The London Aquatics Centres was the venue of the swimming and diving competitions during the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games. The Olympic Park closed for a long time after the event and re-opened for visitors on 5 April. I think the Aquatics Centres has been open for a while longer. It’s run by GLL under the Better brand – just like many other public swimming pools in London.
I went there a few weeks ago with my swimming buddy and it was actually really nice to be back in the Olympic Park area. Walking up to the area was quite nostalgic! It brought back memories, spotting that strange tower (the ArcelorMittal Orbit) in the distance and then actually going inside the Aquatrics Centre and wait – I’m allowed to swim in here? Where I was previously a spectator to the diving world championships? Amazing!
It is actually a really beautiful building from the inside and it’s such a luxury to have all this space. We swam in the 50 meter pool. It was huge compared to the suffocating 18 meter basement pool at LA Fitness that I normally swim in.
We had booked our slot for 10 o’clock and that seemed to be early enough to beat the crowds and the families that were arriving closer to 11am.
All in all it was a really great experience and I definitely want to go back soon. Mainly because of the vast amounts of space. Nothing beats a 50m pool!
All photos shot by me on my Canon EOS 5000 camera on 35mm film.
Hello Rabea 