Britannia Leisure Centre

Negative experience: Dear Britannia Leisure Centre Team, Thank you for providing such a fantastic space for families in the beautifully designed Family Fun area. It’s a wonderful place for young children to enjoy the water, and we truly value what it offers to the community. However, I wanted to share a concern about the emergency exit double doors near the shallow baby pool. The visible 2cm gaps in the doors allow cold drafts, making the baby pool, adjacent showers, and hallway uncomfortably cold. During my recent visit, many toddlers and babies seemed reluctant to stay in the water due to the chill, and parents often left shortly after checking the baby pool. Addressing this draft issue and improving the temperature would greatly enhance the experience for families, particularly those with newborns or toddlers. Thank you for considering this feedback, and I hope the facility continues to be a cherished space for the community.

Positive experience: We booked for swim for fun session but couldn’t really use the pool coz they had only 20 people inside which we didn’t know about and had to wait for people to leave which took literally half an hour meaning we last half of the session not happy

Positive experience: Huge gym with plenty of classes and facilities. The rooms are clean and staff is friendly and helpful. I've been a customer for over an year and love coming here. Plus, they have folding bikes lockers which allow me to cycle there from Whitechapel and safely store my Brompton. The only reason I give 4 out of 5 is that they have recently increased the monthly price, making it a bit too pricey and less competitive if compared to other gyms such as Gymworks and Bewell which offer less expensive memberships.

Fantastic experience: Clean and brand new ! Very good facilities and vending machine is on premises basketball courts and Squash courts too!!!! I was v impressed

Fantastic experience: My home leisure centre - the staff is always super friendly and the place us kept very clean! I love the sitting areas. It has a great community feel.

Fantastic experience: There are so many great and reasonably priced activities all under one roof. An upgrade from the small old Brittania centre. I especially enjoy tennis on the roof top - court 2. Overall, I would say this is a place for the whole family, from soft play to the fully equipped gym. Friendly staff and well maintained equipment.

Fantastic experience: I went to swimming pool and also used sauna and steam rooms. Everything was nice

Fantastic experience: Great for the kids. The crèche is wonderful too

Negative experience: Modern facilities, but Better UK are a complete nightmare to deal with. Their membership systems are completely broken and periodically block you out of the system, prevent access, cancel payments, etc. The staff at the centre are rude and have no interest in helping customers.

Positive experience: Good gym ️‍♂️ and also swimming pool

Negative experience: My bike got stolen outside the leisure centre between 6-7 pm while I was in the gym. This apparently is very common. I found it impossible to get hold of the right people at the centre to get the cctv, after a week I eventually got hold of the deputy general manager directly who was helpful, but the process to get there was very frustrating. I would not lock my bike here. There are so many locks cut around the facility. Bike theft is out of control, they need to put in additional measures to tackle this problem, eg hiring security. The centre itself is a good size, but the vibe is terrible. The steam room is always full of men who harrass the women who dare to come in. Complaints are made to lifeguards about this but no action was taken. Gym etiquette is non existent, creating an intimidating environment compared to other better centres in the area. I would not come back to this centre and would not reccomend it to others.

Negative experience: Beautiful leisure centre however do not join this gym if you are interested in doing classes. There is absolutely no availability ever, especially for pilates. I have a flexible schedule and cant even access the classes midday as they get completely booked out immediately, a week in advance. I have had to cancel my membership as I have accepted that I will never be able to do a class in this centre. Sad because it has the potential to be amazing.

Positive experience: It does have great facilities and a friendly atmosphere because it’s somewhat charitable - not heavily macho or alienating and full of people of all ages. At the same time though, council run nationalised services were a lot cheaper for gym goers and it does feel pretty steep at £45 a month for something that used to be half of that if not free. I don’t know how accessible it is for local people in the estates or on NHS get fit programmes - it should be cheaper.

Negative experience: Poor management, the gym is always overcrowded with people thinking that machines are just benches in a park. People do not put the weights back. there is literally no etiquette here and no respect for people around. Impossible to finish a workout due to it being completely packed. First and last time using of of these council gyms.

Negative experience: I was a member for a short time at the gym here. The gym is very well equipped and has a great view over the Shoreditch park. But.... 1. I was assaulted by 2 other gym members, threatened, verbally abused because I " dared" to talk to them. It was very scary. I talked with the manager. Nothing was done, no follow up, nothing. I did not feel safe anymore to go to this gym at all. And as a woman I would not recommend any other woman to go there. 2. There is no gym etiquette - nobody puts the weights back - Teenagers just hang out in the gym making comments on women - rarely there is somebody on the gym floor to ask questions or support - smell sometimes is very hard to handle Overall a great place, shame that the management and staff are not helpful or present or willing to impose some rules of conduct in the gym.

