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Architects obviously don't go swimming
• Our family went for a swim at the new Swiss Cottage
pool at the weekend. We were all really impressed by the shiny
building with its pleasant façade.
We eventually found the right changing rooms and the family
changing area. Area is right. The architects obviously don’t
go swimming here with their families otherwise they would have
created a proper changing room. And even poor old Kentish Town
has more changing cubicles than here. The 20p charge to cram
our clothes into a locker is outrageous. I am not going to pay
20p twice to use a locker, so it’s back to cluttering up
the pool area with our towels and shampoo I am afraid.
It was a nice swim, though a bit colder than we expected. This
was not helped by there being no heat control on the pre-swim
showers.
The male changing room is big. There are tons of lockers but
only a handful of showers. These are individually enclosed with
cheap tacky finishes and have been vandalised already.
After showering (whilst keeping one eye firmly on my belongings
which are parked on the floor outside the cubicle) I decide
to have a look round the rest of the building. Spacious gym
over two floors, nice sports hall, good squash courts….
but where are the sauna and steam rooms? They are in a ‘broom
cupboard’ on the top floor. The sauna has room for one
man and his dog and there is no plunge pool. And they couldn’t
have put it further away from the swimming pool if they’d
tried.
Back in the dark ages when the redevelopment at Swiss Cottage
began, residents of Kentish Town were asked by Camden Council
to fill in questionnaires detailing their ideas for the new
Kentish Town pool when it got to be our turn. I filled in a
form detailing a plan for all sporting and swimming facilities
to be linked to a central changing area. The idea being that
people choose how many activities they want and pay accordingly.
They do not have to move from one changing room to another in
order to access everything in the facility.
It is still possible to achieve something close to that in Kentish
Town providing the council has the foresight to choose architects
who go swimming with their families.
Des Bradley
Lawford Road
NW5
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