I've visited Magnet Leisure Centre a total of three times now. It's clearly a bit of a hotspot now since the last two reports back in late 2021. On all three occasions I bumped into several other explorers (fortunately the friendly, respectful kind). The place is pretty huge and in a varying degree of condition. Some rooms are absolutely trashed (toilets, showers etc), and others remain somewhat untouched. But anyway, more on that later... First:
History
Magnet Leisure Centre opened in circa 1975 and was one of Berkshire's largest community leisure centres. Much like the "Everyone Active" sites, Magnet Leisure Centre was almost fully funded by it's local council, Windsor and Maidenhead Council. The leisure centre offered a wide variety of sports, sessions and activities, including:
The Explore
Entry into the site varied, first time through the poorly-secured front entrance, and the two subsequent visits were via a second loading-bay- tyle back door. (There is also a cool lower ground floor warehouse part to this site, but not much to be seen or found there now). Once in, you'll soon discover that this place was clearly shut down and left in a fair hurry. Power still on (as of 30/01/22) and water was on until recently, lots of equipment, pool floats, pool chemicals, gym equipment, sports equipment (including three large trampolines), kitchen equipment, tools and more all still remain at the site - although I'm sure this is decreasing by the day as more and more things are taken/destroyed.
There is lots to explore at this site, but I will let the photographs do the rest of the talking. A few personal highlights were the trampolines, soft play area, spin bikes in the sports studio upstairs, and the highlight for me was gaining access to the roof which by all accounts doesn't look like many have done...!
A few final comments:
History
Magnet Leisure Centre opened in circa 1975 and was one of Berkshire's largest community leisure centres. Much like the "Everyone Active" sites, Magnet Leisure Centre was almost fully funded by it's local council, Windsor and Maidenhead Council. The leisure centre offered a wide variety of sports, sessions and activities, including:
- 135 Station Gym
- 25m Swimming Pool
- Leisure Pool
- 8 Sports Courts
- Cafés
- Conference Rooms
- Group Fitness Studios (x2)
- Soft Play Area
- Squash Courts
The Explore
Entry into the site varied, first time through the poorly-secured front entrance, and the two subsequent visits were via a second loading-bay- tyle back door. (There is also a cool lower ground floor warehouse part to this site, but not much to be seen or found there now). Once in, you'll soon discover that this place was clearly shut down and left in a fair hurry. Power still on (as of 30/01/22) and water was on until recently, lots of equipment, pool floats, pool chemicals, gym equipment, sports equipment (including three large trampolines), kitchen equipment, tools and more all still remain at the site - although I'm sure this is decreasing by the day as more and more things are taken/destroyed.
There is lots to explore at this site, but I will let the photographs do the rest of the talking. A few personal highlights were the trampolines, soft play area, spin bikes in the sports studio upstairs, and the highlight for me was gaining access to the roof which by all accounts doesn't look like many have done...!
A few final comments:
- Be careful: power still on + dodgy electrics and lots of flooding doesn't always end well
- The site is situated less than 300m from Thames Valley Police HQ. I doubt they are interested in the slightest, but don't freak out every time you see blue lights!
- All the copper is gone, so if you're going there simply for that, you're too late.