The Castle Centre D'Estudis Reviews

It's a nice gym. Big and clean. Try to avoid free gym and swimming time as there would be a lot, a lot people.

Great coaches and good gym equipment - it gets a bit busy sometimes due to their free access to council residents.

I play badminton here. The changing rooms are clean. Can't comment on other studios, haven't used them.

Not managed properly. Insufficient equipment. Just going here because it s one min walking distance from my flat.

Fantastic facility's for the whole family. Clean areas also.

My child goes there for the holiday club" fit for sport' and he loves it.

This is a total shambles of a facility. Customer service is non-existent. Calls and emails go unanswered. Staff on duty at the facility are generally ride, unhelpful and lazy. Groups are badly treated with poor or non-existent communication and bookings frequently cancelled at the last minute.

Health and safety is inadequate - putting table tennis players next to a badminton court, without anything to keep the table tennis balls from rolling everywhere is an absolute recipe for disaster.

The most depressing newly built leisure centre ever! Staff are overly aggressive and miserable. Just literally had another argument with them, as I called on bank holiday Monday to check if the pool was open and was told yes, when I arrived 5 minutes later apparently it was closed as it was full up. They have this inept wrist band system that you get 1 hour in the pool, so if you arrived half way through a session you either have the choice to wait till the next session starts to get an hour or just pay full price and have the renaining minutes left of the current session. The pool is often busy as they have every swimming lessons and schools in there nearly all the time. The lockers are a disgrace, 3/4 of them don't have keys, been saying they are getting new ones for 6 months. The pool often has restricted access for older people and women only (neither session is heavily used) you'll often be caught in a que as the automated barriers dont work if you have membership and naturally there is always people complaining. You also have more chance of winning the lottery than using the sauna and steam room as they are always broken aswell. A real let down of a centre, that could have been so good, but I feel everyone active (the company running) are a very very poor company. My suggestion for southwark would be to use better leisure that run many other centres in London.

The centre is a few years old. The reception looks nice with seating and they also serve food. The prices however I believe are a bit high. Another downside as well having only one toilet to serve quite a lot of people which makes a queue.
I have not visited the gym, but the swimming pool however small and it gets a bit crowded, is state of the art.

If I could give this place 0 stars I would, cos this place doesn't even deserve 1 star. The staff are completely clueless and rude! I have been swimming there several times now and each time the reception staff and life guards are complete garbage. But I will not be going there ever again and I gonna tell everyone else I know to stay away too.

The Elephant and Castle centre has loads of availability for young and adults especially who are just getting into sports swimming or any other athletics the staff there are quite nice Street in rules and health and safety is there first priority

Staff are extremely friendly, great customer service and great place.

Dirty facilities, no customer service and the staff are terrible

The staff are amazing. Great place to enjoy the Gym.

Great fitness place. Nice people doing workout. It's a fitness place and not a muscle pumping gym

Probably one of the worst pools I ve been to. The schedule/management of the pool is terrible. They have a schedule for the pool online, but often you will turn up to find you can t use the pool for lane swimming, if at all, because what s on the schedule is not what s actually happening at the pool. You can t call before you arrive there to check because they never answer the phone. If you want somewhere to take your children to mess around this is probably the place for you. if you want somewhere that you can go to swim lanes, don t bother. This place is never accessible/available/suitable. I live really close to this centre but after months of trying it really is just easier to get on the tube/bus and head to the closest alternative council swimming pool. Also the staff are quite rude and unhelpful.

It's not particularly cheap.
Poolside there is no requirement for swimming caps, people are allowed poolside in outdoor shoes, swimmers wear knee length board shorts, and even t-shirts, the changing room floors are regularly dirty, I have never seen the floors washed down, or mopped. There is no encouragement for users to visit the toilets before swimming, with predictable results for a public pool, with free access for children.
On the dry side, there are many machines selling sugary drinks, the gym staff are narcissistic bullies, the machines are not maintained, nor are the fitness machines software ever updated. The wi-fi has not been fitted as was promised. Visitors use running and weights machines in their outdoor shoes and clothes: this goes unchallenged by staff.
A place this like this should be dedicated to mindfulness and well-being, but instead it has commercial radio playing constantly - it is impossible to be in the building without hearing what a singer would like to do to their lover (or boasting of what they have already done) it's not appropriate in a public space and it is distracting whilst training - someone should tell the management about the modern-day phenomenon of personal stereos. This is a big 'no' for older users, who probably don't appear in the user demographics, as the constant cycle of popular music, traffic updates and adverts are an anathema to them, and drives them away.
Top-end gyms are quiet places, yet the staff and management here have probably never visited such a place.
It's such a shame that such a beautiful building has been turned into such a horrible place by poor management, a slack working ethos, and a fear of expecting the users to respect others.

