Edinburgh Leisure is on the hunt for the next generation of divers. For those who have been inspired by divers such as Jack Laugher, Andrea Spendolini-Sirieix (daughter of Fred!) and Tom Daley, Edinburgh Leisure is offering the opportunity for children to come and try diving with our experienced coaches at the Royal Commonwealth Pool to see if they have a talent for the sport.
Children should be between 5 and 16 years old, able to swim 10 metres unaided, confident in deep water and submerge in water without goggles. No experience in necessary as they will be learning basic skills but those interested in gymnastics, trampolining, acrobatics or similar sports might enjoy this opportunity to try a new sport.
Priced at just £3, the diving taster sessions at the Royal Commonwealth Pool are offered on:
Monday 4 – Friday 8 August at 17.10 – 17.40
To secure a place, interested people should visit the Edinburgh Leisure website –
https://shorturl.at/uLDKw
Edinburgh Leisure offers a world-class diving programme at the Royal Commonwealth Pool, complete with a dedicated dry dive area featuring trampolines and harnesses, which enables more experienced divers to practice twists and turns before attempting them on the boards. Their diving programme follows the National Diving Award Scheme right through to competitive level.
Athletes training at the Royal Commonwealth Pool include local Edinburgh boy, James Heatly (GB); Yona Knight-Wisdom (Jamaica) and Grace Reid, who grew up in the capital, are amongst other Olympians who have previously trained at the Commie.
For more information: https://www.edinburghleisure.co.uk/coaching-activities/diving/
Visual artist Rhona Taylor will present an exhibition, Immersive: Exploring the Commie Pool, at the Royal Commonwealth Pool’s café from 6-22 June 2025, as part of the Architecture Fringe festival. The exhibition showcases original prints that delve into the architectural and social significance of one of Edinburgh’s most iconic public spaces.
Immersive features a collection of original prints by Taylor that explore the Royal Commonwealth Pool’s role as both an architectural landmark and a vital community hub. The exhibition forms part of the artist’s broader research project examining swimming pools as social, public and cultural spaces, with particular focus on their architecture, history, and contemporary uses.
“The prints in Immersive have developed from research into the building, its development, and its changing use since it was built for the 1970 Commonwealth Games,” said Taylor. “I love swimming in the Commie, so it’s been great fun digging into the archives to find out more about some of the things that went on behind the scenes when it was built”
The exhibition is presented in partnership with Edinburgh Leisure, which operates the Royal Commonwealth Pool. This collaboration highlights the organisation’s commitment to supporting arts and culture within the community spaces they manage.
“We’re delighted to partner with Rhona Taylor for this fascinating exploration of our building and its place in Edinburgh’s cultural landscape,” said Ed Bethune, Operations Manager at the Royal Commonwealth Pool. “The Royal Commonwealth Pool has been serving our community for over 50 years, and it’s wonderful to see an artist capture both its architectural significance and its ongoing role as a space where people come together for health, recreation, and community connection.”
The Architecture Fringe, running from 6-22 June, celebrates the intersection of architecture, design, and public space across Edinburgh. Taylor’s exhibition fits perfectly within this framework, examining how built environments shape community interaction and social experience.
Rhona Taylor is a visual artist based in Edinburgh whose studio practice encompasses painting, drawing, sculpture, printmaking and installations. She is a member at Edinburgh Printmakers, where she creates her screenprints. Her current research focuses on swimming pools as social, public and cultural spaces in Scotland and internationally.
The exhibition is supported by Edinburgh Leisure, Creative Scotland, and the City of Edinburgh Council through the Visual Artist and Craft Makers Awards (VACMA) Edinburgh.
Immersive: Exploring the Commie Pool will be on display at the Royal Commonwealth Pool café throughout the Architecture Fringe period, with the venue located at 21 Dalkeith Road, Edinburgh EH16 5BB.
ENDS
Notes:
The Royal Commonwealth Pool was commissioned by the City of Edinburgh Council under a plan by the then Lord Provost, Sir Herbert Archbold Brechin in 1966 as part of a wider project to bring the Commonwealth Games to Edinburgh, who hosted it in 1970. It is the only venue to host three Commonwealth Games in 1970, 1986 and 2014.
Construction began in 1967 and was completed in 1970. The architecture was by Robert Matthew Johnson Marshall with structural input from Ove Arup & Partners.
The pool was closed from August 2009 to March 2012 for a £37m redevelopment, revitalising this light and airy 1970s building, giving it a new lease of life in time for the 2014 Commonwealth Games, where it hosted the diving competitions.
The project, led by Frank and Charlie of S&P Architects (now Space & Place Architects) included new 25 metres (82 ft) diving and teaching pools as well as improvements to the changing rooms, café, reception, and the dive gym.
In October 2015, the addition of a 1m platform to the world class diving facilities made it possible to specifically launch coaching for children with a wider range of needs. Part funded by Sport Scotland, the new 1m platform joined Olympic standard facilities including 5m, 7.5 m and 10 m platforms, and three 1m springboards.
Today, The Royal Commonwealth Pool is used for swim and dive coaching to both children and adults; offers recreational swim facilities including Aquadash and water-based fitness classes including Aquafit and Hydro-spin; hosts major swim competitions and events; and has a popular café, Clambers soft play and a gym, which is popular with members of the public and visitors to the city.
Primary school-aged children in Edinburgh’s Royal Commonwealth Pool experienced a vital water safety lesson when visited by Cabinet Secretary Neil Gray MSP.
Together with preschool lessons, the water safety session was a firm reminder of the importance of children learning to swim and having basic water safety skills to keep them safer in and around water.
Cabinet Secretary Neil Gray MSP commented, “I was pleased to hear about the children’s positive experiences on their journey to become safe and competent swimmers thanks to water safety lessons at the Royal Commonwealth Pool. “We will continue to work closely with sportscotland, Scottish Swimming and other partners to help ensure that every child is given the opportunity to learn to swim.”
John Lunn CEO of Scottish Swimming commented,“Learning to swim is a critical life skill and the core skills of floating and treading water that we have seen today are crucial to give children the water safety skills they need to be safer in, on and around water. Our unique geography in Scotland with thousands of lochs and miles of coastline means danger is never far away so it is critical that children learn vital water safety and swimming skills through school swimming and learn to swim programmes.”
The Scottish Swimming National Learn to Swim Framework, supported by Scottish Water and delivered by 37 providers across Scotland, including Edinburgh Leisure, teaches over 80,000 children every week to be confident, safer and competent swimmers.
Angela McCowan, Sports Development Manager at Edinburgh Leisure commented: “We take pride in being the largest provider of swimming lessons in Edinburgh, with a strong emphasis on water safety in all our teachings. Ensuring that this vital life skill is accessible to everyone is paramount to Edinburgh Leisure and is demonstrated by the 7694 children who learn to swim with us weekly. For School Swimming, Edinburgh Council deliver sessions across the city reaching around 5000 children.”
As well as Learn to Swim, the Scottish Swimming National Primary School Swimming Framework, piloted in 10 Local Authorities, offers flexible school swimming delivery models while maintaining a consistent approach to ensuring all children learn the basics of water safety and swimming skills to be safer in, on and around water.
As an island nation with 11800 km of coastline and 30000 inland waters, water safety is a life-saving skill which all children need access to. School swimming is the only way to ensure fair and equal access to basic swimming and water safety skills for all children.