I swim at Virgin Broadgate and the lido as soon as it's vaguely warm. The lido is always fine and is wonderful! Whether the local leisure centres will work for you will probably depend on whether you need to swim peak hours (including lunchtime - Balham gets busy) and how fast you are (and whether you want to do interval sessions, etc.)

I go to Clapham Leisure Centre on Clapham Manor Street. It was completely renovated about 2 years ago. Lovely clean (and warm) changing rooms and hardly anyone there during the week.

I was thinking about getting back into swimming to improve my fitness , and was wondering which pool is nicest for swimming lengths? I love between the Commons, and have despise the Latchmere, would rather not fork out tons of cash and join Virgin Active, so I was wondering where you swimmers swim.....