Discussion

Main Board| Accommodation Wanted| Accommodation Offered
Start a new discussion on this board

Let your next career move come to you.

How many gyms in the City
  • do you think will survive?

I predict a bloodbath. Just visited Virgin Active where the sales guy told me "we have been losing members left, right and centre" and then actually looked like he was going to cry when I told him I wasn't joining.

Despite keeping half their City clubs shuttered, there were only a handful of people there at the lunchtime peak. Same goes for Third Space when I've been there.  VA might survive (with a smaller number of central clubs) as it will presumably have healthy memberships at the suburban branches to cushion it. But with mostly central clubs, I can see Third Space going to the wall unless its PE owners are willing to stump up to keep it afloat. And the gyms operating on even thinner margins?  Eeep.

Biggie - I agree that most gyms are going to have to move to something like the Puregym flexible model to survive in the short to medium term (and then they will struggle to revert to the broken old model). Have just joined a local gym which has no-contract membership and the option to upgrade/add at any time.

I pestered Third Space to offer some sort of flexible membership. Their response was to suggest £110/month for a maximum of 4 visits per month. Pre-Covid I was going 6 or 7 times a week for about £150/month. They were politely invited to do one.

I've cancelled Virgin. They've shuttered more than half their clubs in the City. Bank, Barbican, Broadgate, Mansion House, and Tower Bridge are closed, with the Cannon Street one closed weekends. Leaving only Aldgate and Moorgate openn.

Of the only 2 clubs are open in the City, both are more than 30 minutes walk from me which is irritating. I joined because there were 3 less than 10 minutes away, each with pros and cons, and all open at least Monday to Saturday, some 7 days a week.

They deserve to die a slow death. Long live Puregym

 

Also same prices (too high) even though most of the premium services are closed or reduced. Less/no towel service, no wet facilities, limited hours, no water or coffee machines, etc.

"Ludicrous prices"

I enquired at thon Harbour Club this week. Membership for family of four? That'll be £800 a month*, plus £1500 joining fee (per adult) which is only refundable once they find a member to replace you after you leave.

*Tennis/swimming lessons for the kids not included.

And yet I think they'll be one of the few to sail through relatively unscathed.

City gyms are ridiculous.  We used to use thon nuffield health in that there Shoreditch. 

It was tiny, no ventilation, low ceilings, dark, hardly any equipment... i imagine the work out area in San Quentin is probably more welcoming

I used the treadmills a few times and despite typically running 5k in abar 21-22 mins, i was struggling to do sub 30 due to the shit calibration and lack of air in the place

130 pound a month

My local gym in the ‘burbs is 100 times better and costs 20 pound a month.

"Serves them right, they have been ripping city workers off or years with their small dingy basement 'premium' gyms"

Re this, I also visited Equinox on Bishopsgate this week. It's all above ground and all that brightness feels weird.  You pay for all that natural light - £200 per month and that doesn't get you access to the Kensington branch (£80 a month for locker hire/laundry service). Bishopsgate branch opened at the end of last year I think and they seem to have about seven members.

I was a member of what I'm told is one of Nuffield's flagship gyms. When they reopened at the end of lockdown they announced they'd no longer provide towels and strongly discouraged you from using the changing rooms or showering.

I'd probably have stuck with them just to be able to shower there with free towels after cycling to the office, but really couldn't see the point when they don't even provide that. 

If I get desperate for a gym I can just sign up to a cheap local one. 

All my stuff got stolen from a nuffield gym once too. Apparently they couldn’t find the perp, despite CCTV everywhere, needing a membership card to sign in... 

Lol @ Goodman who thinks he is clever even though I go to lift weights, not cardio.

Not everyone has the luxury of time to spend an hour+ walking there and back on top of their workout. Give your head a shake.

 

VA Moorgate was probably the best gym I was ever a regular user of. The Nuffield near Moorgate wasn't bad. 

Been a member of Esporta (taken over by VA), VA, Nuffield and Puregym over the years.  Puregym you get what you pay for - old, dirty equipment and facilities, full of teenage boys on steroids picking their zits in the mirrors, and very busy at peak hours - but you cannot argue with the price. 

We got half price membership of VA and then Nuffield with our Vitality Health membership.  

130 for the nuffield in shoreditch you are being 'ad. Usually they charge about 60 quid. 

The Gym is also a decent model, cheap, straightforward, no long term contract, not too many frills though. Might be good news for yoga studios if all these one stop shop places like Nuffield or Virgin close down. 

Join the discussion

Login Register