Fantastic experience: Amazing water play facilities for the kids. Couldn't recommend highly enough. Note: there is no parking. Best to come by public transport

Positive experience: Great leisure centre but… the sauna has not been fixed in 3 months, the swimsuit dryers for a month and the already high membership cost has increased, seems like simple fixes but it’s disappointing

Fantastic experience: Great swimming pool and other sport activities. Great for children too.

Negative experience: Such a poor leisure centre! The price gone up , but nothing not recovered! The temperature in the pool not nice! The sauna in swimming still doesn’t work , already 2 months! Also squeezing machine doesn’t work! A lot of things doesn’t work and why we pay so expensive price ? Still just question…

Negative experience: I like the centre but showers are ALWAYS cold! Horrible especially during winter.

Positive experience: I've been a member less than a month but I find it rare that classes actually start on time. There always seems to be an audio issue then staff take 15 mins to locate a speaker and a further 10 minutes to locate the plug. It keeps happening!

Negative experience: Gym is way too busy, would recommend going somewhere else

Positive experience: Overall, the centre is great – modern and spacious with good facilities throughout. Changing rooms are also good in general, and the cleaning staff do work hard to keep the place clean and tidy. However, I recently learnt that the centre no longer offers an “all facilities in one centre" membership. Instead, the only “entry-level” option available now is the "all facilities in the borough/district" membership, charging an extra £11.85 per month (from £45.95 to £57.80). I find this change quite inconvenient, as I only require access to Britannia Leisure Centre and not other centres in the area. And when I asked their customer service about it, they couldn’t give me a straightforward reason other than saying “because they were similar prices they thought to keep one so everyone gets the benefits of extra centres.” Secondly, the current membership structure is extremely inflexible. There’s no “pause” option unless you’re pregnant or seriously injured - so for someone like me who travels a lot, I had to cancel my membership a number of times when I was away in the last couple of years, and then I had to restart and pay another set-up fee (from £10 in 2023 to £12.50 in 2024) when I returned.

Fantastic experience: Amazing creche, love the staff - special shout out to Caroline who really looked after my daughter Ziggy when she had bad nappy rash...but everyone I have met who works in the creche is AMAZING, they take such good care of the kids and always thinking of activities eg arts and crafts etc :)

Negative experience: Swimming pool is absolutely disgusting - clumps of hair, and other foreign objects regularly floating around, and the occasional plasters on the bottom. But I guess that’s what you get when wearing swimming caps (like in any normal swimming pool) is not obligatory, and staff hardly enforces any rules on members with no swimming etiquette whatsoever (true for the sauna/steam room as well, where some people go to scrub themselves and cut their nails). Also, staff often refuse to lower the bottom of the pool even when there’s only capable, adult swimmers swimming, and likes to keep pool depth at 1.3m, sometimes even 1.1m, which is absolutely ridiculous and makes it feel like I’m swimming in a puddle. In addition, I’ve been getting sick every 2-3 months since I started swimming at this place, and I’m pretty sure I won’t be renewing for another year.

Negative experience: The sauna has been broken for two months! Sort it out! Edit: Sauna finally fixed, first day back on and the manager kicks everyone out, turns the sauna off and opens the door because someone put oil on their legs. Absolute jobsworth. Paying £40-60+ a month for this! If people have severe allergies to the basic 101 of being in a sauna then they shouldn’t be in one.

Negative experience: Unless you like playing tennis on plastic, don't play here. I've never known anything like it. I played tennis here on the roof and the court I played on is not finished. It is covered with interlocking plastic mesh tiles which need to be stabilised with fine gravel which fill in the holes and give greater stability and solidity to the surface. Instead, they just put the plastic mesh tiles with no gravel. The effect of this is like walking on cheap laminate flooring - there's some sort of sticky "give" in the surface that is annoying in itself, but also, if the ball hits the edge of the tile, it bounces high, because it's hard, and in the middle there's give, so the ball doesn't bounce as much. To top it all you pay over £12 an hour for such a poor quality surface. I won't go back there again

Fantastic experience: Great tennis courts. Affordable too

Positive experience: Local gym, fairly priced with all sorts of facilities. Gym, sqaush, pool and football.

Positive experience: The gym is super well equipped with a great variety of high quality machines and equipment. Unfortunately it's a victim of its success and is regularly very busy. I often have to wait 10 minutes or more to use a given machine at peak hours. During the day it's a bit better.

Fantastic experience: My kids loved it here! Great place for swimming and great treatment from receptionist priya

Fantastic experience: Priya was extremely kind to me and my friend while I was walking in and I just had to leave a good review I really recommend this place

Fantastic experience: Amazing service from priya. Stayed with me to fill out refund request form and fixed issues with my membership. Appreciate this!!

