they dont even bother doing this) and give you the most annoyed look like you have just asked them to climb Mount Everest and back, It’s almost comical. I can’t figure out why they work there if they hate it so much… This happened on numerous occasions with several different staff members. Seriously considering putting my money to use elsewhere, the customer service is not worth it here. I want to leave a fitness session feeling revitalised not disappointed and disheartened thank you!

Positive experience: Love the classes and gym equipments available. Also there are times and days were there is a only women's gym on the ground floor. I think this is a good little space for women to do just do their thing without feeling uncomfortable. Most times the weight lifting area is occupied by the men on the 1st floor which can be annoying. I do think the women's gym should be opened more often during the week.

Positive experience: The price is good (if you live in Newham) and the staff is great. But the gym doesn't have much of the same equipment. It's usually one for each different equipment, so it's not uncommon that you have to wait too long to be able to use it, even in non peak times.

Positive experience: Customer call centre suppose to show the phone call opening time from when to until closing time. Also require to mention standard waiting time because it takes ages to connect with someone.

Positive experience: Recently changed management, Looking forward to new improvements Good range of gym equipment and space.

Negative experience: The kiosks are out of order, the chairs are out of order - everything is out of order. Turn up for swimming that was on the main website only to find out the timetables are different on the site and on the app? Useless staff who make out it’s your fault for not booking on the app. Shambolic.

Negative experience: I’ve tried to come for womens only swimming twice now. The first time the system was down so they couldn’t book us in and the second time, the timetable on the active newham website said 5.30-6.30pm and when we got there for 5.30pm staff told us the session was finishing at 6pm. Atherton leisure centre needs to sort itself out and be clear on timings.

Negative experience: I very disappointed about your manager Amanda. I recommend for all my friends this gym but unfortunately I will never be back.

Fantastic experience: Nice clean facilities including wet and dry changing rooms. And the lockers are free which is always a bonus. They have a range of equipment and many different swim sessions. The staff are also very nice although sometimes hard to track down.

Negative experience: You pay £5 and your watching if your child is going to get hurt, it is unsafe, the floor is slippery and the chairs are all broken an adult or child can get injured really badly, Parents avoid taking your kids here. Chairs have been fixed recently but still not worth the money it's too small plus the floor is slippery when kids have only socks on there should be some safety anti slip mat of some kind on the walking area even my child slipped while he ran from one side to the other, had to tell him many times not to run as its dangerous because there are tiled floors and he could really badly hurt himself please see the pictures.

Fantastic experience: Love the classes and instructors. The staff are polite. The gym is even better now that the changing rooms and lockers have reopened this week.

Positive experience: Atherton is one of the Newham sports centres that has undergone extensive refurb. There are two types of membership on offer. One that provides off- peak attendance and one that includes on peak attendance. There are extras that can be added. This sports centre has good facilities that include a full size swimming pool, weights room, fitness room and machines room. It provides a decent service. Off peak times are 6 am-4 pm. Mon to Fri, and all day Saturday. Only downside are the membership fees are the same as any other gym, which is a pity as the local community would benefit from more discounts. There is a discount for universal credit.

Fantastic experience: First time joining the gym and Roslin at the reception was so helpful that I ran to Google to leave this! Again, thank you Roslin, super welcoming, helpful and friendly even though you had 40 other people in the line you still managed to leave such an amazing impression

Fantastic experience: I have been going for more than a month now, and I can say that it is worth it for what you pay. Here are some pros and cons that I have personally experienced. ⬇ Pros ✅ 1. The gym premises are very clean, and staff are sanitising very often the machines 2. Friendly trainers and if you ask their help, they are more than happy to assist you 3. People in the reception are very kind 4. The gym has good ventilation, and the space is broad, so even at the peak times, you don't inhale any unpleasant smell Cons ❌ 1. Due to Covid rules, the changing rooms are not in use, even the lockers are out of use (so, in space 2m x 2m, inside the gym room, they have put on the floor, laminated A4 papers with numbers and you leave your personal belongings at any of these available numbers) 2. If you purchased the ''activeBaseline'' there are specific hours that you can book a slot for free and enter the gym. If you need a different time, you have to pay extra PS. I haven't used the swimming pool yet, but when I will, I'll keep you posted ‍♀️

Positive experience: Visited the soft play , decent size play bit however would of been better if bigger or had a ball pit at least , very attentive staff , overall can’t complain for £5 for 2 hours and adults free

Negative experience: The website is unclear. For those who work there is no possibility to swim without taking courses in the evening, there are only 2 evenings available. If one tries to call the service it is inactive.

Positive experience: Totally love it ! So near to my new place . Quite busy at pick up times but otherwise great to do your workout. A lot of machines, trx and yoga spaces. Join it cause it's worth it !

Fantastic experience: The children loved finally going back to the pool. It is good value and was very clean when visiting.

Negative experience: Really so bad reception I visit today to join gym but disappointed I pay £40 for two month let see what’s happening tomorrow when I go for exercise,they should make proper reception with polite talk and smile face

Negative experience: I would avoid this gym group.... cuato.er service is horrible... rude and ignoring everything. If you respect yoursaelf better better go somewhere else. Worst of the worst.... different leisure centres has different rules aswell.... in one u signed u dont need to pay for lockers ...u have freedom.. u go to another u have to pay for lockers everytime you open ypur locker

Positive experience: The love and joy in l is a great place for me karaoke and a very good one in the Green shop in London and its very well organised and very nice and easy for