Melbourne City Baths

Love the pool building itself and most of the staff are very friendly but the water temp is like a hot tub. Just means if you want to swim laps you risk passing out.

I visited in Dec 2023, and if you're wanting to know the contents of the gym, it is the following:
- Strength Room, with 3 power rack/deadlift combo areas, one bench press, one incline bench, one reverse hyper, dumbbell sets
- Gym Machines Room, with cable machine, row machine, pec deck, lat pulldown, also dumbbell sets. (All the machines are pretty new TechnoGym gear).
- Cardio Area, heaps of rowers, bikes, and treadmills. Also appears to be cross trainers, and rope treadmills.

Only critique is the single bench press, which I'd imagine would become a bottleneck during peak periods.

Joined swimming lessons. So far good. Will give an update after while. I am enjoying the classes. The prices are affordable.

Read all the reviews but still expected it would be different. But I had to wait for like 20mins just to talk to the staffs about details of classes and membership. After 20 mins finally got chance to talk, but not fully attending on me so I ended up getting not much information and wasted my time.they seem busy and need more staffs. That long waiting time made me that I don't want to join here

Beautiful heritage building with great modern gym and pool facilities. Staff are always super friendly and helpful!

I decided to CANCEL my membership. Here is why:

-for about one month, there were two shower stalls infested with fleas
-in the members' area, most of the showers shoot out cold water
-it seems that the temperature of the spa water is similar to the temperature of the pool water
-the spa is a "free for all" - anyone can use it - so why do I have to pay more for its use?
-a lifeguard asked whether my "underwear" was made of "cotton" (I felt so embarrassed) - I wasn't wearing "underwear" and there was no "cotton" - never been asked about this before - some training in courteous staff-patron relations would help!
-some patrons use mobiles in the changerooms - on one occasion, I saw a patron on his mobile in the spa and a lifeguard walked right past
-it seems that swimming lessons are going on 24/7 there so there's often a lane closed, therefore squashing everyone into three lanes
-I was once inappropriately touched by a patron while swimming (I reported this)
-the lockers need a good clean, not that they all work anyway

Definitely need to have a good wash at home and give your clothes a good clean after visiting this place!

The building itself is very lovely especially the outside architecture, the pool is quite small it’s only a 25m lap pool.

Why are so many people using the pool, spa or sauna without taking a shower?
There's also quite a few people going to the spa area in their underwear

Great place to go swimming laps in the Melbourne CBD. The pool is spotlessly clean, well maintained, and the other swimmers are generally friendly and respectful.

Before noon, it’s usually not too crowded and there’s 2-3 people per lane (circle swimming on the left side of the lane). They have a leisure, slow, medium, and fast lane, though at certain times, the medium and fast lanes are combined to make room for a swimming class.

The locker room/showers are also clean, with free lockers to use for visitors (no need to bring your own lock as it’s locked electronically).

Overall great place to swim. Docking one star because for some reason, they keep the pool temperature very high—unbearably hot at times—which makes swimming laps a challenge.

You will get that very eerie feeling staff are always spying on ya via their CCTV cameras especially if you near VIP material i.e. Hot bod, sexy, glam-looking. And yes they do spy b'cos on your way out reception will go out of their way by avoiding eye contact so as pretending they haven't noticed or spied on ya LOL.
And you'll see em eye contacting the average Joe's or Joanne's cos they haven't spied on em, so no guilty conscience lol
So yes lots of CCTV camera spying beware hot people

I will be cancelling my membership of over ten years. This place is a shadow of its former self. You will not get what you pay for, whether you are a member or a guest.

First: the pool itself. The management know they are dealing with limited space in this venue, but they want to reduce that space as much as possible. The pool is now apparently an aquatic education facility before anything else. You will get no notice of classes being held. Two lanes will be taken up, and when you arrive to swim, you'll have to swim in narrowed lanes, crashing into fellow swimmers. It seems that management enjoys having people rub up against each other in swimsuits. You pay your money to swim, and then you are made to feel like you shouldn't have bothered in the first place.

Second: the staff, and the lack of communication. Just tonight, we were all thrown out at 8pm, when there was a published closing time of 9pm. We suddenly had just 10 minutes to get out of the pool, get showered, get dressed, and get out. No notice was given to people arriving at the pool. There might be an obscure Facebook or Twitter message somewhere, but that would be it. That is utterly unacceptable for paying customers.

The staff themselves are either unhelpful or just aggressively officious. You most probably won't find any helpful, smiling or caring people to assist you if you need them.

Third: the showers and change rooms. In treating their customers with typical contempt, the showers were barely functioning for over a year (and a whole wall of lockers remains out of order, cramming people together with the limited available lockers). As said, the management know they are dealing with limited space. Now there has been an "upgrade", where the management, in their immense wisdom, have reduced the number of available public showers from eight to six. They have now "upgraded" the showers by installing cheap, claustrophobic cubicles, which serve no apparent purpose, and are an accident waiting to happen. Good luck trying to get a shower in peak times after you've just struggled your way through a stressful swim with three strangers crashing into you in your narrowed lane, all because the management wants an aquatic education class across two lanes.

This facility is being mismanaged, and the management should be replaced as soon as possible. I have spent a lot of my money supporting this place in the past, but it is not worth it any more.

Swimming here almost 30 years. Still a lovely old building and good facilities (except the shower taps broken for weeks). However, SOME of the staff are blatantly rude and I can't remember this ever being the case previously. It's almost as if they don't really care if people return or not. Other staff are friendly and polite so it's a shame.

It was the largest swimming pool in CBD. The building is so lovely. They provide gym equipment and swimming pool. Good to have a look and see the history.

After over a dozen years as a member I cancelled my membership (cost keeps increasing despite reduced operating hours, broken lockers and barely functioning showers). Was told I'd still be charged for an extra fortnight for some reason (no explanation given) and absolutely no care or interest in losing a membership, let alone a longstanding one.
Very sad that the management team post covid lockdowns has lost their humanity. Go elsewhere - plenty of lovely pools in Melbourne.

Lovely pool with a good sauna. Felt like you stepped back in time a bit. The pool water was warmer than average.

Poor management and rude staff. Not suitable for kids. The staff would ensure that you have the worst experience.

Beautiful period building. The pool area is reminiscent of some of the Victorian pools I used to swim in the UK. A 25yrd pool to boot. Free lockers and even a swim wear dryer. The water's a bit warm for me, but very popular with the locals.

Great place to swim, work out and get fit, with multiple pools, gyms, spa, sauna and pools. Staff friendly and helpful.

Good facilities.
Spa and sauna and gym.
Get a fitness passport or city of Melbourne membership and makes using the pool and gym easy and very affordable

Unfriendly nasty female staff both at the front desk and in the pool area who seem to go out of their way to make life difficult. Even my 11 year old was upset.