Oasis Sports Centre

Let's be honest here, i have not tried the sporting facilities here. I wish i could but instead i'm visiting the osteopath.
I was in pain and one of my colleagues who comes here regularly told me they are great here.
The osteopath who is taking care of me (Andrew) is really nice and does listen to you and try to distract you from the pain when manipulating your body. He has also been able to give me thorough advice and even email me further suggestions.
Anyway, every time i go there, i am drawn to the big glass wall and stare at the outdoor swimming pool. I realised last week that there is also an indoor swimming pool!
Generally speaking, the place looks clean and well maintained and all the members of staff i have spoken to are friendly.
Hopefully i'll be able to check the facilities further soon and will update this review

When I first moved down to London and long before I discovered the lido in London Fields, I thought it would be a great idea to go for an outdoor swim with some friends. After much searching about we discovered the Oasis Sports Centre, smack bang in the middle of the West End. "An outdoor pool in the middle of London- how lovely" we thought. We were wrong. My flatmate came back with an eye infection and I came back with a sore throat.

I didn't go expecting luxury, but it was pretty disgusting. There are plasters in the pool and the water has a shimmer from the amount of sun tan lotion and after sun that has been applied to the swimmer's burnt bodies. It is full of screaming kids bombing into the pool and conjures up images from the Beano.

If you are looking for somewhere to work out, I must admit, I do not even know where to refer you - London is ghastly for this.

However, if you are seeking somewhere to get hepatitis b, you should come here as soon as possible. There are loads of gym equipment with countless years of sweat, frustration and dirt caked everywhere you could imagine.

So basically - clean, intelligently run place to get fit - one star. Central location to get hepatitis b - 5 stars.

The main reason I've chosen this gym is because it's near my work and offers a reasonable student monthly membership (one of the perks of my job). I might have to update my review a little later after it's completed its refurbishment, but for the moment, for the price you pay, it's really just an average gym.

The exercise room is very small at the moment, and the machines are not the best to use. I wish they would include some of the traditional spinning bikes as those are much better than the new models of stationary bikes. To my disappointment, there are no rowing machines - what kind of a gym doesn't have any rowing machines?! And I'm not whether this is because of the work going on at the moment in the building, but there's absolutely nowhere to easily do some floor exercises after you've done your cardio, and I'm not keen to do that with the people in the weight room...

The pools aren't bad, but they could use a bit of a clean. I like that there's an indoor and outdoor pool, though, and they do offer kickboards and such for different types of workouts.

As for the classes, it's nice that with the membership you can get access to any of the Camden Borough Better facilities, but there aren't too many I can take that fall outside of working hours. The dynamic yoga class on Wednesday nights are pretty difficult, but they are very good and worthwhile. Only problem is that I find the teacher there a bit mean/rude...

As for the ladies' changing room, it's really old. The lockers sometimes jam, the keys are a little gross, being so old and having gone into the pool by different users. It's also annoying that in addition to the cost of the membership that you have to pay 20p per use for locker storage. So don't forget anything or the lockers will cost you 40p! The showers aren't great and can be a little fickle in the temperature. At least they do have a couple of hair dryers for you to use.

For me, only worth it due to the fact that I have to swim to keep up fitness whilst nursing a running injury and that it's in close proximity to work. If not for that, I would say that I wouldn't be itching to renew my membership every month.

It was a hot humid day where even the air was still... The city was packed but I thought I go to the Oasis pool. It has an indoor and outdoor pool with a roof terrace. The whole place could use some grout and new tiles. However it was blissful to cool off on a hot day sightseeing in the city centre.

The place is not that big but it's popular with the swimmers and sunworshippers. There are loads of lifeguards on duty which is reassuring. There is also a terraced cafe by the outside pool.

A word of warning for the guys. It's rather homoerotic experience for some because I was aware I was being watched in a slightly creepy way in the showers. He must have been a chubby chaser! Fortunately they are completely open so nothing goes on.....

When selecting a new gym, do you look for those details that really make a place special? Stagnant, foul pools of water that remain as such for months? Mats sticky with the sweat of the masses? Showers with a single, unadjustable temperature?
Do you hate air conditioning? And wouldn't you prefer to do an aerobics/dance class in complete silence because the stereo has been broken for 4 months, in both studios?
It's hilarious that this place is called "Oasis". That's a joke, right? But seriously, folks. This place is pretty bad. The cardio is room alright, albeit windowless and there are only 3 ellipticals. The staff is very friendly.
Oasis is part of the Better franchise. Better than nothing? That's debatable.
Oh, and the photos of the pool make it look amazing. It's not.

