The floor
Nothing clever, all of it good
Eleven hundred square metres of a former kiln works on Feeder Road. Concrete, high ceilings, proper platforms, and equipment chosen because it lasts rather than because it photographs well.
The room
Six lifting platforms with calibrated bars, eight squat racks, a full set of bumper plates and enough dumbbells that you never wait. Two dedicated coaching bays for Foundations and Rebuild groups, screened off from the main floor.
Conditioning kit is deliberately simple: rowers, air bikes, ski ergs, sleds and a lot of floor to push them across. There are no screens playing anything and no music you have to shout over.
Kit that suits everyone
Barbells from 5kg upwards, including a full set of technique bars, so nobody's first session involves a 20kg bar they cannot control. Kettlebells from 4kg to 48kg. Adjustable boxes and benches for people who are not average height.
Everything is loaded from the floor rather than a shoulder-height rack, which sounds trivial and is not if your shoulder is the problem.
Wear whatever you own
There is no dress code and no equipment you need to buy. Flat-soled trainers help and we keep loan pairs in the common sizes. Belts, straps, sleeves and chalk are shared kit and free to use.
If you eventually want your own lifting shoes, a coach will tell you when that is genuinely worth the money — which for most people is somewhere in the second year, if at all.
Practical details
- Step-free access from the car park to the gym floor and changing rooms
- Accessible toilet and a private single-occupancy changing room
- Free parking for eighteen cars, plus covered cycle racks
- Showers with a bench and a grab rail in each cubicle
- Lockers included — bring your own padlock or borrow one
- Open from 06:00 to 21:00 weekdays, 08:00 to 14:00 Saturday, 09:00 to 13:00 Sunday
The atmosphere, honestly
It is a serious room. People are working and it is not always quiet. What it is not is competitive, performative or unfriendly — there are no mirrors down the main wall, nobody films themselves, and the strongest members are usually the ones helping someone strip a bar.
If you have had a bad experience in a gym before, and a lot of the people who come here have, it is worth saying so at the intro. We will show you round when it is quiet.
Come and look at it.
You are welcome to walk round the gym without booking anything. Weekday mornings are the quietest time to do that.