Royal Commonwealth Pool & Sauna

With so many activities for a wide range of people The Royal Commonwealth Pool should cater to your level. On arrival your greeted by happy smiley reception team who can answer question you have regarding facilities.
There have been changes to the dive pool size, but all else looks if it’s in the same spot. But as I am not using the centre today, did not appreciate or detect any changes other than what I could see from the reception area?
There are fast track devices to the left of reception where you can pay for keep fit classes. But do you take tickets to the Core training, Body attack, & Body Step classes or trade them at reception first — will find out on next visit?
Prices for the gym look competitive but it did look busy at around 12:00 — 13:00 in the front of the building and I supposed if you live nearby and can walk further than other sports centres then maybe that is a good thing.
Leisure cards at £25, fitness classes, some under a fiver, might interest a lot of peeps, especially with the current economic climate? Go if you like large pools, warm water (solar heated), diving, fitness group classes, birthday parties (soft play rooms) and café. Also TRCP has 2 Car Parks.
Duncan Goodhew will still be proud! In the meantime I need to book half a day here sometime soon.

This is a fantastic pool for those who are training for a triathalon, or even the Commonwealth Games. Athletes. Those who can butterfly stroke in their sleep.
You might not believe me, but I am not one of them. No, instead I am one who wears her hair high in a bun on her head, still keeps her mascara on, and does a leisurely breast stroke for each length, keeping my head firmly above water.
Now, I can swim. And I can do this modify breast stroke quite well. But as I run, practice yoga and hit the gym and weights often, for me swimming is my down-​time, relaxation exercise. Im not doing it to train.
With that in mind, the Commonwealth pool would be my 2^nd choice for pools in my area (Marchmont). It’s really clean, very well kept, and the pool is of Olympic distance. So it’s a wee workout for my relaxation swims.
But, and I don’t know why it’s called ‘Pool & Sauna’ — it doesn’t have a sauna! Or a steam room! I *love* going for a half hour swim, then suffering through 10 minutes of intense, dry heat only to then plunge myself under a super cold shower. It feels amazing! Instead, there’s just the swim, then a slightly chlorine-​smelling pat down before I head home for a proper shower.
As a gym facility, I think it’s pretty great. I’ve heard rave reviews of the classes, there’s a full gym, and it’d be a great place to cross train (again, triathaletes in mind).
But for folk who want a leisurely swim and then sauna after, you might be better going elsewhere.

Although it has some amazing amenities, and a gigantic Olympic sized swimming pool… it’s still quite pricy for a swim! £5.50 for an adult and £2.40 for a kid… if your doing this on a weekly basis that’s nearly £40 a month! And there isn’t a whole lot to do with the kids once you’re in the pool. We have taken to race back and forth, but can last just over an hour doing this… which makes me feel I’ve wasted £8.40. Although they do have a lovely soft play area and canteen… once again the price of soft play is something like £4.50, for a whole hour. You can get that price at Gambado with no real time limit.
Overall, for lack of better options we go here. But if they brought back Leith Waterworld, I’d much rather spend my money there.

We love the refurbished Commie! The training pool is fab for kids learning to swim and the main pool offers the best lapping in town. For an Aussie in Scotland, public swimming just got a whole lot less depressing. Change rooms are large and numerous. The soft play area looks inviting for rainy days. Café only slightly overpriced. Overall, a vast improvement on the pool five years ago. Go as early as you can. It gets busy.

The Royal Commonwealth Pool is currently undergoing works and should be open by the Summer of 2011, where it will eventually be used to stage the diving competitions for the Commonwealth games in 2014, on Glasgow’s behalf. However, it is also going to play an important part in preparing the GB swimming team for the Olympics in London in 2012.
The pool did need a bit of renovation any how as it was first made for the Commonwealth games in the 1970s and the décor of the place didn’t seem very 21^st century, which is essential if live television pictures of a swimming venue are going to be beamed across the world.
before the renovation work started, it was great to have a huge official Olympic sized swimming pool so close to the city centre and the 50 metres swims were a good test of your fitness. There was also diving boards, which I was never brave enough to actually try out. The changing rooms were as Alice says in definite need of a bit of TLC, but this will definitely be happening with the renovation work and I look forward to using it when it’s done.

