How to Find a Swim Lane in London Using Claude or ChatGPT

You can search lane-swim availability across Better, Everyone Active, Gladstone (Southwark and Tower Hamlets) and other London leisure-centre operators in a single chat prompt using Claude or ChatGPT. Connect LayUp's Model Context Protocol (MCP) server, ask for a swim slot at a time and location you want, and the assistant returns a unified list — instead of you opening five different operator apps to compare.

For swimmers who are geographically flexible — willing to swim at whichever centre fits your day — this is the search layer the leisure-centre ecosystem doesn't ship.

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Why "find me a swim" is harder than it should be

There are roughly 15,000 swimming sessions a week across London spread across at least four major leisure-centre operators, plus a few smaller independents:

• Better (GLL) — by far the largest, running pools at Camden, Mile End, Britannia, Clissold, Highbury, Ironmonger Row, Tiller, and dozens more. ~215,000 future bookable sessions in our dataset.
• Everyone Active (SLM) — operates pools across multiple boroughs including Westminster, Hammersmith and Fulham. ~33,000 future sessions.
• Gladstone (Southwark + Tower Hamlets) — covers Camberwell, Peckham, Dulwich (Southwark) and Mile End, Whitechapel, Poplar (Tower Hamlets). ~3,500 future sessions.
• Borough-direct centres — a handful of independents that don't fall under the big three.

Each operator runs its own booking app and its own pricing structure. A swimmer who lives in Hackney but works in Soho and goes home through Vauxhall has three different operators in their daily geography — and three different apps to check.

The MCP connector consolidates the search. Ask Claude "find me a lane-swim near London Bridge tomorrow morning, under £6" and it returns slots from every operator covering that geography, ranked by start time. You see the cheapest options first and click straight to the right operator's booking page.

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Set it up in 60 seconds

Claude (claude.ai)

1. Open Settings → Connectors.
2. Click Add custom connector.
3. Paste this URL: https://mcp.layupsport.com
4. Save.

Available on Claude Pro, Team, and Enterprise. No LayUp account required.

ChatGPT

Enable Developer mode, add a custom MCP server with the same URL, start a chat.

Cursor, Cline, Continue, or any MCP-capable client

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "layup": {
      "url": "https://mcp.layupsport.com"
    }
  }
}

Full reference at app.layupsport.com/connect.

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Prompts that work for swimming

"Find me a lane swim before work"

"Find me a lane-swim near London Bridge tomorrow morning before 8am, under £6."

Maps to search_slots({sport: "Swimming", area: "London Bridge", date_from: "tomorrow", time_to: "08:00", max_price: 6}). Returns morning lane-swim slots at the nearest Better / Everyone Active / Gladstone pools, with the standard off-peak adult price. Direct booking link goes to the right operator's session page.

"What's open after work today?"

"Find a swim slot in central London after 6pm tonight."

The assistant searches with time_from: "18:00" and date_to: end-of-today. Lane swims that aren't already past their start time come back; sold-out sessions are excluded.

"Compare operators in my area"

"Compare swimming availability and prices at Better Mile End vs Tiller Leisure Centre this week."

Two get_venue calls or two area-scoped searches. The assistant surfaces the price difference (often meaningful — borough-subsidised centres are cheaper than central ones) and the session count.

"Off-peak cheap swim sweep"

"Find me the cheapest London swim slots this week, off-peak any operator."

max_price: 4 filter sweeps for the off-peak floor (often £3-£4 at council-subsidised pools). Pair with a time_to ceiling like 11:00 to enforce "morning off-peak" specifically.

"Drill into a venue"

"What's on at Better Camden pool this Saturday?"

get_venue with the Camden pool venue_slug. Returns lane swims, family swims, ladies-only sessions, parent-and-child sessions — all the session types at that venue with their prices and spaces remaining.

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What "spot" booking means for swimming

Almost all leisure-centre swim sessions are booking_type: "spot" — you book a place in a session (a lane spot, a leisure-pool seat), not the whole pool. The assistant surfaces a spaces remaining count for each slot:

• A 6:30am Mile End lane swim might show "12 spaces left" — plenty of room.
• A peak 7pm Camden lane swim might show "1 space left" — book now or lose it.
• Sold-out sessions show "0 spaces" and are excluded from default search results.

This makes swimming uniquely well-suited to AI search: the assistant can tell you "this session has 8 spots, that one has 2" and you make the call based on how much risk you want to take on the booking sticking around.

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What the assistant can and can't do for swimming

CAN:

• Search across Better, Everyone Active, Gladstone (Southwark + Tower Hamlets), and other London leisure-centre operators in one query.
• Return spaces remaining for each session — critical for "should I book now or risk waiting".
• Filter by price (£3-£8 typical range), time window, and area.
• Distinguish session types via activity_name and subtag fields (lane swim, family swim, ladies-only, aqua aerobics, parent-and-child).
• Drill into a single venue's full schedule.