Negative experience: Additional player fee for activities such as squash or tennis you can’t play alone, it makes no sense. Tennis courts are bad, it used to be free, then jumped on 15P an hour not even for a real court…

Positive experience: Architecture is nice, walking up the steps, but swimming pool showers fall apart already , sauna doesn't work, and to be honest with you I prefer scruffy Kings Hall, as they have a proper sound system in the class exercise room. Plus everyone leaves you alone, to get on with your exercise. Also people visiting Britania stare at each other as if they were not coming to Exercise but check each other out. Just not for me. Good for hipsters. I did my art, drama then film school, so don't need that scanning from strangers. I like to keep private.

Negative experience: I love coming here but I’m always so disappointed at how it’s being run and maintained. Staff have been rude and unhelpful at reception, changing rooms and bathrooms are dirty, overcrowded as no one seems to be enforcing booked times properly. A real shame as it has every potential to be a great asset to the neighbourhood. It seems like it’s perhaps badly managed/under staffed? Ruining a great thing for everyone…

Negative experience: I don't normally post reviews, but this time I had to because I felt terrible for my child after leaving her in crèche. The premises are beautiful, but the workers appear to be more concerned in gossiping about management in front of customers rather than looking after the children. One employee in particular was unpleasant and hostile (she wears a headband).Please remember the customers and children when hiring...

Negative experience: Went to play badminton which we had already paid for online. When we got there we got told we have to pay additional charge per person. When we asked where it says that when booking, they started clicking terms of conditions which aren’t there when booking but you have to go on website by clicking separate links. Surely they can be more transparent about their additional charges rather then expecting people to go on their website separately (not even through the actual booking) to see that there’s additional charges. Go somewhere else if not looking to pay additional hidden charges.

Negative experience: I have been there twice, and the whole experience it self is not great. The building is very modern and nice from outside, but when you enter it it’s so unorganised. It seems like receptionists are not qualified enough for their position. First time I have been told by receptionist that there are some women sessions, so I went there on Monday with my mom we were very exited to go there and when we came I have been told that we can’t go in there as there is a booking required, even tho she didn’t bother to tell me that first time when I was asking. However we came there later because wanted to go swim, and also wanted to go steam room. Steam room is literally overloud with people. We didn’t even get to enter the steam room as it was so packed. The changing rooms are designed so uncomfortable, together women and man. There are no separated showers, you need to shower together however only few showers are in cabins which doesn’t make any sense as where am I supposed to put my dry towel as everything is in water, and no one will run all naked in the towel to get to your locker and changing cabins. For some women it would be very uncomfortable to go there just because of the changing rooms. Hairdryers are not working, except just one. My advice to you is to wear slippers to avoid getting infected with fungus in this place, because everyone was almost bare foot.

Fantastic experience: Still can’t give a review but I like the place

Negative experience: We booked our badminton court 1 week in advance. And when we turned up I couldn’t find my booking. It took a while to find out that my booking was cancelled WITHOUT ANY COMMUNICATION. We came with friends who travelled from far to join us. We have four kids who was super disappointed. This booking system is absolutely appalling!!! I’m a member of Britannia and this is not the first time I had problem with the bookings. And it seems like nobody listened and fix this. It has been going on for so long!!!

Negative experience: It was a nightmare service, we were upset with reception nd manager,james.however after all these issues we agreed to pay but she refused to serve us and manager allowed it to do that then we are leaving the places But astonishingly someone approached us while we are leaving the premises and started swearing at us saying why talked like that at reception. Our question is why they got someoneelse from outside to talk like.. The duty manager nd asian girl have been in very attacking approch.

Negative experience: customer service assistant and manager have talked to us in a way it showed they do not need people to use it . It is a mere bad customer service and they got all attitude in

Positive experience: I think the facility is great and clean, the only problem I find in terms of management is wearing swimming caps is not strict. There should be signs saying “don’t swim without caps” because so many people doesn’t use them and it makes it dirtier. Second problem about this place is it’s crowded even in weekdays around 2-3.

Fantastic experience: This review is for the creche! The ladies who run it are absolutely fantastic. My 2 year old hasn’t settled well anywhere else but they have make it the most stress free transition every time we go… whether I’m in a class/gym, steam/swim or just the cafe I know my little one is safe and has settled playing with all the toys :) thank you so much!

Positive experience: Very nice atmosphere lots of different types of people lots of machines no need to wait only went gym but has pool,sauna Cafe nursery etc 3 floors lesuire center

Fantastic experience: Local leisure centre that has so many sports activities. My kids loved the swimming session with the water play, it was so much fun in the summer. They also have kids soft play sessions which is so convenient as it’s local and near my house. The prices are affordable for all the activities. The only thing is not much car parking facilities.

Negative experience: They insist on you booking in advance but not all the sessions are listed on their website. Others are listed incorrectly. Reception staff don’t seem to have much clue about what’s going on. Visited twice and was unable to use their facilities on either occasion. We won’t be back.

Negative experience: I wonder, if there is ever going to be water at the male changing room showers at the gym.. Wasn't working for about 3 weeks now. Not sure what I'm paying money for, exactly, if things keep breaking..