Receptionist are so rude when they re dealing with enquiries. The company should really consider employing people with manners and good etiquette, as their employees clearly have none.
Besides from that it s a good gym with good facilities.

I stopped going here many months ago and haven t missed it.
Overall this place tries to be too many things all at once. A council gym, a business gym, a sauna, a kids pool...

As a full time worker I used it mostly in the evenings and weekends so: Saturday evening it s closed; the rest of the weekend it s free for all southwark residents, only southwark despite being at the border of two boroughs. So much to foster a sense of community around the elephant and castle uh!
in weekends you end up sharing the place with a flood of people who don t pay (and don t care) for it leaving a trail of rubbish behind them.
On weekdays at least one evening a week the wet area was subrented to an unspecified club so despite paying the full rate you don t get access to it.

That leaves 4 evenings a week to relax in the sauna right?
Nope
The sauna is way too small, always crowded and people are allowed to enter with swimsuits and without towel so the wood is always soaked in sweat. Sometimes i just stood in there rather than sit on other people sweat but the melting plastic of some guests swimsuits made it rather unhealthy.

Also the location of the sauna next to the swimming pool doesn't really help with relaxation since you can hear all the noise coming from the pool.

The changing room is overcrowded and dirty.
The showers are often littered with empty soap packages and other rubbish.
Also, it may be a small thing but i find annoying that the lockers can't stay open while you change clothes since they have a spring to keep them closed at all times.

The gym part is ok although too many cardio machines and not much space for free weights.
They have Lifefitness which is ok although i prefer technogym.
Would be nice to also have a roman chair. such a simple tool and yet so hard to find...

The classes are the best part: fun and effective with good equipment, nice staff and nice people attending.

The general manager Chris Yearley is doing a fantastic job. There has been a massive improvement with staffing. The gym refurbishment is amazing and instigated by the feedback of members.

The staff are very rude and ignorant! When I called for some information the girl on the end of the phone was abrupt and extremely dismissive. Do not expect a friendly welcoming!!!

Staff with a weird sense of manners. Could not get a receipt for my purchase and had a hard time getting hold of the right person. Not as clean as I would like. A lot of people and very many of them are teenagers.

If you want to go swimming then avoid this gym at all costs. They greedily book up half of the lanes for swimming lessons and leave 2 lanes for about 20 swimmers, which isn't enjoyable.

Very rude receptionist clearly needs a bit of customer service training.

Overpriced, poor quality machines, takes forever to fix machines, for the price you are paying you would think they would fix machines quicker. It s clear to see this gym is all about money and not about customers. Do not be fooled by this More

I only use the centre for exercise classes, and they have some good ones, in a very nice, spacious studio with good equipment. The look and feel of the place is new, big and clean. What little I experienced of the customer service was a bit dodgy, and occasionally there are logistic problems that could easily be taken care of with some attention and forethought, but all in all I'm very happy to have this centre close to home. It also offers free gym and pool to Southwark residents (although it's limited to specific times and seems to involve a lot of queuing about).

Pool is great, but Reception staff are especially impolite. Rude stares and generally poor customer service on that part.

Very nice pool! If you live in the neighbourhood, you can get a free membership card to give you access on Fri, Sat and Sun during certain hours. Definitely worth a visit :-)

Great class and the Centre is being well managed and adhering to all the health and safety measures.

This place is a little gem on my doorstep the pool is great,gym is well equipped and there is a sauna and steam room too! Free swim and gym for 1 hour Saturdays and Sundays from 2pm with everyone Active makes this place extra special! The only complaint is sometimes the queuing system is long!

Lots of staff standing around but none helping with the huge queues at the door

Very big gym, lot of classes and machines.

I recommend Sunday body pump.

Very nice building and facilities. Everyone is friendly, I ve been having a lot o fun there.

It's alright. But the changing rooms and toilets were a couple of times disgustingly dirty with poo laying on the ground.

So I only swim here and there are certain staff who are great however this is not everyone. The men's changing room is really filthy in places, I had to complain about the drinking fountain as it was so dirty. Also most of the lockers are now broken. So the main two problems are low staff morale...there is a guy in a suit who always seems to be wandering about not doing much and I guess that's the manager who should probably look at his staff training. Saying all these bad points is sad really as the place is/was amazing and a great facility. I go there times a week and it's helped my health loads, the sauna helping me too. Just a bit more care about maintinence and cleaning and a good manager and it would be brilliant oh and the teas good ...

