Hartham Leisure Centre

Negative experience: I was a member for around 3 years. I’ve just cancelled my membership this week sadly. The car park is a joke. Nowhere near big enough for the amount of users they now accommodate. Double parked almost everyday. Cars often blocked in with no way of contacting the owners. This is partly due to the leisure centre being a soft play and coffee shop as well. As well as the fact, anyone wanting to use the common/play park can just loiter behind people being let through the family gate and follow them through, and subsequently register their car for free parking, and then clear off and not use the leisure centre. The gym itself is equipped really well. However they have taken on SO many new members that it’s often a total war zone in there and getting a decent workout becomes annoyingly difficult. (Unless you come super early). More of an observation than criticism - the demographic of gym goers is now mainly made up of pensioners and kids. If you’re after inspiration, this might not be it. As a business model I’m sure they’re doing very well with how busy it is. It’s just got too busy and chaotic for me to want to train there anymore.

Negative experience: Mouldy showers, dirty floors and repairs waiting for weeks. Given up asking for attention - maybe a poor review might make a change.

Positive experience: I have been a member since Sept 2023, the gym is great, plenty of machines and a great space to workout, I also use the pool regularly. What I have noticed in the last year however is the lack of cleanliness in the leisure centre, especially in the gym and swimming pool changing rooms. There is a constant foul drainage smell and it isn't kept clean at all. This is the same with the gym, its always very dusty and dirty around the machines and weights, not what you should expect at a health and fitness centre. This really needs to be reviewed by the staff and management and improved.

Negative experience: I had very bad experience in this gym,just Saturday the 25th January 2025, someone(more than 2) snapped my locker,took my wallet,got my bank cards and some cash,stole my work

Negative experience: Appalling place. Simply set up to extract as much money as possible from people as quickly as possible. Parking system is a complete joke - you can receive a parking fine even if you do everything correctly. Customer service is basically non existant.

Negative experience: Below is the floor within Hartham leisure centre change areas, it gets even worse in shower area, of which I have no pics for obvious reasons. Even some staff wear out door shoes poolside and the users walk into shower areas with kids on swim club day, with their outdoor shoes, this needs to stop and the centre need to enforce this.

Positive experience: Pool is ok. Changing rooms are a bit scuzzy and the staff are not that helpful

Negative experience: Such an annoying parking setup! Useless staff that don't care, new norm and standard from these big gym companies.

Negative experience: The venue has no interest in customers and is purely intent on making money. They employ a zero tolerance policy on anyone using their car park for a minute longer than the permitted time or anyone who doesn’t input their reg into the machine inside the premises. Someone had their vehicle damaged by another car and they then refused to let the driver have the footage to help his claim.

Positive experience: Enjoyable experience which would have been even better if the changing room showers were working. Been out of action for some time.

Negative experience: They don’t tell you that you now need to register your car registration at reception. No email notification or reminder at front desk about it. I was totally unaware. 2 parking tickets later. Find another gym.

Positive experience: Overall a good leisure centre which has had a massive facelift & extension. It could be further improved by having digital lockers. I was very surprised this wasn't changed during the refurb. The App is very good and easy to manage bookings, and very clean throughout.

Positive experience: Generally good, just that they keep having issues with their hot water system.

Negative experience: The gym is OK but the experience is regularly ruined by the broken boiler and the lack of hot water which is a real shame considering the amount of money spent on the refurbishment lately.

Negative experience: Charged 4£ to move a public swim from 7pm to 9pm when there was about 4 people in total booked. Fantastic.

Negative experience: Awful communication. Called 4/5 times to Discuss a membership and didn’t get a response. The lady Claire I spoke to was nice enough but patronising

Positive experience: Lovely pool,but unfortunately the showers are cold ,so if you don't mind a cold shower I recommend.

Fantastic experience: Really enjoying the friendly and welcoming atmosphere at Hartham. So many varied activities to participate in. So happy I made the leap into a whole new unknown area and feeling so supported.

Fantastic experience: Great Gym, swimming pool and facilities.