Negative experience: Whilst the facilities are great, the staff is terrible. For a birthday party we booked and spent £474, you are definitely better off going elsewhere. We were told a host was going to meet us and discuss the schedule and the procedures. No one showed up, so we basically did everything ourselves and the staff were absolutely rude and awful. Please don't go here and choose somewhere else. This place isn't worth it and I don't appreciate one of the staff literally manhandling one of the mothers in the group and shouting at them.

Negative experience: This is my regular gym & pool. 2 mins walk from my house (that’s why I’ve given it 2 starts and not 1) but in all honesty I’m getting fed up with the place now. It’s over crowded most of the time and you can never get on the machines you want in the gym. The staff do absolutely nothing and there’s always weights and equipment out over the gym floor. The Personal trainers are all lovely but the actual Better staff care more about sitting around with their friends and training people than they do work. The gym could also do with more equipment as they have not utilised the space efficiently. Theres only 1 cable area that is always busy. PUT ANOTHER ONE IN I would help loads. The gym is also FILTHY dirty I never see staff clean anything and if they do its never a deep clean. The pool is nice in the water but around the surrounding areas are becoming dirtier and I and others have spotted cockroaches so be careful when you go very early in the morning at the start of the pool sessions with your personal belongings.They have sauna and steam but sauna has been out of service for over 5 weeks now. The kind of poeple that go in there can sometimes be rude and offensive about the subjects their talking about and think they have rights to the place so be aware when visiting them. There is a lot of new buildings going up right next to Britannia so no doubt in 2 years time you will never be able to use anything because it’s so busy!

Fantastic experience: I went there the other day after years of not going there. I didn’t even know they refurbished it over covid time. The place is much more modern, as the previous building was very old and dated. More floors, and more sports halls available. There’s so much more to do here now, with excellent views from the gym and studios. The tennis courts are on the roof too, which I found very cool! I’d be going more often to check the place out properly.

Negative experience: Place turned into a shambles. I travel 30 minutes to get here, some of us from a lot further... we arrive and theres a little sign on the entrance at reception saying pool is closed due to issues. You have all of our details, and can't send automated text messages to update customers on updates like these?

Positive experience: Generally a good pool, but staff let anyone walk in wearing their dirty trainers or slippers from outside, so the changing room is getting noticeably dirtier and smellier every time I go.

Positive experience: Too much of the same Machines not enough new machines Amazing space, lovely staff not enough machines for glute workouts, like hip thrust machines, standing glute press machine or spilt squat roller stand I come here for gym but have to use another gym for glute work out as they have the machines mentioned, it would be really nice if better gym could add those machines in the gym not only would it be more convenient to do my full workout in one space it would give us women more machines to work with as a lot of the machines are based around men and it would also be beneficial for people who can’t use the regular machines due to back problems knee problems ect.

Negative experience: Management is very poor , we wanted to go in the pool as toddlers side was very cold and my kid was cold ,just too be told we not allowed as it's other crowded ,witch is shocking you book 1 hour and you can't use it. Plus was told my Management i will get refunded but never did . If you like cold swimming pool and staff that don't no what too do ,this is a place for you

Fantastic experience: I was travelling, and this was one of the rare pools I found that didn’t require a membership. You do need to download an app to book, which is a bit annoying, but other than that, the booking process is straightforward, and you enter the centre by scanning a code from the app. It costs £6 per visit, and you're limited to 50 minutes of swimming. You can enter 10 minutes before your booked time to change, and after your pool time is up, you can take as long as you need to shower and get ready (the website info was a bit misleading about this). The pool wasn’t crowded when I was there, but I purposely booked 'unpopular' timeslots (10-11 a.m. during the week) to avoid crowds. There are 6 lanes: 2 fast, 1 medium, 1 slow, and 2 reserved for swimming lessons. The pool wasn’t the cleanest I’ve swam in but was fine. The facilities were very clean, and good hairdryers are available. You’ll need a £1 coin for the locker, but if you don’t have one, you can buy a token at the reception for £1.10.

Positive experience: Tennis nets are not up properly otherwise superb complex.

Fantastic experience: My daughter loves this place. Fantastic indoor play area. If only there were more sports centre like this in each London Borough, it’s far for us and parking is an issue.

Positive experience: I signed up for the swim only subscription. The pool is lovely and big. Staff ensure safety and are constantly cleaning, but despite this long hairs are everywhere. Not management’s fault, but a fact of life in shared spaces like this. The main problem are antisocial folk who don’t respect other pool users or their environment. Also badly behaved children screaming at the top of their lungs seem to be everywhere. I’m old fashioned and find this difficult to tolerate and it spoils my enjoyment so after 6 months I’ve cancelled my subscription. 10/10 for the staff, 1/10 for the customers.

Negative experience: I love this place dearly but please.. fix the sauna. its been 3 weeks by now and I haven't seen a single person even attempting to fix it during my daily visits. Please fix it!!

