Clifton College Sports Centre

I'd always dismissed this pool, as the Worldwide Pool Directory app I use had it marked as not open to the public. Since it's on the grounds of Clifton College, I just assumed that was correct. But for some reason, I googled it the other day and—surprise!—a public swim timetable popped up. Time to get it on the list.

Clifton College and the surrounding area form a neat little side-suburb of Clifton Village, itself a suburb of Bristol. Everything was quiet—it's the school summer holidays. Apple Maps showed the pool right next to the old Bristol Zoo. There's plenty of street parking around and it's free after 5pm. I parked up and headed toward a “Sports Centre” banner I spotted on the street corner. Through a gateway, past some signage, around the back of a building, and up a rickety staircase... this can't be right. The door at the top was locked.

I double-checked the timetable—it definitely showed a public swim session, and the view was set for June 2025. I tried calling the pool's number, but no answer. Then I checked Google Maps—it showed the pool was actually 100 metres down the road!

Through a small door and past someone in a towel with wet hair—this must be it. I waited at reception for five minutes, but no one turned up, so I headed to the changing rooms. Free swim!

The changing room had a dozen lockers, eight or so showers, and one toilet. The lockers needed a padlock. I dug out my mini travel lock and discovered its years living in my poolside bag had taken their toll—rusted and nearly seized shut, I had to coax it open with a few barrel spins.

Exiting the changing room, I passed through an old-style verucca footbath before stepping onto the pool deck. Every British public pool used to have one of these—I haven't seen one (or a verucca sock!) in years.

The 25m pool had five narrow lanes, set up this evening as three double lanes: fast, medium, and slow. I was aiming for a 3.2km swim as part of my comeback from 'the injury'. I jumped in and started with a plodding 2km. Midway, another swimmer joined, strapped on giant paddles, and began hammering out 200m sets—pushing off right behind me and even hitting my feet at one point!

After I finished the 2km, he told me he'd been drafting to keep his pace up—I'll take that as a compliment.

The tub-style pool meant that once a few swimmers were going hard, the water got choppy—it felt like swimming against a tide at times.

The pool hall had a classic 1960s school gymnasium vibe—which makes sense, given it's part of the Clifton College campus, a boarding school right next to the old zoo.

I think I've only got three public pools left to swim in Bristol now: Longwell Green, Easton, and the Lido (plus a few private health club pools).