Category × County
7 Best Swimming Pools In East Sussex
Seven pools, all of them under a roof, and ratings that run lower than almost any other category in the county. Read that correctly before it puts you off. Blue Lagoon Centre, Hailsham Leisure Centre, Uckfield Leisure Centre, Bexhill Leisure Centre, Bexhill Leisure Pool, Sovereign Centre Leisure Pools and King Alfred Leisure Centre are municipal leisure centres, and municipal leisure centres are marked hard by the public on changing rooms, lockers and queues more than on the swimming. Note also that one town name turns up twice among the seven, and may well be a single site recorded twice.
Top swimming pools in East Sussex
Showing 1–7 of 7
Swimming PoolsBlue Lagoon Centre
Swimming PoolsHailsham Leisure Centre
Swimming PoolsBexhill Leisure Centre
Swimming PoolsUckfield Leisure Centre
Swimming PoolsBexhill Leisure Pool
Swimming PoolsKing Alfred Leisure Centre
Swimming PoolsSovereign Centre Leisure Pools
The pools follow the towns, which in this county means a line along the coast with a couple inland. There is no cluster to exploit and no reason to travel past one to reach another, so the nearest is almost always the right answer. Where the difference does show up is in what is happening in the water at the hour you arrive, and that is a phone call, not a guess.
Swimming Pools in East Sussex: FAQs
Why do swimming pools score so much worse than days out?
Because people rate the whole building. A leisure centre is judged on the state of the changing village, whether the lockers took the coin, how long the queue was and how warm the water felt, and any one of those can sink a score for a pool that swims perfectly well. Family days out get graded on enjoyment; pools get graded on maintenance. Treat a middling number here as a comment on the facilities and not proof of a bad afternoon.
Two entries mention the same town. Is that one place?
Bexhill Leisure Centre and Bexhill Leisure Pool may be one site listed twice, or a centre and a separate pool within it. Our data does not resolve which. Confirm the address with the operator before setting out, especially if you are relying on a particular feature such as a shallow teaching pool, because turning up at the wrong entrance with three children in swimming kit starts the day badly.
Not one outdoor pool in a seaside county?
Not on this list, no — all seven show indoor water only. The sea is obviously there, but for a swim with young children a heated indoor pool does something the English Channel does not, which is stay the same temperature all afternoon and have a lifeguard watching it. Let the sea do the paddling and the pool do the swimming, and do not expect either to stand in for the other.
What ruins a pool trip, and how do we avoid it?
Arriving during lessons. Most centres give over large parts of the timetable to swimming lessons and clubs, leaving a corner of the pool for everyone else, and that is not what a child has been promised on the way there. Ring ahead for the public session times. While you are on, ask how many under-eights one adult may supervise, since that ratio catches out families with three children more often than anything else.