Fantastic experience: Great gym ️‍♂️

Negative experience: Awful parking system even issue fines with ticket purchase or registration. Found another gym

Fantastic experience: It’s my first month of membership and I’ve been really impressed by everything in Hartham. Katrina on reception is always cheerful, and very helpful. Swimming sessions are well organised and controlled. Pilates session are all very good; Carley was my first experience and I loved her enthusiasm and teaching methods. Now she is away on holiday, Nicola is a super teacher too with great technique and a wonderful manner. Dawn is another teacher I’ve enjoyed, very different to the others but a lot of fun and very technical. I have loved all my Pilates sessions this month. Thank you to everyone.

Negative experience: Absolutely shocking with new parking tickets. I recommend you all cancel your membership.

Negative experience: We’ve just moved to the area and attended a spin class for the first time to try the place out. We arrived about 15 mins early and ended up having a couple of ‘first time’ issues with the app. The staff at reception were very friendly and helpful with this. This coupled with getting a little bit lost in the centre meant we were about 3 minutes late for the class. The moment we entered the class, we apologised, to be met with a wholly inappropriate reaction which had us singled out and made to feel like the biggest inconvenience the instructor had ever had to deal with… Comments such as “please tell me you know how to set up…” were met with a polite, no this is my first time here. This resulted in eyes rolled and a frantic set up by the instructor before cracking on with the class. At the end of the class we were called out again and told off for being late. We tried to offer an explanation but this was brushed off and ignored. I was on the edge of an anxiety attack for 40 minutes and then we sat in the car before leaving, while my partner was broken down in tears. We’re both relatively new to this world of gyms and fitness classes and this has really put us on the back foot. We shall not ever be attending a class at this gym again, I certainly will not be ever returning to the leisure centre. I would like to point out that the leisure centre staff we encountered were very friendly and helpful.

Fantastic experience: Fantastic leisure centre at Hartham Common. Facilities are great and there is a cafe to get a coffee and cake!

Fantastic experience: I love this gym. The only downside is the changing room

Fantastic experience: Best Pilates class with Dawn!

Fantastic experience: Lovely cafe , friendly staff, well stocked, very clean, some Healthy options are available like jacket potatoes. No soup but it's on the board as being available to buy Nice outdoor seated area adjoining the cafe that' overlooks the gorgeous Hartham Park , hopefully they'll add a roof soon. Great little soft play, affordable , thank goodness as times are hard for Mums with the cost of living crisis . I haven't used the Swimming pool yet so I cannot comment but I've heard it's clean and the changing facilities are up-to-date and adequate. My only complaint is that there is only one toilet, single ( unisex ) for the whole café this needs sorting out really or it will be mayhem over the school Summer holiday! Really bad if your busting for a pee, there's a disabled loo but it was closed ! They're are toilets in the Park, thankfully. All in all I enjoyed my visit there as it wasn't busy. I had a nice jacket spud with beans and salad . yummy! My visit was in a Week day .I'm sure it'll be rammed over the summer so I'll enjoy using it while it's not too busy

Positive experience: Good coffee ☕

Negative experience: SOFTPLAY REVIEW. Took my 3 year old today and was a little underwhelmed. 1. The softplay area itself feels very squeezed in, it’s very high and visibility from the seating area is almost nonexistent. Feels like they had an odd corner left on the architects plan and decided to stick a softplay in. 2. The whole frame wobbles when you are at the top which is a little disconcerting! Have been to alot of softplays and never experienced this. Made me feel a bit unsafe. 3. Apart from in the under 3s toddler area there are no normal open slides, just two tube slides. Not all young children like tube slides as they are dark and enclosed. This resulted in my little one getting board quite quickly which doesn’t usually happen at softplay. 3. There are only about 5 or 6 tables in the seating area; there was hardly anyone else there when we went as it was a weekday but all the tables were full. Would certainly avoid in school holidays or at weekends as I can not see how all accompanying adults would even be able to stand as the tables are also very close together. 4. It has a good security door to the softplay area from the main entrance which children can’t operate from inside (so can’t get out) but if you leave (to get a something from the cafe etc…) you have to be buzzed in by reception and they don’t always see you waiting. 5. The softplay is clean and in good condition but you would expect that as it is so new. 6. There is one toilet and this was not particularly clean and there was no toilet roll. We went in the morning and it wasn’t busy so it did make me question if the facilities are even checked once a day. I have given it two stars because the parking is good as is the location plus the cafe had a good menu. All in all as the towns only softplay, I really don’t think this is good enough unfortunately so I won’t be returning.