The receptionist was rude and unprofessional, the sales representative I spoke to was friendly at first but I felt as if he was bullying me as I said I wanted to check out other gyms in the area and I wanted to wait till pay day he said "surely you have a credit card you can pay the first months bill on" how date he!!

I hear so many good things from this company but I was very disappointed.

The outdoor pool is gorgeous and It felt like I wasn't in London, the showers are communal which is a shame as I like my privacy.

Beware of this centre being in the men's changing rooms feels like I'm being eyed up at every opportunity which is a little weird, I've had my locker broken into in this place as well, jeans stolen phone money which the centre didn't really feel obliged to help me culprit, if your after a gym session/swim then it's not to bad

One of my favourite things to do when I worked in Holborn was to come here in the evening to use the outdoor pool. One of the few public pools in central London, it's amazing how much you'll put up with for a bit of a gimmick: the pool is pretty small, it's full of people who can't really swim, in fact, it's full of people non-stop, and the changing rooms are pretty underwhelming and as far as I can tell not equipped with hairdryers, not good if you want to do anything after your swim. But, the joy of swimming outside in central London is pretty strong and it's also quite cheap.

Okay, as part of my new resolve to write more Yelp reviews, I'm finally going to tell you about my extensive experience with the Oasis.

Positives: it's walking distance for me, about ten minutes walk from our flat in Covent Garden near the Strand. It has two pools, although since my last experience in the outdoor pool, I will only swim in the indoor pool (more later). It has large spaces and plenty of lockers. There are lots of hair dryers in the outer portion of the women's changing area. There are plenty of floats and pullbuoys to use for varied swim routines. I manage to get myself a good one-hour swim workout when I go.

I'm struggling here, to find many positives....

Negatives: The place is filthy. Truly, madly, deeply, filthy. Dirt is everywhere; old, ground-in, never-been-cleaned-off dirt is tracked on the stairs, trailed along the walls, discolouring the tiles, and coating the sides of both pools. You can write your name in the gunk on the sides of the pools at the water line, I kid you not!

Lights are burned out, to the point that several spots in the women's change room are in almost total darkness, as are the stairs leading down to their basement location. Showers are either freezing or scalding and the toilets are dark and unpleasant.

There are always lots of other people swimming in one's lanes, no matter which one you choose, and although the lanes are signed slow, medium and fast, there isn't a lot of encouragement from the lifeguards to enforce that. But that's not such a big deal.

Dust on the intake grills in the ceiling ventilators must be an inch thick. Ceiling boards are broken or missing. Tiles are missing and broken. But actually none of that matters so much if the pool is clean and well-kept.

However! (Warning, those with weak stomachs might want to stop reading now) the pools themselves are the worst part of the whole place.

The water is full of black dirty flakes, flaking paint or soot or who knows what. The outside pool has additional mystery bits that might be plant material, leaves and bark and what not from trees or whatever has come floating down from the sky.

But the truly worst thing is that both pools are full of human dirt -- globs of floating mucus people have coughed up, sticking plasters that have come off of cuts, and the worst for me, clumps of floating hair everywhere.

The last time I swam in the outdoor pool there were so many of these human hair jellyfish floating leisurely by underneath and around me that I started to gag as I swam and couldn't stop, had to get out as fast as possible because I was retching so hard I couldn't breathe. The water smelled of roofing tar that day, too, and was full of black bits washing back and forth in bushels all over the bottom. This is the downside of wearing swim goggles -- you see everything!

It used to be that the Oasis was a good deal, but they've raised their prices to just under £5 per swim and worse, from my perspective as an older swimmer, they've discontinued allowing over-60s to swim for free. Now we can only have the Freedom Card swim from 9-noon on weekdays. Any other time and we pay the full price, no discount or anything.

I am naturally a bit disgruntled about that, but I would understand if they used the extra income to clean the place or buy some lightbulbs!! But no chance, apparently. I really feel they should be paying ME to swim there in the state the place is in.

So why do I go? Need exercise. Can't run anymore due to joint issues. Desperate times call for desperate measures. And this place is truly desperate!