Negative experience: Terrible experience. Booked session on water slides for my son’s birthday. Was unable to enter as a large group in the session before were refusing to leave and it wasn’t safe. Appreciate this is not the centres problem however they had no process in place to close the pool to ensure safety of paying guests and allow us to enter as we had paid. They processed refund quickly but so far this is just credit to my account.

Negative experience: Least helpful leisure centre I've been to in London. I understand they can get busy on a Sunday but no help provided, no solution, and they just left my 6 year old watch the kids pool from the side. Appalling levels of empathy... I won't mention receptionist name out of politeness but a bit of sensitivity training wouldn't hurt.

Fantastic experience: ACCESSIBILITY: I've been going to BLC since March 2022 using a walking frame. Infrastructure is accessible in many ways. Most importantly the staff is aware of how disability is expressed differently in different bodies. I am able to express my access needs and staff do their best to meet them, whether they are visible and/or invisible. BLC has become a sanctuary and it makes a huge difference that I can have a conversation about access needs with staff members. Many thanks for your continuing support.

Fantastic experience: Love love love this centre! So much to do. Soft play area is really good for toddlers. Also the family swim is amazing for all ages.

Positive experience: I go for swimming only. Super clean and pleasant swimming experience. Sauna and steam room available to use too. I could have easily missed it.....but only downfall is there are no private showers for post swim!

Fantastic experience: Great place to bring young children to swim. Clean facilities with constant cleaners on site. There is an area for others to watch on as their children swim (no videoing or photography allowed). It is also situated close to a lovely park and so we spent the entire day around Britannia leisure centre. There are also great cafes inside and around the area.

Negative experience: Since reporting to staff and making complaints by physically going to their office does NOT work, i am forced to come here and make things public. 1. It does not happen daily, but recently on some days, all of swimming changing, shower and toilet floor area is being cleaned with a very POWERFUL ***TOXIC*** bleach... i came back from swim, and i still have the after taste of it just from being around it. 2. Is it a coal sauna or is it an electric one? Does Britannia want people to burn alive? A bunch thought and intelligence deficient *men* and kids over 16, chucking liters of water in the back of the sauna. It is causing people to cough, due to the smell of burnt wires and metal in the air. Some women experiencing hair frizz. Great move, keep allowing these dense people to put water into live wires. 2.1: Increase the closing time of the sauna especially on weekends. You do not clean it anyway, throwing a bucket of pool water into the sauna is not called cleaning so you don't need turn the heat off 1-2h before the entire pool closes. During the week you turn heat off at 9pm, same reason as above, you are not cleaning it anyway, so why you turn it off 1h before? It seems the sauna gets jet washed on a sunday for jewish men only, you clean it after the regular people are thrown out at 4pm, then you clean it with a jet wash for the jewish men to come in 2hours or so. But for the regulars, you just do a pool bucket. 3. Water dispenser by the sauna: Has the filter ever been changed? Or does it even have one? The pressure on it is ridiculous, it is the most used water dispenser in the building, every minute people come in and out of the sauna, and it takes 2 minutes to fill a 500ml bottle to 75% cause of the water pressure since the bottle is at an angle. It has been complained to managers by a few people. Doesn't even have a placement for a bottle like the rest of the building. Perhaps there are some saferty reasons why this water dispenser is different from the rest of the building, but come on, is there any updates? Put up a notice board, make a list of things people want updates on and let us know what you have done or waiting on. 4. Showers are not hot enough, they are warm but that's it. There is 1 shower between the sauna and steam room which has a heat regulator and the heat gets pretty good, but that is always busy and keeps breaking. Why are there no heat regulators on all showers? 5. Thousands of people coming to this building daily, yet the sauna and steam is like a shoe box. During peak hours, there is no space to move your body, people are literally touching body to body filled right to the door. You have space in the storage room, behind where the life guard sits, half of it is empty... maybe a remodel and adding another steam or sauna would be good? Who in the design process thought it's a good idea to make an enormous building and put a 3 by 4m sauna?

Negative experience: Changing rooms smell of urine and cold Women wearing no underwear totally naked just wearing a top with no underwear felt sick And staff totally said nothing at least if you don’t have a swimsuit wear normal pants Water was too cold in play area slide etc swimming pool was warm it was ok but extremely crowded because the water was cold in play area everyone wanted to just be in the swimming pool never coming back 2nd time coming first time was good but this year absolutely disgusting overly crowded smells couple of the toys weren’t working no cleaning being done lots of hair on the floor also saw a parent allowing her child to do wee in the toddlers pool were the stairs are to go inside

Fantastic experience: The family fun swim was really good my kids enjoyed there time only downside is that the water was quite cold and there were too many people in the swimming pool when the better website states that there would controlled capacity

Fantastic experience: Nice clean place. But only down sight staff wich tell people the time is up so oooooo rude.(you get out time finish) did you go school or learn some minus!!!! Lucky she's didn't come to me with her talk. As I had other bookings for kids. I wish I didn't and I had time to teach her one nice word simple sorry guys time up. Or hang watch SOOO people can see time and leave by there self widout someone ruin their day!!!!!!

