Battersea Latchmere Leisure Centre Swimming Pool BUG Post Reply

[dancing_queen59]

Sadly the Clapham Manor street pool is not the same type of splash about pool as the Latchmere. I can easily take 2 children to the Latchmere but not the same with the Manor street one.

I went there last night and although there wasn't any cockroaches the changing rooms were filthy. Lots of baby crackers, biscuits, food lying everywhere. Nappy bins full. There was a guy cleaning the water away but no one checking the changing rooms. As usual there was 4 of them standing at reception talking but not actually doing any work. I think evironmental health needs to be called.

[mamaika]

After horrid experience of mise,cockroches and poop in the changing room i never went to Latchmare again!When telling staff ,got the "snap" back that they can't chceking every time somebody was using it.I went to the othere one and after a couple of miutes chcecked the pooped one and it was still there!
Now we go to Kingston.It is far from Clapham ut has lovely splash area ,very clean and staff is lovely.Highly recomended.
oh and there wave aswell:)

[littlerainbow21]

They seriously need to shut this place down and give it a months worth of cleaning! Water Babies sent us here for our third term and I was horrified that they used this place - the water was FREEZING - all the babies were shivering and the changing rooms are horrendous - full nappy bins, food everywhere and it STINKS. Honestly, I can't believe places like this exist! I do appreciate that public pools are never totally pristine clean but this is in a league of its own and should not be open! I wrote to the council to complain but they didn't actually do anything....

[MGMidget]

Sadly my suggestion of going early morning to the Latchmere has a bit of a flaw. Three times now when my husband has gone early on a Sunday morning with my son they do not allow children access to the pool because they have insufficient lifeguards. It happened again this Sunday morning and all the parents and kids were left waiting until after 9am (my husband got there at 8am) when the missing lifeguard finally turned up. They seem to have a problem with the attendance of their lifeguards which is annoying and can actually make going early a frustrating waste of time. When my husband and son finally got into the pool it was really crowded because of the all the parents and kids who had already been waiting for an hour or more to get in it!

[LauraBrown]

I go to the latchmere every saturday morning with my 5, 3 and 4 week old (not yet swimming!) and have never seen a cockroach, an overflowing nappy bin or anything particularly disturbing in the way of dirtiness. Yes, swimming pools are never squeaky clean but I must be extremely unobservant as i've never noticed anything. I think it is a bit silly for people to link tummy bugs etc to the pool - yes, they may have come from there but they could have come from anywhere/any child your children happen to come into contact with/any public toilet in a cafe etc etc.

Anyway, always good to campaign to the council about improving our facilities but I'm not sure it's as bad as being portrayed here and I wouldn't want people to be too put off!

[mgb]

I agree with the majority of the posters - the Latchmere is unclean. I do not feel comfortable taking my daughter there.

Sorry to disagree with the last poster but it's actually common for tummy bugs to be linked to pools. Trinity Hydro (private) cancelled all classes for an entire term after many children became sick with the same bug. I understand they used the closing to install high quality filters to avoid a further sickness incident and did not reopen until the filters will thoroughly tested.

We should expect standard cleanliness and polite staff members at all pools, public or private.

[LauraBrown]

My point was that there is no evidence that the pool is linked to a tummy bug apart from the small number of comments here. It sounds like in the case you mention, there was evidence of a large number if children being affected.

Anyway, those who find it unclean are obviously entitled to their view but I just wanted to encourage people who've never been, would like to go and might be put off by this thread to give it a chance and judge for themselves...

[dancing_queen59]

Why would you want to encourage people to visit a pool that has had many posts on the website with regards to its uncleanliness?

[LauraBrown]

What an odd question - because I have a different view? Because I go every week with several friends and we don't have an issue with it! Seems a shame for people to miss out on what I think is a great local resource because of some parents linking the pool to their kid's bugs with no real evidence! As I said up thread, always good to encourage improvements so I'm happy to see rude staff challenged where appropriate or recurrent unclean incidents reported to councillors etc etc...

It's the most fun local pool due to the beach entry, elephant slide and wave machine and much easier with several small kids because they can stand up themselves. And there's the play zone upstairs which they also love. I LOVE the latchmere!!

[mgb]

Illness debate aside, many posts on this thread describe recent unclean conditions at the Latchmere. I too have personally experienced such conditions and as such do not recommend this pool.

[mollys]

I've seen 2 poos in the pool at latchmere in the past 18 months. When I told the lifeguard, he just sighed as if to say "not again" and went to get a net! Ugh!

The changing rooms are filthy - especially on rainy days as people come in with buggies (obviously) and they bring in a lot of dirt. Whilst I understand its not realistic to expect the pool and changing rooms to be sparkling all the time, I do think that latchmere is unacceptably dirty.

I also think the showers are awful - dirty, not nearly powerful enough to wash your hair, and no temperature control, so much too hot for my little ones.

[LauraBrown]

Then you'll be happy to hear they a currently renovating the showers! Not sure I'd personally want them colder though...

Is poo in the pool a problem for some reason limited to the latch mere? I didn't think small children were discerning as to which type of pool they would be willing to poo in?

[AMSussams]

After speaking to the General Manager he blamed the state of the facilities at the Latchmere solely on the cleaners all being off sick, well if the managers and staff cvan't keep the place clean then why did they bother opening their doors at all! If you went to a reatuarant/hotel and they had the same issue then you would expect the same, at the end of the day they have a duty to the paying public as well!

If you have had the same problems as me then please call wandsworth council or even get in touch with your local councillor.

[Mint Slice]

We're not frequent users of Latchmere but on the few occasions we have been we've never encountered anything like this. Surely if all the things that have been listed have happened in the last week or 2 the place would be closed down so I'd be interested to hear when people have experienced these problems.
While the lifeguards reaction to the faeces in the water is not acceptable I can certainly understand the frustration of having to deal with same problem again and again. While the staff need to deal with this sort of situation quickly and appropriately I would ask who is disgusting enough to knowingly poo or wee in the pool or let their kids do it (yes I know you can't control babies but the older kids?!!)? After all, the majority of bacteria in any swimming pool is brought in by the us, the users!

[NYE31]

I experienced the Latchmere when I started my 4 month old son at Water Babies almost a year ago. It was disgusting, filthy changing rooms, freezing cold water & I'm wouldn't be surprised if he picked up bugs there.

I stopped going after less than a term & switched to the Trinity Hydro Pool which is at the opposite end of the scale, clean, warm, welcoming, hygienic & an all together more enjoyable experience for both of us.

It's depressing to read that a year on (I complained to Water Babies at the time when they asked why I wasn't continuing) that nothing has changed & if anything, it sounds even worse!