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title: "The Castle Centre Swimming Pool, Elephant & Castle | Have Goggles, Will Travel"
description: "Swimming pool review and photos of The Castle Centre in Elephant & Castle, London. A decent 25m pool let down by filthy changing rooms."
canonical_url: "https://havegoggleswilltravel.com/pool/the-castle-centre"
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  "og:description": "Swimming pool review and photos of The Castle Centre in Elephant & Castle, London. A decent 25m pool let down by filthy changing rooms."
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  "og:title": "The Castle Centre Swimming Pool, Elephant & Castle"
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> Index of every page on this site: [llms.txt](https://havegoggleswilltravel.com/llms.txt)

![The Castle Centre pool photo](https://havegoggleswilltravel.com/cdn-cgi/image/w=1280,h=544,f=webp,q=30,fit=cover/pool/306/the-castle-centre-swimming-pool-elephant-and-castle.jpeg)

306

# The Castle Centre

London, United Kingdom

Wednesday, 4 November 2026

![The Castle Centre pool photo](https://havegoggleswilltravel.com/cdn-cgi/image/w=1856,h=788,f=webp,q=75,fit=cover/pool/306/the-castle-centre-swimming-pool-elephant-and-castle.jpeg)

## Evening swim in Elephant & Castle.

Staying at my new usual London base, the Hilton Metropole, tonight. I've pretty much exhausted the nearby swimming pool options, so it's a twenty-minute trip south on the Bakerloo line, across the river to Elephant & Castle, for a pre-booked 7pm lane swim at The Castle Centre.

It's impossible to time anything right when travelling around London, so naturally I arrive thirty minutes early. There are still swimming lessons going on, so I sit and wait for twenty minutes before a quick change and heading out to join a small group of swimmers patiently waiting at the doorway to the pool deck.

The session looks promising. Standing with about a dozen other swimmers at the edge of the pool, waiting for the lessons to finish, there's plenty of stretching going on and quite a bit of swimming gear being lugged poolside. The average age looks to be late 20s, so I'm hoping for a proper push tonight.

Also pleased to see six lanes set up with proper wave breakers. But as we're standing waiting, the staff start pulling a couple of them out. Fortunately, they leave the two centre lanes intact. The fast lanes!

The lifeguard gives the nod and there's a rush towards the two fast lanes. Quite a few people seem to know each other and quickly organise themselves between the two.

Hoping to get through my standard 3.6km session tonight, but there are a few too many interruptions during the opening 1,600m. So much so that I switch lanes halfway through to see if the other fast lane is any better.

Eventually decide to switch down to 200m sets, stopping between each to pick a decent gap in the traffic. Not quite the swim I'd hoped for, but it keeps things moving.

There's a hard stop at 8pm ... or 7:55 aparently, bit annoying as they didn't let us in the pool until five past the hour! so it's just 2.8km tonight, averaging 1:31/100m.

Time to head back across London to my new base at the Hilton Metropole on Edgware Road.

- ![The Castle Centre gallery image](https://havegoggleswilltravel.com/cdn-cgi/image/w=640,h=480,f=webp,q=75,fit=cover/pool/306/the-castle-centre-swimming-pool-elephant-and-castle.jpeg)
- ![The Castle Centre gallery image](https://havegoggleswilltravel.com/cdn-cgi/image/w=640,h=480,f=webp,q=75,fit=cover/pool/306/the-castle-centre-swimming-pool-elephant-and-castle-entrance.jpeg)

### Pool Review

(50 / 100)

Pool water temperature was perfectly cold and the water clarity wasn't too bad. But the changing rooms and showers were filthy. Stepping on soggy toilet paper in the changing areas, and I'm pretty sure there was sh\*t on the floor in the shower!

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### Swim Stats

- 2800m swim distance
- 1:31 pace / 100m
- Garmin Forerunner 965

### Pool Details

- Indoor pool
- Pool length 25m
- 6 lanes
- Setup as 25m (4 lanes) on day of visit

[Visit pool website ↗](https://www.movesouthwark.co.uk/centres/the-castle-leisure-centre)

The Castle Centre

[2 St Gabriel Walk, Elephant and Castle, London SE1 6FG, UK](https://havegoggleswilltravel.com/map?pool=306)

[←Mounts Baths](https://havegoggleswilltravel.com/pool/mounts-baths)

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