The pool is nice and clean, premises look neat too. I have not tried the gym but the changing room up there looks very nice. I wish I could say the same for the wet changing room which is very confusing and with very few shower spots (which means there is a queue during peak hours)

Didn t keep to their word, my last monthly payment has been completely ignored! I m being asked to pay double for one months access!

I m a member and proud! U can conveniently join any class using their app. Very nice!

the most rudest staff's management leisure centre i have ever encored. They have spent 20 million but management couldn't careless

Really appreciate the free gym, every council should do it !

New, spacious and wheelchair accessible. Fully equipped with machines for wheelchair users too.

Good facilities but I agree with the comments regarding the reception staff, extremely rude and unhelpful. Would rather stand in a group and talk rather than help customers even though a large queue had formed.

Great new and quite clean place BUT behaviour of young people in the pool so poor....

This is main health centre for people who live in Elephant and Castle and surrounding areas. It has a training pool and a medium size main pool. Both cater for women and other groups, with dedicated times where they have exclusive access.

The Castle (Health Centre) has a modern fully equipped gym and weights room.

As it is fairly new and purpose built I would recommend it to the younger generations but it does feel a little rough around the edges. Their cleaning, maintenance and customer care needs a little improvement.

Awful place. Went on a day pass to try it out. Useless staff, completely disinterested and unmotivated, broken lockers, broken turnstiles, dirty floors, worn out benches. The management really need to sort this place out as it could be great.

The women s changing room next to the pool is absolutely disgusting!!! Who checks this things and allows it?

I signed up here. They did not even give me a tour. I tried to enter the gates, but my card would not work. I thought I was being waved through, next thing I know one of their staff slaps me across the chest with the back of his hand, says to me "Do you think you're special? Get in the queue". As it turns out, they turn off the card readers on the weekends and all members and non-members have to queue up, often for 5 and 10 minutes to enter the gym. There is usually only 1 or 2 people serving long queues that can reach to 20 or more people. A couple weeks ago, I waited more than half an hour to get in...Beyond that, the gym closes at 6pm on Saturday which is ridiculous because it is always full of people at that time even 10pm on the weekdays is a little short given modern lifestyles and work demands. Recently I showed up there at 9:34 pm a weekday to get in a quick work out after a horrible late day at work. The manager says to me no one can enter after 9:30pm even though I already had my gym kit on and no equipment with me. There was no one else around so it just seemed completely unnecessary. Honestly, I thought he was just taking the mickey, but he was totally serious. The personal trainers on the other hand seem to be nice and treat people with basic respect. I think they are one of the few things I like about this place. Other problems, lots of useless band machines with very little resistance, very few dumbbells, equipment is not fixed regularly, the weights are often sloppy and disorganised, crowded and cramped especially on the weekends and many other issues. But if you come to this gym expect: unfriendly to indifferent desk staff, long queues, strange rules, inconvenient hours, frustrating procedures, poorly stocked and maintained equipment and to just generally be humiliated and have your patience tested to its maximum extent. But if you're expecting to simply walk in and start working out, forget about that especially on the weekends! I'd give this place a miss because there are much friendlier and more uplifting alternatives nearby that will actually value you and your membership.

Gutted to have to leave a bad review but this place is so frustrating.. as mentions by others, if you are going here to swim laps i honestly wouldnt bother. There just isnt space, we ve attempted to swim 5 or 6 times now and always the same situation, half the pool closed off for lessons and the available half is overcrowded to the point where its not possible to swim. Unfortunately will be cancelling my membership.

Beautiful views good transports and sports leisure centre .

I have been to the Castle Centre today 21/07/2019 with my boyfriend and received a fantastic customer service from the receptionist/host who served us at the till at 19:30. He helped us choose swimming accessories as well and was very helpful and knowledgeable. I would give him 5 stars for his service. I enjoy going to the Castle swimming pool and the sauna on a regular basis. The water is just the right temperature and the centre is open till 22:00 most days and very accessible. It would be good if the centre introduced a membership for just the swimming pool and sauna. Perhaps something to think about?

Good as long as you can make use of the fitness area and swimming pool: Clean and spacious facilities as long as you can access them. The swimming pool is frequently overcrowded while they do not provide dedicated lanes for swimming. On weekends, most machines are in use in the fitness area.
If you are unemployed, self-employed or otherwise free to schedule your day, you should subscribe and schedule your day around your fitness activity. If you are not, you will rarely enjoy the centre.

Lockers can only take old pound coins, frustrating when u only have the new ones

For some reason they won't give you an hour for the pool. It's like they're giving you money from their own pocket. Their system doesn't allow it!

