• Read here how we went about the survey
• full results here!
• Swimmers comments here!
• summary of the results with all the pools categorised

Duncan Goodhew announced the results of the London Pools Campaign’s Golden Goggles Awards live on BBC TV last night (May 23rd). The award ceremony was held at the historic Marshall Street Baths in Soho, and also attended by Kate Hoey, ex minister for Sport, many of the swimming detectives and representatives from nominated local authorities.

The winning pools are:

Swimmers Favourite :

Porchester Centre in Westminster

The other nominees were West Wickham Pool in Bromley and Park Road Pools in Haringey.

Best Pool :

East Ham Leisure Centre in Newham

The other nominees were Putney Leisure Centre in Wandsworth and Pools on the Park in Richmond.

Best Borough :

Wandsworth

The other nominated boroughs were Westminster and Newham.

More than 90 swimmers went round all the pools in London filling out questionnaires , and the best pools were were calculated from the results. Each pool was visited twice.

The aim of the Golden Goggles award is to highlight the state of London’s Pools give ordinary swimmers a voice. A third of London’s pools as “good” by the swimming detectives. Many of the rest are good pools in bad buildings – where investment is needed in the fabric of the leisure centre to make it a place where people would want to go. Each year in London one pool closes and is not replaced.

Duncan Goodhew, Olympic Gold Medallist and Vice-Chair President of the Youth Sports Trust expressed his concern about the similarities between the disastrous sell-off of playing fields and the growing rate of pool closures throughout the UK. He went on to say “National Government has not made swimming a priority and so local authorities shift commitment and funding to other areas where there are government targets. This seems ironic given the government’s supposed commitment to health and tackling obesity”.

“A further great concern is the worrying level of 11 year olds entering secondary school unable to swim just 25m. The government’s own statistics show 1 in 3 cannot make that mark, and that disguises how severe it is in some local authority areas. Clearly if we close pools then this situation is going to deteriorate further”.

London Pools Campaign also made a special award to HCD (Hackney Co-operative Developments) for Business Support and offered thanks to the ASA for their generous donation.

More photos and information :

Liz Hughes
London Pools Campaign
c/o HCD
62 Beechwood Road
London E8 3DY
T : 020 7690 6662
E : info@londonpoolscampaign.com
W : www.londonpoolscampaign.com