Negative experience: Gym is pretty good but new manager named Jesus won t care about your workout if he wants to go home early so he won t let you finish your exercise and stop you while squats 9:20 to lock rooms which i use more or less 2 years now. Please remove this person from this position and give it to anyone else of your friendly staff .

Fantastic experience: Fantastic facilities, lovely pools, enthusiastic, experienced swimming teachers & a great manager. Toby has listened & assisted with every query. Highly recommend this Leisure Centre.My daughter had a wonderful birthday party here too. Fun for all the family. Thank you for keeping us all fit & healthy. So lucky to have this place on our doorstep.

Negative experience: Nicely designed building and friendly staff at reception. Tennis courts are abysmal - they are hard courts only in the sense that they are hard to play on. As for the actual fabric, it is some kind of plastic jigsaw that seems to also be used for stock containers at my local supermarket. As I told the receptionists on the way out, I would rather have played on the paved courtyard outside the leisure centre than on their tennis courts. Apparently the pool is nice.

Negative experience: absolutely ridiculous. the weekend is always fully booked out 1-2 days ahead minimum. same as the london fields lido. i live locally, have kids and never get to use the facility. i recognise there is high demand, but they need a better system. i doubt that all the people who book 3-5 days ahead of time turn up, but then the system just says ‘not available’ for the whole day. It’s so frustrating

Negative experience: Most reviews seem to be concerning the ongoing negligence of the management who could have made this center the best gym in London if they were effective in their duty. I was utterly shocked to see review mentioning that one manager even TOOK AWAY the cake of a girl while they were singing happy birthday… This could be the best gym in London with the premises size and number of activities they have but the staff there always fight with each others for petty reasons as mentioned by one of them who left them for being mistreated as an employee.The management is very poor and they refused to listen to suggestions. Sadly majority’s of staff there seem very careless and uninterested. Swimming pool and sauna area are often overbooked and they don’t control the entry so anyone can come. Once I saw a tall manager wearing green T shirt trying to bully one of the new cleaner in the locker ground floor locker Room for a petty argument , it’s sickening to see that they fail to do their job and try to be rude to their own colleagues. Better is a registered trademark and trading name of GLL a charitable social enterprise funded by public money maybe that’s why they don’t care about all the reports of management problems…

Negative experience: SAUNA & STEAM ROOM OPEN LATE More often than not, the sauna isn't switched on until after 8:00 am. People regularly have to ask staff to turn it on after eight o'clock, which is very annoying. DIRTY SAUNA & STEAM ROOM Both the steam room and sauna don't appear to be cleaned regularly. The door, as well as the interior of both rooms, is always dirty. You'll often find empty plastic bottles and rubbish left over from the previous day if you use them in the morning.

Fantastic experience: Wow very bad reviews of here. I enjoyed it loads great facility, good cafe. Shame money spent here hasn’t helped established facilities like Shoreditch Adventure playground.

Fantastic experience: First time we visited here with my toddler he absolutely loved the aqua splash perfect for little ones under 5 definitely recommend only down fall is they don’t have there own parking

Negative experience: Why does it seem that no attention is placed upon customer care? & Where does this unfriendly careless nature towards paying customers (from the front desk staff) eminste from? It's also alarming as it appears someone was being trained alongside.... What a huge shame Time 14.55pm on Wednesday

Positive experience: Pool is actually nice, but if you need a float not only do they sell them for £20+ but they won’t even allow you borrow one to practice with which is unheard of as most swimming bars allow this only reason this isn’t 4 or 5 star. Paying to use the facilities yet you can’t use some of the equipment/tools just sitting about.

Fantastic experience: Dear Managers, I would like to give my appreciation to your customer support staff at reception desk, in particular Hannah, who is very approachable, friendly and helpful. She goes out of her way to accommodate others and should be given the praise and recognition she deserves. We come all the way from Ealing to use the facilities in Britannia. Thank you to all of you for making it a place we love visiting.

Negative experience: Britannia Leisure Centre- family fun swim at Splash Pool As a mum of three, I was excited to treat my boys to a fun day out at Britannia Leisure Centre Splash Pool during their school holiday. Unfortunately, our experience over two days was far from pleasant. **Day 1: Disappointment Due to Boiler Issues** On May 30th, we arrived at the leisure centre only to be informed that there was an issue with the boiler, and no one was being allowed in. This was despite seeing families swimming and enjoying themselves through the splash park window. We were given a refund, but my boys were left disappointed after traveling from Brockley, which is a one-hour journey each way. **Day 2: Misleading Ticket Purchase and Unhelpful Staff** Determined to give it another try, we returned the next day. However, upon arrival, I was informed that I couldn't take my three boys (aged almost 3, 4, and nearly 8) into the pool without an extra adult. This was frustrating because I was able to purchase the tickets online without any indication of this requirement. Even though my eldest son is a proficient swimmer, we were still denied entry. This resulted in us losing another day that could have been spent enjoying quality family time. The staff we encountered were not particularly helpful and seemed indifferent to our situation, which added to the disappointment. **Final Thoughts** While I acknowledge that I should have read the terms and conditions, the booking system should not allow the purchase of tickets if the conditions for entry cannot be met. This oversight led to two wasted days and three very disappointed children. What was supposed to be a lovely family outing turned into a frustrating and disheartening experience. I hope Britannia Leisure Centre can improve its booking system and customer service to prevent other families from going through a similar ordeal.