Lockers never available, out of commission. Nice pool, poorly managed.

The women changing room and toilets on the first floor are usually dirty, often there's no toilet paper and this week I found no soap (three times!!). I've seen better in no frills gyms. The equipment breaks frequently and it takes ages for repairs. The building itself is bright and airy so it could be a good gym if it was managed and maintained properly.

So I actually switched memberships out of here a couple of months ago. Here are pros and cons of this place in my opinion:

Pros: brand new facility. New pool, new gym, new equipment and technology. Super fancy and modern. It s also one of the more affordable places for exercise (especially with student discounts!).

Cons: as someone who works during the day, I rely on this facility for evening and weekend classes. I wasn t quite pleased with the caliber and quality of the fitness classes. Some instructors were amazing and clearly trained on how to lead a class, whereas others did not seem to have any training at all and would lead the worst classes ever. And I m not talking about hard vs easy. I m talking about proper intervals, good flow of movements, punctuality and time for stretching at the end, and a variety of exercises. You d have the exact same class week after week- which gets so boring and really does nothing for your body.

Another con are the lockers. I guess they missed the memo that the pound was going to change because you can t lock them unless you have an old British pound.

And my final con is the cleanliness of the place. Sure, it s brand new and it all seems clean and shiny but it is very evident that they do not prioritize hygiene. At the end of the classes, nobody is told or encouraged to clean the mats that they just sweat all over and so if you go know you ll notice that the bright green yoga mats are stained black from shoes and sweat. Other gyms have disinfectant wipes to clean them up. The bathrooms in the evening often have garbage everywhere too.

Please keep in mind that my review is only relevant for the classes. I have never used the swimming or regular gym facilities.

Just love this place. Its so peaceful. No noise. Though the badminton court is there. But its separate so its doesn t creates any problem. Just beside there is lessons place. The washroom and showers are top class. Using of padlocks gives you the safety of you props. The washroom is big and clean.
The gym is beautiful. There is much space. And there Isn't that much crowd. Less rush. People comes here are polite amd gentle. During corona. They sensitised everything. The trainers and the workers work there are really good. Only one lady works there is really unprofessional. I Don't know why her body lengauge is really weird. She is unfit though.

Rude staff, poor service . But the pool and gym are good .

Staff are generally pretty slow...If it wasn't free on weekends I wouldn't be going here!

It is very poor quality gym always sauna and steam is closed.

first off if you only want the gym for fitness more specifically health than aesthetic this is an adequate if not decent facility.

Pros:
lots of running, elliptical and rowing machines, as well and the resistance machines which are more specifically designed for rehabilitation or elderly people.

pool
badminton
sauna
spin class
other classes

two cable machines so tricep and back exercises can be done more readily.

Cons:
Poor value for money.



free weight selection extremely poor with the majority of weights missing, the weights that are there are either too light 4kg or too heavy 38kg.
Plus there's always about 8 other guys using them at the same time, if going after work late or at peak times.

Only one bench press which is misaligned with the features of the ceiling (dangerous because your body will automatically adjust itself to be inline with your surrounds, so you benching at a distorted angle...very bad for your rotator cuffs).

Staff are abrasive and unhelpful

Facilities can get quite dirty due to high volume of people.

No place to do deadlifts and the floor has pothole in it from where people have tried...Again very dangerous as its in the free weight area so your more likely to be off balance with extra weight.

Due to Southwark's progressive fairer futures act which admittedly I do agree with because Britain's becoming a notoriously unhealthy nation.
All residents can go use the facility and can even surpass full members on Friday and weekends :(

The reception staff at this leisure centre are exetremly rude and all the other staff members I came in contact with were also! First and last time I will visit this centre! If I could give it a no star I would!

Staff to busy chatting to help me sign up a membership great way to lose money!

I have been a client of everyone active at elephant and castle for a year now and have used gym, personal trainer, classes and swimming pool. I have a general appreciation of the place.

It is modern and newly opened with good equipment and qualified PTs.

The place serves as a community centre for local residents and brings in fitness and health focus into daily lives of my family and neighbours.

That is why it is a shame that the current management stops this place from serving its purpose by subjecting the members to the hygiene standards and customer service that are no longer customary at Eastern European train stations that I witnessed coming from Poland leave alone sport facilities in a developed country.

I always overlooked the fact that stuff are unhelpful and unfriendly thinking it might change over time but it is clear now that this is how this place is ran.

I am not the one to write damning reviews without trying to talk to the management first.
I did it last week when I pointed out that equipment in the gym is covered in dust and sweat while mirrors have been smudgy for days and there is no blue roll available to wipe equipment after use. All this shows that lack of interest in general cleanliness is systemic and structural.

