Ponds Forge International Sports Centre
Sheffield, England, UNITED KINGDOM
Adult Admission Price & Policy
Drop-in/Casual
£5.95 per 45-minute session. [June, 2023]
Note: Admission policies and prices shown in Swimmers Guide listings are believed to be correct as of the date shown in brackets. If not correct now, please click on the "Edit" button and tell us so this listing can be fixed and the information brought current. This site works best when its users take an active role in the maintenance of the data.
Note: Admission policies and prices shown in Swimmers Guide listings are believed to be correct as of the date shown in brackets. If not correct now, please click on the "Edit" button and tell us so this listing can be fixed and the information brought current. This site works best when its users take an active role in the maintenance of the data.
Full-Size, Year-Round Pools & Boards
Pool 1
50m x 25m, 10 lanes, 2m - 3m depth, ozone sanitized, indoors,
29ºC (84ºF) for public swimming, 28ºC (82ºF) for competition.
Pool 2
25m x 16.5m, 6 lane, 5.8m depth diving tank, indoors,
water temperature not reported.
Pool 3
25m x 10m, 4 lane leisure pool, 1m - 1.5m depth, indoors,
water temperature not reported.
Diving
Four 1m diving boards, four 3m diving boards, and 1m, 3m, 5m, 7.5m, and 10m diving platforms.
Location
Historical County
Yorkshire, West Riding
GPS
53.382487, -1.462761
Teams That Use This Facility
Facility Notes
This is an international standard pool. Lanes are usually 25m, but long course is available at times that are shown on its online schedule. Public swim can be crowded on some nights when the Sheffield City Swimming Club/Masters have training. Check the website for lane swimming times and schedule interruptions. Sometimes public swim is in the (very blue!) diving pit.
Facility Reviews
The temperature is perfect for serious swimming, though it feels cold getting in. Aside from club sesions it is usually quiet and, as the lanes are wide, you should be able to have great swim.
[January, 2010]
[January, 2010]
The very finest pool in the UK with no equal in my experience. A pleasure to use and swim in. Widths (25m ) are normal for laps, with slow, medium and fast lanes. It can be quite busy, but good etiquette is usually evident. The diving pit is scarily deep! Changing facilities are clean and comfortable.
[January, 2011]
[January, 2011]
Lane swimming is available all day long, but during the after work period on the day I attended only two lanes - slow (and I mean very slow) and medium were available. Courteous swimmers. There is a well-stocked swim shop here.
[March, 2013]
[March, 2013]
This is a big complex with big facilities. I want to love it as it is fabulously located in the city centre and is literally a two-minute walk from my home. Other swimmers are mostly very courteous. The water always looks and feels relatively clean. The complex is comfortably heated, as is the water, and there seems to be a lot of helpful staff.
Unfortunately, it does not spoil public lap swimmers. There are only four lanes available for public lap swimming at most times of the day, and public lanes are often not available at all on weekends. The lanes have only thin lane ropes separating them rather than the anti-wave type that most pools have. The majority of the time the public lanes are set up across the pool rather than lengthwise, which you get used to, but they have no warning flags for back-stroke swimmers when in this configuration.
You have to wear a stick-on label around your wrist to show you have paid, which plucks hairs out of your wrist as you swim, as does the £2 locker wristband.
The men’s change room has a shower room with eight shower heads but only three give a reasonable shower (the others have pathetic water pressure and/or their self-timers stop the water every ten seconds). There are no private showers. The men’s shower room and change room have never looked clean when I have used them.
[January, 2018]
Unfortunately, it does not spoil public lap swimmers. There are only four lanes available for public lap swimming at most times of the day, and public lanes are often not available at all on weekends. The lanes have only thin lane ropes separating them rather than the anti-wave type that most pools have. The majority of the time the public lanes are set up across the pool rather than lengthwise, which you get used to, but they have no warning flags for back-stroke swimmers when in this configuration.
You have to wear a stick-on label around your wrist to show you have paid, which plucks hairs out of your wrist as you swim, as does the £2 locker wristband.
The men’s change room has a shower room with eight shower heads but only three give a reasonable shower (the others have pathetic water pressure and/or their self-timers stop the water every ten seconds). There are no private showers. The men’s shower room and change room have never looked clean when I have used them.
[January, 2018]