Negative experience: Sadly the soft play was absolutely rammed. Nobody checks your booking, so I'm guessing a lot of people were outstaying their allocated slot. Nowhere to sit, nowhere to stand, kids and parents squashed in. The facilities themselves seem good if you could actually use them. Also the babies ball pit is far too tempting for older kids. Sadly after a long journey here, we left after 20 minutes. Extremely hot, loud, and cramped. A shame.

Fantastic experience: As a council facility, it's excellent. I've been resident of Muswell Hill where our local in Crouch Hill was appalling. This is enjoyed by so many local and much farther. As its now on my doorstep I use it a fair bit for my 5yr old daughter for softplay and swimming fun/lessons and even hired out the main hall for her birthday bouncy castle day. I really hope Hackney HBC keep up the mai tenancy and continue to invest.

Negative experience: Love the women only swimming class Coach is super, also there’re some good other classes such as Taichi with good teachers Yoga teacher Gosia is Iyengar trained, which is even hard to find in yoga studios, unfortunately they are getting rid of her morning class Staffs are very unprofessional, doing a yoga class and they just come in to grab some kit, actually they later realize they don’t need it going back and forth. It is simply shocking and disrespectful for everyone in the class Dirty shower room, weird design that there’s no place to put shower gel etc. Hair on the drain, definitely not enough cleaners/rotations, meanwhile some staff walking around There’s no proper weight plates in the squat rack area, making it impossible to do deadlift without being able to do 60kg, no plastic platform either It’s such a shame because the architecture is amazing and things are new, even better than some middle-high end gyms, and the idea of inclusiveness is great, but it’s poorly run by some unprofessional people

Negative experience: Very poor management structure, does not make it clear "borough facilities" only applies to your specific London council not other adjacent areas of London. This is in contrast to all the major private gym groups Only made apparent after signing up and being declined at other facilities. No refund offered either

Positive experience: Beautiful complex but damaged as not managed correctly. Such a shame!!!! Gym and swimming pool - overcrowded No lockers available, WC not working at all!!!! Nursery/creche => top notch and very professional staff. However parents are a shame. They book and don't turn up with their baby. This morning was supposed to be fully booked 9-11am and only two babies including mine were there! They should get a blame !!!!

Negative experience: ***Update: As the class cancellations continued and Better's customer services failed to offer a satisfactory remedy - nor indeed the courtesy of a reply - I have cancelled my membership. Cancellation of classes and no-shows on the day, instructors who turn up late and then spend 10 minutes trying get the Bluetooth audio to work, half-hearted structuring that points to a lack of preparation, classes that rarely start on time and some that finish early… These are issues that as one-offs are excusable, but, cumulatively – and regularly – will frustrate. It’s odd to witness laxity in a fitness environment. I’ve been a member of cheaper, less well-subscribed gyms where the sense of professionalism and commitment rarely faltered. So you have to ask, how much oversight does the management have of these things and are they setting the right expectations of staff in the interests of members?

Negative experience: We got a 14 day pass for 14 pound so we thought why not? There was some new weights and machines but there was a number of stupid people breaking every machine humanly possible and groups of teenage boys just lurking around. The worst thing – one we even complained about – Was the swimming pool (minus the 100% burning Chlorine) The changing rooms were all sexes welcome – which in toilets are a great idea, but when changing into swim suits is an awful idea. There was just men/teens standing around watching any woman that dared to enter. Then waiting in the shower area with a hand down their shorts, so they could watch the women showering. This was so creepy/nasty we did not use the rest of our 14 day pass in this location.

Fantastic experience: Book in advance and preferably a early slot for a quieter playtime. 1hr slots but noone actually checks. Lots of toilets and baby changing facilities. Café has a lot of space and a good menu.

Positive experience: Great new leisure centre right by Shoreditch Park. We've taken our baby here for swimming lessons since she was 3 months old and absolutely love it. Our instructor Jesus is fantastic. The changing facilities are also great for families. Unfortunately they've changed the PIN lockers which were super convenient to coin lockers. From mid February, there have been people (grandparents usually) by the baby swimming class pool taking photos and videos of the entire class without consent, which I find wildly inappropriate and I feel extremely uncomfortable bringing my baby in this kind of setting. I personally think it's fine to take photos of consenting people and if only your own child is in the photo. But a pool of 10+ babies and their parents?? So effed up.

