Once upon a time there was a building called the Clissold Leisure Centre. It opened much later than scheduled, was massively over budget, was riddled with building and design faults, and closed down almost immediately for ‘repairs’. Older readers may recall the sorry story.

Well, all you swimmers, ball players and health freaks of this parish, your waiting is now over. The Centre is open again (15 December) – albeit four years after it shut – and it looks quite splendid. Well, so it should, you may say, given that it has now cost over £45 million, and Hackney Council’s argument that to build it at today’s prices would cost around £35 million smacks of sophistry. However, all that is now gone, so what do we have to stave off obesity, set the endorphins flowing and build the body beautiful?

It is now managed by Greenwich Leisure Limited, a not-for-profit organisation (like N16 Magazine, but deliberate in their case) also responsible for six other facilities in Hackney, including London Fields Lido and Britannia Leisure Centre. The £37.95 standard, prepaid monthly membership apparently entitles you to use these at no extra charge. Also, if you join between 10 and 15 December, I was told that the joining fee of £35 will be waived, but check this with GLL.

I experienced an unpleasant moment of déjà vu when we entered the cavernous sports hall. On my visit to the Centre when it first opened all those millennia ago, I asked a member of staff why there was a bucket in the corner. ‘Just a small leak’, he muttered, evasively. That set the alarm bells ringing. This time, there were two buckets in exactly the same place. Not again? However, it turned out they were full of paint to mark out the linings on the new floor (the old one was badly water damaged) for the volleyball, basketball, indoor cricket, football etc pitches. The bleacher, pull-out seating remains.

The swimming pool space is particularly impressive, although there are and will continue to be complaints about the size of the main pool (25 metres long instead of the 50 metres which many local swimmers wanted). But it’s eight lanes wide, two metres deep, and has slip-resistant tiling and disabled access, so it should be suitable for serious swimmers and competitions. Unfortunately, there’s no diving board, and this, combined with the beady-eyed lifeguards on permanent duty, is going to make dive-bombing difficult.

Next to the pool, the flume has gone and has been replaced by the toddlers’ pool for under-5s, with a dedicated changing room, plastic frogs and toadstools and bubbles in the water to delight the wee darlings. It seems a bit on the small side to match probable demand, but space overall is limited. Next door is the training pool, again 25 metres but shallower and with a moveable floor for kids and the disabled. There is also separate access for certain ethnic groups who may not wish to observe semi-naked Christians (I’m with them on that).