CAMPAIGNERS dressed in swimwear picketed the entrance of a Kentish Town gym on Saturday, calling on the new owners to “save our pool”. 

Users of the LA Fitness gym in Highgate Road fear the pool will be concreted over when the site is taken over by rival chain Pure Gym in the coming months. 

The budget firm has announced that it does not intend to run “wet facilities”, including swimming pools and saunas. 

But more than 350 people have signed an online petition calling for the pool to remain open and dozens turned up to protest this weekend, including Holborn and St Pancras Labour MP Keir Starmer and Green mayoral candidate Sian Berry. 

Protesters believe the plan, which would see membership prices dropped and extra equipment brought in, was a “simplistic, stripped-to-basics, ageist model” that will exclude “vast numbers from having access to a unique physical and mental health facility.”

A spokesman for the company said of their decision not to run pools: “We understand that this will be disappointing to some members but we believe that the greater good is served by offering facilities at lower cost, higher quality and with greater flexibility than before.”