Positive experience: It’s a pretty great building - sauna, pool, cafe, gym, courts and classes. To echo some of the other reviews it is pretty busy during peak times and classes get booked up too. Waitlist is often pretty good if you’re fast enough to pay attention to the app. It would be good if there were staff around to help keep people behaving appropriately somehow - men banging their weights is a common occurrence, it’s loud and dangerous. But for the most part the experience is fine. Very busy during peak tho, and there’s several peaks throughout the day. Hard to find a free machine or space to do your exercises. I often have to find alternatives or leave. Staff very friendly and PTs are also pretty good and helpful! Yoga class studios are bright and sunny which I love!

Negative experience: Unfortunately Britania L. C. is not the place I would come back again. The place is nice and offers allot of gd entertainment for kids and families but: - family pool has become very chaotic, far too many people who do not want to leave, although they are being asked by the staff members to do so as their timeslot run out. - some children are not supervised by their parents..run around, do not take turns/not being asked to do so. My daughter and I had lo leave earlier as there was not space to swim/have fun.. Some ppl are messy, some swear near the kids. Not going back for sure...

Negative experience: Gym is far too oversubscribed- have never been to a gym that is so busy. I moved to a smaller less conveniently located gym just so that I could get onto the machines / benches / weights etc. people also use the gym equipment and leave weights wherever they want. Would not recommend.

Positive experience: I absolutely love the gym and have made friends in there along with some of the pts. However, I've been going for the past year or so and for some reason my mobile data no longer works on the gym floor. I was told this morning that a lot of customers have said the same recently. I asked why i couldn't connect to the gym WiFi and was told that it was down at the moment and they weren't sure when it was going to be working again. There wasn't a manager available to talk to. It's my only gripe I have with this place as I can't follow my fitness app with no Internet. I've never had issues before . It would be good to find out when the WiFi is back? I'm disappointed as I'm paying a monthly membership and I'm unable to use the gym how I'd like to. No one seemed to know what to tell me and I left feeling pretty deflated . Can someone look into the WiFi???

Positive experience: I used to be a member of the old centre and regularly visited the health suite there. I had to reregister with the new centre to go again last week, which was a bit problematic. Unfortunately, there is no longer a health suite but sauna and steam rooms are located at poolside so it is less private than before. I also couldn't find a private shower cubicle just lines of communial ones. That said, there's now a cafe and a lot more going on there than before, it's very popular with all ages. Sauna & steam Inc in swim session, which at only £1.50 is great value for money. I would recommend trying it out

Negative experience: I had a scary experience at Britannia today which I felt was managed really poorly by their staff. I was sat on one of the booth tables in the café (not the big sharing tables in the middle) with my 3 year old and 4 month old baby having a drink and snack before soft play. I was breastfeeding my 4 month old and lay him down his pram trying to get him to sleep when a solo man approached and sat down on the table opposite me. I politely explained that my friend and her twin boys were joining me shortly and would be sitting at the table. There were plenty of other tables and seats free as it was 3.30 on a Tuesday afternoon. At that point he became defensive and quite intimidating and said he liked the table and was sat there earlier and that he wasn't going to budge. A really kind woman sat opposite then stepped in to support me, but he was very intimidating to her also. He then said he would leave only when my friend arrived. I felt really vulnerable and unsafe but I decided to wait silently, with my 3 year old nestled into me also clearly feeling unsettled. When my friend arrived, I asked him again politely but he outright refused. When I turned to the staff at Britannia for support, they came over to speak to the man, but when he refused to leave (and even called me racist as I said I found his behaviour intimidating) they told me there was nothing they could do. It is so important that safe spaces are created for woman and children, especially breastfeeding mothers. I was so disappointed by the staff members response and still feel very shaken up by the experience. In the end we left and found a two seat table around the corner, the 4 children had to stand. At this point I just burst into tears- it was such an awful experience. I am a regular visitor to Britannia but I will feel very anxious returning in the future. As I left, I walked passed the café from the outside of the building and I saw the same man sat on a table with another woman and child. I wouldn't be surprised if this was a behaviour he repeated often and that he got some kind of thrill of it. Be warned.

Negative experience: It's okay but the equipment (technogym) is not good and is poorly maintained. The rowing machines have out of order signs on them all the time. I emailed the centre about it twice but never received a response. The music is usually terrible. Do 'better'.

Positive experience: Other reviews suggest that is the worst place in existence but am here to say not really, it's a brand new centre with up to date stuff, the gym is clean at all times but the tennis courts that used to be where the centre was are now moved up just they now cost money to use. am sure if you gave it a go it wouldn't be nearly as bad as others say about it, the whole experience is nice except for better accounts which never work properly same for the app, I've have over 3 forgotten passwords etc but that's not the centres fault and anyone working there helps everytime