The Castle Centre

£6.00; Senior Citizens (60) £2.40. (See "Facility Notes", below.) [April, 2025]

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Pricing for this facility appears to be in flux. When we couldn't find the price on its website, we sent an enquiry and were told the price for an adult was £6.10. we were also instructed on how to access pricing and booking for a lane swim (all the notes that precede this one). When we went to make a booking, the charge that came up was £6.50. Within the same 24-hour period a friend actually went to the centre and was charged £6.00.

Registration and reservations are required to purchase a day pass at a Southwark Council leisure facility. The process is a lot less obvious than it should be. The registration part is actually taken care of while making a reservation.

In order to make a registration and register, go to the Membership & Offers web page of the Southwark Leisure website. When you reach that page, scroll all the way to the bottom of the page and click on the option to Book a Pay As You Go pass.

NOTE: If you are attempting to make a booking from outside of the UK or utilizing an Internet Service Provider outside of the UK, you'll need to fire up your VPN (virtual private network) software to spoof a UK location, otherwise none of these pages can be accessed and you'll be informed that you have been blocked.

When you arrive at the page headed "Book", select the centre's name from the dropdown list (in this case "The Castle"); then select the activitiy you're looking for (we assume it'll be one of the "Lane swim" options, but you also have to designate whether you want a Fast, Medium, or Slow lane. The next step is to indicate the date you want to swim. (Americans, keep in mind that the dating convention in the UK is DD/MM/YYYY NOT MM/DDYYYY). Then you have to select a Starting Time - the earliest hour of the day that you want to begin seeing lane availability.

After clicking on the "Search" button, you'll be shown all of the time slots when your activity is being conducted (whether or not there are places available) and, if spaces are available, the number of spaces available.

If there is space available in a time slot that is acceptable to you, click on the text "Book now". Then you'll be shown a table of age ranges and prices for the selected activity and time. Select (click on) the appropriate option and then click on "Add to Basket".

The next step is to "Go to your basket". When the page comes up showing which option you have selected, go to the bottom part of the screen to enter your name, date of birth (again in DD/MM/YYYY format) and click on "Continue". On the following page you'll be offered selection boxes about whether you want to receive marketing and promotional emails (optional) and whether you have read and accept the terms and conditions (required). Then hit "Confirm and continue".

On the next screen you enter your payment card number, its expiration date and the card's three-digit CVV/CCID validation code. Then hit the "Pay £XX.XX" button. You have now reserved and paid for a one-time swimming pass and, presumably, registered for a free membership in the Southwark Leisure system.