Really loud — I don’t know how it could possibly be as loud as it is, but it’s like unbearable tinnitus. The lighting is also really dim so the whole thing makes you feel like you’re going mad.
Olympic sized pool is good and knackering (as swimming should be) but every time I’ve been the changing rooms have always been a little bit manky and badly kept.
The diving board is never open and even if it was I’m not 100% sure I’d trust the 100 year old ladder getting to the top board that I’ve dreamed off since I was a little girl. I’m sure one day my time will come.

This pool is very good for aving a swim or just relaxing in the pool. It has changing rooms for both male and female and lockers which are 50p but you get that back when your done. It is a very good pool with a seperate diving pool which has diffrent heights of your choice to go on.

To my horror on moving to Edinburgh, I found the the flumes were gone since I was last here. :(. It loses a star for this. But still, it is the only 50 meter pool in the city, and it is quite cool to swim in the place where the commonwealth games were held. The pool closes for two years starting this summer.

I loved going in thee, to have a swim, it boasts a huge swimming pool, along with a kiddies wee swimming pool, and also a space for the diving boards, which it goes as far as 50 feet high!!!
Mind you I haven’t got the guts to take a dive, as I just walk up to admire the distance on how high it is, and walk back down Have no guts to take the dive!
Even I locved the flumes, there is 4 different flumes, and I have tried them all and loves them all.
However for the décor in the centre is really outdated, as it is built for the 1970’s as I believe that when it have started to build
So it is a quite good place to go, and I think it need to be updated sometime soon
Also there is a café provided as well.

The Commonwealth Pool is sadly scheduled for renovation starting summer 2009. I say sadly because my kids and I use it frequently. It has a warmer kids pool where my kids learnt to swim, armbands are freely available to all at the side of the pool, which is useful for the forgetful. There’s also an Olympic sized swimming pool for the grown-​ups and some very scary tall diving boards for the brave. The centre hosts lots of kids and adults exercise classes. There is also a well equipped gym available until 9pm each weeknight. As well as all this the centre also has male and female sauna’s. Best of all for parents is the soft play centre Clambers available for all ages, affordable and a good place to let the little ones run off energy on rainy days.

This is a great pool, huge and full of lots of room for swimmers but it is in need of tlc. The changing rooms leave a lot to be desired and it is a bit of an awkward space to change when you have kids with you.
Clambers is great for older kids but not so great for those a but younger and the pool lacks some of the family fun that it used to have in the days when the flumes were going.
At the moment it seems to be a pool mainly for the hardcore swimmers and those lucky enough to be free during the day as at peak times, especially weekends it can get very crowdedn

It is going to be rebuilt next year i think it will take around 4 years to renovate. But is going to be wonderfull after. At the moment it has a play area for small children, a baby pool with at its deepest under 1m i think. Diving boards up to 15m and diving pool depth of 5m as well as regular pool going from 1m to 2.5m

I don’t know what it is about the Commonwealth Pool, but I can’t help finding it a rather depressing place.
It is like a big concrete spaceship and it beggars belief that it is actually a listed building. Having such a rich sporting history behind it (it hosted the Commonwealth Games swimming events) it seems a shame that it hasn’t been significantly updated since then. The pool is huge and the potential for this building is vast… it deserves better!
(My aversion to the pool could well have something to do with the fact that, in my youth, they got rid of the flumes which I thought were the bees’ knees!)
The good points are that there is a good children’s pool, good swimming lessons, it’s clean and it’s well situated and has parking.
However, this is the city’s main pool and should be slightly better than it is!

The commenwealth swimming pool is made up of three seperate pools. The large pool for swimmers, the diving pool and the childrens pool.
I think the commenwealth pool is much better equiped for children than some other pools in Edinburgh. The childrens pool is shallow and the water is lovely and warm. They can provide you with armbands and floats if needed. It is supervised by a lifeguard at all times. The childrens pool is in a seperate area to the main pool so its quieter and not as frieghtening for young kids. I also like how you can take your towel out to the pool-​side for when you come out.
The larger pool is used by older children who can swim and adults. The deep end is very very deep and there are lifeguards positioned all around the pool-​side. Sometimes there can be swimming lanes in place for those who want to lane swim and they also have a fantastic large kids inflatable adenture set with shoots that they put out in the holidays.
They have Swimming lessons for children throughout the week. Also Parent & Baby lessons. Male and female changing areas and café and softplay upstairs.
I recommend the commonwealth pool to all Mums and Dads.
All children of primary school age and under swim for free