Positive experience: I want to really like Hartham, the new extension is great, the new soft play and cafe is a very welcome additions to the centre. My son does the swimming lessons here and really enjoys them and the instructors are great! But the negative here, and it's a big one is the parking. People dump their cars anywhere, taking up disabled bays, child and parent ones and even parking in tbe middle of the carriageway creating an artificial partition of cars in the road. The parking rules are not enforced at all. The new entrance has clearly marked disabled bays, coach bays and hatched areas labelled no parking, but people ignore this and the centre does nothing about it. It creates a very congested and frankly dangerous area to navigate for both vehicles and pedestrians. Couple this with contractors parking their vans in an entrance that barely allows two cars to pass through and it is a recipe for disaster, really ruins the experience.

Fantastic experience: Went in to join up for a membership tonight. I was greeted by David. Who helped me join up as I needed help. Karrina and David were both Very informative and answered all my questions. Really friendly. Made it a lot easier for me. Thank you!

Negative experience: Ignored my disabled mum. When speaking to me and my mum, they directed conversation solely at me. Making eye contact with me, asking only me questions and speaking over my mum. I understand that staff are trying their best, but it’s not good enough. Contemplated not leaving this review as last thing I want is to get anyone in trouble. But the apparent need for staff training is greater than this.

Fantastic experience: The new soft play is lovely! Really good facilities.

Fantastic experience: New gym is great. Has a good variety of equipment and plenty of it too - less waiting time

Negative experience: Aircon fitted is unsuitable for the area as does not work effectively. Gym way too hot and uncomfortable so 10 years of membership I’ll be leaving

Negative experience: Terrible customer assistance

Fantastic experience: Great new environment after the rec renovations.

Negative experience: Small range of equipment ,the receptionists were quite rude upon entry, would not go here again not worth the money or time

Negative experience: This is s very limited gym, they are in the process of an extension which ive been told we'll be bigger and offer more equipment. However, I was also told it would be finished in Jan 23. No communication, 90% of staff don't say hello or goodbye, and in recent months there is a huge increase of 14 to 16 year old kids training in groups. Just to highlight how bad the customer service is, take a look at the reviews and see how many have been acknowledged by management.

Positive experience: Good gym. Newly upgraded. Nice vibe

Fantastic experience: Best pool I’ve been to, not too busy, good timings, great changing rooms. Most staff nice and helpful. Didn’t realise how good it was until I went elsewhere.

Fantastic experience: Чудовий сучасний спортивний комплекс. Професійний вічливий персонал. Прекрасний чистий басейн, гарний спортивний зал. Я з донькою із задоволенням відвідуємо цей спортивний центр кожного тижня. Рекомендую всім!

Fantastic experience: Massive improvement. We came for three weeks for an intensive swim course after a long break. The improvements in the swimming pool area are absolutely lovely. Showers improved A LOT. That stupid boom has gone and now there is a permanent division between the confidence pool and the main one. Instructors were lovely and passionate about teaching. No smells from the drains anymore and much lighter, airier space. Swimming pool and surrounding areas clean. Well done. Can't wait to see the finished site.

Fantastic experience: Great pool, really good student prices.

Positive experience: Not a bad gym. Quite small bit well equipped. Staff are friendly and helpful. The rest of the leisure centre I have not visited so can not comment.

Negative experience: Rude & unfriendly staff. Will not make any attempt to help you.

Negative experience: Disgusting service - took money online for swimming lessons in February, and then emailed in April to say pool won't be re-opening due to a refurb (fair enough) but refused to refund the £75+ paid up-front for the lessons! They're making people jump through hoops to get refunds via their banks! Absolutely disgusting.......won't be returning when you do re-open!

