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Harringay, Haringey - So Good they Spelt it Twice!

Following on from this thread I was wondering what people's experiences of the leisure centre have been recently. We went on Sunday with our children, a little worried after tales of the children's pool not being open, and guess what? Not enough life guards had turned up (I think they now require three to be able to open this pool) so they didn't open the children's pool all morning. So, all the children with their parents crammed into the shallow end of the main pool as we were not allowed further than about 5 metres from the end. With two children out of their depth in such cramped conditions (lane swimmers and a class also using the pool) I felt it would have been much safer to open the children's pool!

Anyway, am going to complain to Fusion and possibly council as well  but thought I would get an idea of how common this is first. Fair enough if it is a one-off, but if this is a regular occurrence it's just not on! A private company taking over a public swimming pool and reducing the facilities..... grrrrrr.... 

Tags for Forum Posts: fusion, leisure centre, swimming, tottenham green

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I used to swim several times week in the piscinme blomet in Paris check it out here....

http://piscine.equipement.paris.fr/Piscine_Blomet

But also swam here in water straight out of an aquifer...bliss

As you say Therese, they'll tell you no! if you don't follow the rules. You CANNOT get in without going through the foot bath. Street clothes and underwear
are a no. But this was so in Brixton LC when I lived there in the early 1990s. Why is this placein Tottenham so......deprived? You peoople are not encouraging me to go to TGLC!

Hi Therese - what time do you swim? I'm one of the early birds (7am Mon, Wed & Fri and 7.45 ish on Sunday). It would be great to put a face to your comments on this forum and, who knows, maybe we know each other already!

Your face isn't familiar - I'm out of the water by 7.30 during the week (work) and 8.30 on Sunday so probably haven't been at TGLC at the same time.  Lovely website by the way.

What a fabulous pool JJ - I'd love to swim in that!!!

I don't think it would be beyond the realms of possibility for Fusion/Council to put a foot bath in the junction of the two corridors coming from the male and female changing rooms.  I too had to use one of them when I was a child (Beckenham, Kent) and dunking both feet thoroughly before swimming was one of the rules no one ever thought about disobeying - why on earth would anyone, when it was for everyone's benefit?!  If there could be a pressure operated shower at the same time, triggered by a foot in the foot bath, that would solve both the problem of hygiene and people going through fully clothed!  (Or am I just being wicked??)

In the pool yesterday (around 8), spotted a member of staff coming straight in from the car park via the door at the far end.  He walked straight through with his outdoor shoes on and made no attempt to put the blue covers on which, to be fair, are at the far end.  I asked him in a loud voice why he was walking through with his outdoor shoes on, and the challenge was taken up by another of the life-guards.  He looked quite sheepish.

As I was leaving the pool, two workmen were coming through from the men's changing rooms, again with their outdoor shoes on and I challenged them too.  They got quite indignant, saying they hadn't yet reached the supply of blue covers.  Quite right!

I think, though, that there should be a supply of the blue shoe covers at various parts of the corridor to the changing rooms and again just before you go through the doors to the pool.  There's quite a bit of corridor to walk down before reaching the current stock and most users of those bits of corridor are in bare feet so it's not fair on them, is it?

I live in Morrison ave 4 minutes from TGLC!!
The place has tremendous potential to become an bigger attraction to bring people into the area if it is properly managed, getting some of that footfall the Council so wants. THEY need to make it a priority...and we all benefit.
The pools in Paris aren't perfect.
An aquifer is an underground layer of water-bearing permeable rock or unconsolidated materials (gravel, sand, or silt) from which groundwater can be extracted - so in effect the Butte aux Cailles water is natural spring water and is naturally warm in the indoor pool. There is also an outdoor pool with area to sun bath. It is worth taking a bathing suit and spending a few hours there in summer if you jump on the Eurostar. Butu don't forget your bath cap = obligatoire!

Yup - I have a hard time convinving people to try Tottenham Green pool, nervous to stray away from Clissold or Park Road but it is (or maybe was) a fantastic resource and, in my experience, cleaner than either. And scandalously empty a lot of the time.

Ah but... if you go to Clissold and want to take a toddler into the toddler pool you stand a good chance of not being let in, they only let in about 15 people at once. And if your older child wants to swim and splash around then you have to take them to the training pool, in a completely different bit of the building.

At TG there is a massive graduated depth children's pool in which a baby can crawl in the shallows while a five-year old thrashes around showing you their best front crawl, in plenty of space.

At Clissold they have a toddler changing area which is the most ridiculously bad place to change a toddler, two cramped concentric circles of concrete which your toddler disappears behind in a flash, and you don't know whether to run towards the open entrance to the pool or the open entrance to the exit to find him.

At TG there is a huge open changing room which even the speediest toddler would be hard pushed to disappear in!

And as for Park Road..... the children's pool is ok and lovely and warm however closed to the public 90% of the time.

Being in the changing room at TG just before swimming lessons for the under 5s on a Sunday morning is a lovely experience: all the children are enthusiastic and more than happy to tell everyone in the changing rooms what they can do.  These children's younger siblings take great delight in getting themselves inside one of the lockers and hiding from mum - and then being unable to giggle quietly, thus giving their location away.  Great fun for everyone!

TG is the only pool for me - don't have a car and couldn't afford the time necessary for the extra travel on work days.  Have a great circle of friends there too.  Yes, there are things to complain about (and we do - loudly and regularly!) but it's TG!

Fusion is going to redevelop the changing areas at TG, though, which I think is a shame - I like the spacious communality of it myself. They'll probably move toward individual cubicles like Park Road (which weirdly only come up to waist height, which affords no privacy whatsoever!).

I still think the water at TG is far cleaner than at Park Road, which is often positively murky. And I love the mix of people from all over the world, whatever they're wearing - it feels like real Haringey. Great conversations overheard in the sauna...

I thought saunas are usually hot and dry - it's plenty hot enough in there at times. They could repair the broken bench, though, to seat a few more people. I think the plan is to build a new sauna in the changing rooms so that it can be properly isolated as women-only or men-only.

The thing that annoys me more than anything since Fusion took over is that there is no information available about reduced fees eg for children on free school meals.

You would have to know concessions exist, know what documentation might be needed, and have the time to repeatedly queue (often at least 20 mins) and battle it out with staff - who are not mostly trying to be unhelpful but are not having a good time with the queues and the computer systems.

I think as part of 'our' facilities, concessions and so forth should be clearly advertised.

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