Kings Hall

As the photo shows, this place does not look like your typical leisure centre. Where I’m from (Essex, don’t judge me on that fact alone), swimming pools, sports centres, etc all look like big ugly square boxes. These square boxes have big windows on many of the sides so that as you walk past you get to see fat kids running, bombing, diving, petting and all those other things that the posters tell you not to do. And these kids are fat as you have to go to the café straight after for chips. Lots of chips.
Anyway back to the subject in hand… the outside really makes you wonder how such a fancy but small fronted building in the middle of a regular busy road in Hackney can fit in a swimming pool, sports hall and gym in it. But it does. Everything in the building is clean, smart and tidy. Just the type place you want to come and spend a sweaty hour or two. The staff are really helpful and friendly too.
Only down side is the pool is a little run down looking. But if you let your goggles fog up just a little bit, you don’t notice a thing. It’s not bad, it’s just not what you’d find in a 5* hotel. And I haven’t found anything dodgy floating in the water, so that’s a big bonus!
And there isn’t a café or vending machine to be found, so you dont have to worry about undoing all of your hard calorie burning hard work by the sweet smell of chips.
This pool is going to become my second home (new swim membership novelty has yet to fade) so come watch me swim, this week a pool in Hackney, next week the Channel. See you all in Calais

King’s Hall is a quality leisure centre located close to Hackney Central. Although I walk past it most days, I didn’t even know this place existed until not long ago.
There is a full range of facilities on offer such as a 25 metre swimming pool, a health suite and a sports hall. There are also 5-​a-​side football competitions and group exercise classes on offer.
I went in to enquire about swimming prices, and the staff were all really friendly. It would cost you 4 pounds per trip to the pool, or 26 pounds for a month of unlimited access. I guess you just have to way up how much you would use it. Not being much of a swimmer, I will probably fork out the 4 pounds every now and again. It’s nice to know it’s there though.