Fantastic experience: Good facilities with varied equipment and helpful, kind staff who are available for PT sessions or tips during workouts. I have been a member of their gym for over a year and have found great results at a good price! One thing to be aware of though is that they do receive rushes of people in line with a commuter's timetable (pre-work and post-work until just after 8PM). This works well for me as I enjoy a late night gym session however they do close at 10PM on weekdays so this can be limiting (with a good number of people active early week in particular). Otherwise, weekends are great and parking is free up to 2.5 hours! Their showers and changing rooms are OK. All in all a good gym :)

Negative experience: Hi everyone just to let everyone know I’ve been to this swimming pool a couple of times and received terrible service from the staff . After 8 months of going to the leisure centre I received a £182 penalty for parking in the car park . I have never been informed for the penalty before . I called the company and they failed to help and explain the situation . I need to post this so that future visitors will see this that is why I have to give the company 1 star as it will not let me post my complaint without at least one star .This site should not be allowed to run the business like that . The hygiene is terrible in the changing rooms too I highly advise no parent to send their children to this leisure centre . The staff have a terrible attitude and do not care about any type of situation !

Positive experience: Good pool. Changing rooms cold and showers very short lasting press.

Positive experience: Decent and varied equipment and friendly staff in the gym. Does get very busy at times, mostly with young teenagers using the equipment incorrectly. Good value and a nice place to work out.

Positive experience: Nice gym with decent swimming pool, best price locally.

Negative experience: Freezing cold - both the temperature of the water and the changing rooms! The sewage smell in there sometimes is nasty - they really need to spend some money on the place. The lady that takes the aqua exercise evening class is so lovely though - the star is for her!

Negative experience: Called to check Christmas opening hours, and was asked to check on its website. On its website it said "Today: 06:00-22:00" even though the centre was closed by 2pm. To begin with, 31 Dec is a full working day so there's no reason for the centre to close so early. And to put down "Today: 06:00-22:00" front and middle on its website and not bother to take it down is just irresponsible.

Negative experience: It may be one of the cheapest gyms in the area but you get what you pay for. The showers are poor (5second push buttons) and changing rooms are freezing. The pool could be good but the lane system is a joke as staff can't be bothered to move slow people from faster lanes.

Positive experience: Good facilities for any kind of working out from cardio lovers to body builders, even power lifters. Let down by showers, no privacy, smelly, dirty and have to keep constantly pushing the button to stay on. Drag.

Fantastic experience: Lovely place for recreation

Positive experience: Fine. The staff are fine. The changing rooms seem fine. Nothing special about the aesthetics of the place - built in the joyless contemporary style. Swimming pools could be so beautiful couldn't they?

Fantastic experience: The building shares a pool and a gym. There is ample parking nearby.

Positive experience: Nice pool good gym and facilities

Positive experience: Great pool ,amazing inflatable

Fantastic experience: Swimming

Negative experience: Dirty changing rooms

Fantastic experience: Lots of people but very helpful staff

Negative experience: Used to use this gym for their swimming pool- the pool and changing rooms are great but there just aren't enough time slots for swim 4 fitness, the timetable is constantly filled with clubs and school sessions which meant I had to change gyms.

Positive experience: Slightly dated pool. Showers a bit meagre too, with the only ones available sited in cubicles. This review relates only to the swimming facilities.

Positive experience: pretty good gym, equipment quite good and swimming pool very good .Gym staff in the main are very helpful and nice although did hear one PT in conversation swearing and moaning about someone, scary looking guy but will keep going and hopefully get fitter.

Positive experience: Only one tennis court now which is a shame.

Negative experience: I've used the pool a lot recently, not because of the quality of the facilities but because it's the nearest pool to me. The pool is cold ,changing rooms dirty with tiny cubicles, the many staff are rude ,miserable unprofessional ,jumped up kids .Laziness is what made me use this unpleasant, badly equipped centre but I will take my money elsewhere now as writing this review has made me realise jumping in the beautiful river Lea ,just out side would be cheaper, warmer, more pleasant and more leisurely than using this grotty little place ever again. Minus 5 stars.

Negative experience: Yet another bad visit to Hartham this morning. I left swimming lessons here as the changing rooms were always filthy. Today's visit for fun swim was a disaster - on arrival we were told that the big inflatable was broken but that there would be floats and wiggles out for a fun swim. Children got changed only to find no floats out and lifeguards not prepared to get them out. So... We got re-changed and got our money back. The lady on reception was obviously not trained in customer service and was unwilling to take any ownership on behalf of the organisation. I was a bit cross when I got to the till - by the time I had finished getting my refund I was fuming! Emily showed no empathy for what it was like to waste the hopes and time of two children and didn't apologise. I don't normally give places bad reviews as believe that the organisation should be given a chance to put things right in person. However every time I visit Hartham the staff are unhelpful and often borderline rude. The changing rooms are also not very clean. Don't bother visiting this place there are better options available locally.

