Brookes Sport Botley

great little centre with 25m pool and gym. would recommend to anybody. prices are great and there are a lot of options available. try it out! :)

Westminster Sports Centre is open to everyone — not just students from brookes! Also its not one of those gyms that is only open to members — you can buy a single swim or gym session without signing up to a membership!
Its one of the cheapest gyms i’ve been to and the by far the friendliest. It has a number of facilities, including a 25m swimming pool, a 55 station gym, two squash courts, a large meeting/​training room, badminton facilities, basket ball facilities, a number of tennis courts, 6 outdoor pitches and an 18 hole golf course.
The pricing of the memberships are very competitive. Don’t expect to pay more than about £25 per month for most if not all of the facilities. Locals get discounts (as well as service men & women) and can knock up to a quarter of the price.
Prices range from £16 to £48 per moth depending on the degree to which you wish to use the facilities. Phone up to check availability.
The swimming pool is kept to about 30.5 degrees centigrade.
The gym is large and spacious and airy. It can get a little hot later into the evening but there is air conditioning (which i’ve been told is being improved).
The squash courts are the best i’ve played in.
The centre offers a number of classes that can be found on their website, including spinning which is well run and is usually in the air-​conditioned training room.
The staff are friendly and are always up for a good chat! Its always nice to come in from a long day at work and see a smiling happy manager behind reception.
The place is kept clean and tidy by a team of dedicated lifeguards and cleaners who if asked will always help you out.
There are only a few negatives: the car park at the moment is a hassle — as i gather it, the university don’t like people parking and have a barrier system in place. The bad side of this deter ant on us as customers is that we have to get a token from reception, for every time you use the facilities. This is a hassle to begin with but you get used to it. If you don’t think you’d like this then you can always ride your bike/​moped/​push bike to the centre; which provides bike storage by the barrier to the car park. Or alternatively you could catch the U1, which stops on the campus by the teaching facilities.
The other negative is that sometimes its frustrating to see managers or reception staff sat behind reception doing nothing (browsing facebook/​playing games/​texting) whilst the cleaners are in the gym, and the lifeguards on poolside. Admittedly the centre is never that busy, but its plain to see there are jobs to be done to tidy the place up a bit. If not just in the reception area?
Anyway over all its a great little centre that not that many people know about and really has a family/​friendly feel to it. I would definitely recommend it and its always there to try.