CAN'T (today):

• Book on your behalf. You complete the booking on Better's app, Everyone Active's app, or the borough portal directly. For peak sessions where spaces drop from 5 to 0 in minutes, the AI finds them — you have to be fast.
• Filter by pool length (25m vs 50m vs short course). Most pools default to 25m but the slot record doesn't structurally separate them. You can infer from venue ("London Aquatics Centre" = 50m) but no clean field.
• Tell you the water temperature, lane policy, or fast-lane / slow-lane segregation. That info is on the venue page, not the slot record.
• Filter for "lane swim only", excluding leisure-pool sessions, as a structured filter. You can ask the assistant to look at activity_name and exclude family/aqua-aerobics by name pattern — usually works, but treat it as best-effort.
• Book ahead of release. All sessions release on the operator's own schedule (Better typically opens 7 days ahead, Everyone Active similar). The MCP can only return sessions that the operator has already released.

For swimmers who care intensely about pool conditions — Olympic-length, specific lane policies, water polo crossover — the Swim England pool finder is the right reference. The MCP is for the broader "find me a session that fits my day" use case, where you're flexible on which operator you swim with.

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Tips for swim-specific prompts

• Off-peak is genuinely cheap. Council-subsidised Better pools often charge £3-£4 for early-morning or mid-day lane swims, rising to £6-£8 at peak times. A max_price: 4 filter is the off-peak signal.
• "Family swim" and "parent and child swim" are different. If you're booking with a small kid, name the format in your prompt — the assistant will lean on activity_name matching. Adult lane swim sessions usually exclude children.
• For "first thing in the morning" sweeps, set time_from: "06:00" and time_to: "08:00" — most centres open between 6:00 and 6:30am and the first hour has the most lane availability.
• Eligibility-restricted sessions (ladies-only, men-only, over-50s, junior swim training) return with eligibility_restricted: true. The assistant should call this out; if it doesn't, ask explicitly.
• Cancellations within hours. A session that's fully booked at 6pm can have 2-3 spaces by 8pm as people cancel. If your first sweep returns "no availability," repeat the same prompt an hour later — the data refreshes regularly.

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How this compares to the Better / Everyone Active apps

For booking at the centre where you have a membership, the operator's own app is faster — you have your member ID, your member rate, your booking history.

For deciding which centre to swim at today — when you're open to any operator and just want the best match for your time, location, and budget — the MCP wins outright. You don't have to install three apps to comparison-shop.

The two tools combine naturally: discover via Claude / ChatGPT, book on the operator's app.

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Privacy and how the data flows

Anonymous server, no LayUp account required, no credentials accepted, no writes. The assistant queries only the public availability data shown on app.layupsport.com.

OpenActive-sourced data from Better, Everyone Active, and Gladstone (Southwark + Tower Hamlets) is licensed CC-BY-4.0.

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Frequently asked questions

Does this include the London Aquatics Centre or Crystal Palace pool?

If they're surfacing through one of the supported operators (Better runs both as of 2026), yes. Search for "London Aquatics Centre" or "Crystal Palace" in the area filter and the assistant will return their sessions.

Can Claude book the swim session for me?

Not today. The assistant returns the session details and a direct link to the operator's booking page (Better, Everyone Active, Gladstone, etc.). You sign in there and pay. Booking-through-the-assistant is a Phase 2 surface — gated on operator partnerships we're working through.

How does Better's membership pricing work in the search?

The MCP returns the standard (non-member) price. If you have a Better membership with a per-visit price reduction, your actual cost on booking will be lower. The assistant can't apply per-user member rates.

What's the price range for London lane swims?

Typically £3-£4 for off-peak at borough-subsidised pools, £4-£6 at peak times at the same centres, and £6-£8 at central / premium venues. The MCP returns the public-rate price; member rates aren't surfaced. Aqua aerobics and structured classes price higher.

Can I search for women's-only or men's-only sessions specifically?

Sort of. Those sessions are flagged with eligibility_restricted: true and the activity_name typically includes "Ladies" or "Men's". Ask the assistant to filter for them by name and it'll do the right thing. Always confirm by clicking the booking link — eligibility policies vary by centre.

How fresh is the availability and the spaces-remaining count?

LayUp refreshes data from operators regularly — typically every 1–4 hours. The spaces-remaining count is current within that refresh window. For peak sessions filling fast (Saturday morning lane swim, popular aqua classes), double-check on the operator's app before committing — a session that showed 3 spaces an hour ago may have hit 0.

What about open-water swimming (Hampstead Ponds, Serpentine)?

Not in the LayUp dataset today. Hampstead Heath's bathing ponds and the Serpentine Lido each run on their own systems. The MCP covers indoor lane-swim and pool sessions; open-water is a planned addition.