By Kali Morgan, Summer 2024

Awbury Pool is located at 6101 Ardleigh St., 19138.
Phone: (215) 685-2895
Awbury Rec Center Facebook

Large cement pool deck with benches
Okay to bring chairs and personal belongings onto pool deck
No steps required for entry to pool deck
Partially shaded under oak trees; cooler water in shade (also some leaves)
Ladders for water entry/exit
Lax dress code/floatation-device policy

#MyPhillyPoolTour2024
JULY 8, 2024
My wife and I ended our tour for the day at Awbury Pool.
All of the pools we jumped into today had great energy. The patrons were enjoying themselves, and the staff seemed happy. But the energy was highest by far at Awbury.
Although this is just a couple blocks away from Lonnie Young Pool, the vibe is totally different. Lonnie Young is a more urban landscape, with cement and street-level facilities. Awbury is more like a countrified park vibe with lots of greenery, an off-street parking lot and plenty of trees.

Awbury is a large rectangular pool. Today there were maybe 75 people with chairs, toys, and Coast-Guard-certified flotation devices.
People brought their bags and set them on the pool’s benches or on chairs that they’d brought.
There were all ages during free swim. There was a family playing a game of Marco Polo and my partner and I mentioned to each other we had never actually played the game or understood the rules. The mother told us that it is essentially a game of hide and seek with one person, “Marco,” having eyes closed and using voice clues to seek out the people calling “Polo.” We had struck up a conversation with this mother previously because she was afraid of a dragonfly in the pool, and I sang the praises of the mosquitotarian diet of dragonflies, even though they are a little bit intense looking sometimes and I was frightened of them as a kid. The vibe was very nice.
Unfortunately, there were only ladders to get in and out.
For lap swimmers, there were no designated lanes in the pool, which was split in half vertically by a rope, potentially for when there are smaller numbers.
Maximum depth was 5 feet.
Partially shaded by oak trees that sent some leaves into the cooler shady end of the pool.
There were Porta Johns outside the pool entrance, including a handicapped/large sized one, which were quite wet from swimmers using them.

The rec center also had multi-stall women’s and men’s rooms that were heavily utilized by children in the summer camp.
It was a great place to end a day of pool jumping. I definitely hope to visit again this summer.