Hampton Pool

When I was growing up in New York, outdoor pools were the norm, and there were few indoor pools. Having said that, we had summers that were actually hot (sometimes over 90F), and consistently sunny days. This isn’t necessarily the case in the London area, so finding an open air pool in Hampton is surprising enough, but finding it’s open 365 days a year is perhaps more unexpected.
The pools can stay open all year as they are heated. Now, I have to admit that I’ve never visited in the winter — I rather like being warm a bit too much. However, I do visit occasionally in the summer, and indeed used to more frequently when my daughter was younger.
There are two pools, a full sized adult pool, complete with deep end, small slide and diving platform, and a toddlers’ paddling pool. Both are heated and the paddling pool is kept a bit warmer than the main pool.
The main pool has two or three lanes marked out, and a larger area for ‘mucking about’. There is a large grassy area beyond the concreted poolside area. Above the dressing rooms and reception areas is a small café. The café is adequate, but nothing special.
On a fine day in the summer, the pools get VERY crowded, mostly with families with children. The prices are a bit more expensive than council owned pools, but being outdoors with a reasonably large sunbathing areas, it is popular. If you are actually after swimming laps, the lanes are really the only way to do it.
The changing rooms are very tired, and could badly do with complete refurbishment. There is nothing like enough onsite parking, and it can be difficult to park on the street on the busiest of days.
Still, these baths are a good facility to have. Hampton would lack any such leisure facilities. It would be nice, though, if the facilities were updated.

Us Brits, eh? Give us an inkling of hot weather and we all race to the beach or the local pool en mass but come the colder months, you couldn’t pay us to step near water. I point the finger at myself, by the way, but visiting Hampton open air pool recently made me wonder why I ignore this place for 9 months of the year.
One of the things that I love about this pool is that it is open all. year. round. So you could come for a swim on Christmas Day if you wanted. Or, you could come on New Years Day and swim off the hangover from the night before. Before you all run off it horror, let me just tell you that the pool is heated. It is also an Olympic sized pool, which is divided into lanes so you can have a work out at your own pace without some local Michael Phelps coming up behind you.
There are plenty of programmes here, like parent toddler, or aqua aerobics — but if you want to swim solo, best bet is to check the timetable website so you can see when the pool is best to visit. It’s about £4.50 for a individual swim, but they do lots of packages that knock down the price.