For a place like this it is worrying as I would not want to catch something by stepping in a paddle in the showers because no one thought to address a blocked drain as it happened last week.

I did mention all the above to the management and hoped I was mistaken about the caliber of people working at the place.

I walk in today, a few days later, to find that a disabled toilet in the foyer has a paddle of urine in the middle of it and the stench tells me it has been there a while.

I did not feel comfortable talking to managent about it anymore and thought I would look around for a gym I can trust and leave but then an alarm goes off in an adjacent bathroom indicating that a disabled person needs assistance. 5 minutes later I decided to check it out myself as the alarm keeps going and once I see there is no emergency I went to ask Shanine at the reception how come the alarm has been going off in her earshot and she would not switch it off. Surprised as she was she explained that she hasn't noticed, but since it hasn't been switched off by someone else it must be a glitch so nothing to worry about. Interesting approach. Once she kindly agreed to ask someone to switch off the alarm as a goodbye she throws my way that next time 'I should just say something' objecting my complaining about her not noticing an alarm and then ignoring it once pointed out to her.

That forced me to write this down hoping someone that is a decision maker reads it and realises that planning, designing and building this beautiful facility for everyone to be active does not accomplish or serves what it meant too as the current management does not share the beautiful sentiment of giving to the community and puts the whole project in jeopardy of becoming a rundown second class gym for those that have no other choice.

The gym is very dirty and very often even toilet paper is missing in the toilet. Changing rooms smell bad and most of the times air-conditioning is not working. They charge twice the price for a multi site membership to existing members while new members get 50% discount. Totally not recommended and unfair.

The lockers from the pool area are always messy and too wet.

Good place, with wet and dry saunas, wish they got one more mid speed sign instead of making it a double lane though.

Nice clean environment .....
But staff in reception are Very Very unprofessional and rude,
NO MANNERS..
They need to learn etiquette and be more professional Without our custom they will be out of work.

Staff are so rude. Unprofessional And the main reception lady clearly has a problem with anybody that isn't here kind. Has an attitude towards different races.will be contacting police about discrimination I have felt from her and staff. She isn't fite to work customer face and then company allow such people to work.

The website has many errors, as you attempt to book the sports hall it says one thing one second and another the next. When you call they can only tell you when the courts are available, and you will have to book then but by then you loose any of the times that are prime time. Also there is no immediate email that can be found easily to contact the castle centre directly to notify them of this problem to get the bookings completed. The centre itself and staff have been most helpful and it is kept smelling and looking clean for those that use the different facilities, just a shame about the booking process.

Swimming pool guard Mike is friendly and helpful, however swimming guard Dani (sp?) was quite the opposite - aggressive and unfriendly. I even thought she might be drunk. Quite disappointing to see someone talk to club guests in such an unfriendly manner as she does. Lots of room for improvement!

Really nice, new equipment. Love the new swimming pool.

Purpose built modern health and leisure centre added as part of the Elephant & Castle regeneration by the developers. Comes complete with 2 pools, gym, weights room, sauna & steam rooms and good opening hours well into the evening. Admission costs are reasonable, but one cannot help a feeling that this is about image & PR for the face of the regeneration, as clearly there are numerous issues that require attention. Will give 5 stars for the concept, the location and the building itself, as the other issues can be put right.

Some of the Members who use the gym and swimming are very rude. I will go to a gym in a different area.

The music at the gym is very depressing it s not very motivating or encouraging. If they could change the genre of music or change the radio station that would be great

The Castle Centre is a brilliant gym and swimming facility regarding training or leisure purposes. It's super beneficial for people like myself who live in the Southwark area as they provide free gym and swimming during the weekends! More

SHAME! How the Labour Party wasting public money by hiring those unhelpful and know nothing staff! And the worst thing? It is the only sporty centre in this area just like there s no other party or candidate you can vote for here. Worst of worst.

Amazing facilities, Just a shame that the staff, specially managenent in the gym are have no regard for customers or even their own emploees, treating them with disrespect in front of clients...

New gym, free for Southwark residents all day Friday, and after 2pm weekends!

Most of the comments are correct: it is a very good facility AND most of the very many staff are friendly AND it is getting dirty AND the queues to get in are reminiscent of the Soviet period. Southwark should either make it free and maintain it or run it like a real business and be prepared to let it turn into high value retail units when it fails.

Amazing gym, always in here every second day getting a nice juicy pump!

Fast and efficient when searching for relevant information and no pop ups!!!!

Clean and well equipped. Best to go off peak as it gets very busy.