Fantastic experience: Very good place for kids to play in the park

Fantastic experience: Great little leisure centre with a good sized pool.

Positive experience: Great place! Little bit better, brighter, informative personnel and overall cleanliness and this place would be perfect!

Negative experience: The changing rooms for the swimming pools are filthy. The floors are covered in matts of wet hair, old plasters and gum. I terminated my subscription here when I left the changing room and found a load of mushy dog biscuits on the floor

Fantastic experience: Nice refit of the swimming pool.

Positive experience: Ok Gym equipment has got better changing room for men is a little small tho and it gets very busy around 3pm when the schools close as they let under 16 use the gym

Positive experience: Standard leisure centre/gym with swimming pool

Positive experience: Compact space but with probably everything you need. Try to avoid evening times when it gets really busy.

Positive experience: Nice place when hot

Positive experience: Good facilities, but changing rooms not cleanest

Positive experience: Good equipment. I'm looking forward to the gym being bigger as it gets quite busy in the evenings

Positive experience: Strength room is low quality, but to be expected in a leisure centre.

Negative experience: worst gym ever. staff are rude and un helpful they took my money in advanced and never activated an account and acted like it wasnt there problem i advise people to not join with harthem . rude arrogant staff/kids .

Negative experience: The whole site and staff displays a worn out don't care attitude. Following grandaughters swimming lesson this morning and observing the general tenure, it's apparent the operation needs a massive shake up. Some issues : automatic doors jsmmed open, coffee machine not working, showers not working, majority of toilets not working. Dirty sails over reception, pool cover abandoned in an untidy pile. Comment from daughter, swimming lesson always the same no variety week to week. Needs a manager to enliven the place !

Positive experience: I felt compelled to write a review when I saw what some people have written. We have been going to this gym for over three years and it's the best we have ever been to especially based on the price. The swimming pool is huge and we can take our son for free until he is 2 and he loves the baby pool. Gym equipment is always high tech and clean as are the changing rooms. It isn't perfect could do with more classes and more varied levels but as a whole an excellent council run gym.

Fantastic experience: Cool

Positive experience: I have been going here for a long time, there is free parking, the wet and wild is good, but I disagree with the people on the reviews, this is a perfectly good swimming pool which is reasonably priced, fun to go in and recommended.

Negative experience: very poor service, no one ever answers the phone or e-mails, or return messages, not sure how they manage to get new customers or keep existing ones

Positive experience: Decent community swimming pool. Warm water, not too crowded. Free parking. The only downside was that everyone - guests, swimming club members, staff - ignored the no-shoes-on-the-changing-rooms rule, yielding dirty floors.

Negative experience: The swimming facilities at Hartham are by a massive margin the worst I've ever had to endure. I've swam in pools in Barnet, St. Albans and Harpenden, in lakes, in the sea, I've swam pretty much everywhere but if I were to list my top 10 worst swimming experiences the entire list would be dedicated to this god awful (yet annoyingly convenient) excuse for a swimming pool. The worst of all was today, we were all kicked out of the larger of the two 'lane swimming' lanes into the smaller fast one mid way though the allotted time, this is frustrating the 'lane swimming' area is woefully overcrowded at the best of times, one guy decided to swim in the opposite direction to everyone else and very nearly had a head on collision, with myself and several other swimmers taking evasive manoeuvres as they saw him at the last second. This scared the c**p out of me, so I got out of the pool only to discover the 'life guard' staring vacantly into the distance oblivious to the entire episode. After not-showering (the entire shower block was out of commission) I went to the front desk to report the issue, only to discover it was left empty, not a member of staff in sight! Well played Hartham, well played... I love swimming, but I value my safety more than anything else...If anyone has an alternative swimming pool they can recommend in the vicinity please let me know as I just can't deal with this place any-more! Then why the 2 star rating? Gym staff & Gym facilities - Excellent. Swimming? Don't bother!

Fantastic experience: Great center, great service, gym is well equipped.