Pleased to be the first to review! Rabble's philosophy is that exercise should be fun, so their…read moregames are throwbacks to childhood and the playground (British Bulldogs, Dodgeball, all variations of Tag, Frisbee, Robin Hood, Zombie Hunt) and the equipment involves bouncy balls, Nerf guns, foam javelins, and (at one point) and inflatable banana. I once tracked a game with GPS and ran 5k within one session. They're reasonably priced - I've bought two £50 packages, each of which covers 10 games to be used anytime - and switch between North, South, and City; once a month is an epic North vs South playoff. Before you think this is like BMF but with "childish" games, come check out a session. Everyone enjoys themselves all the time. (Compare the smiling faces of Rabblers to the scowls of any other fitness group.) Charlotte & Rosemary, who run the sessions, are encouraging and playful themselves and never want anyone to have a bad time; there are no sore losers in Rabble! It's just the right amount of competitive for those who can't dedicate so much time and energy to playing an amateur sport, and while you'll be missed if you don't show up, the team won't lose because you're not there as teams are semi-randomly assigned at the start of each session. The question remains: do you run faster when you're chasing or being chased?? Either way, I've definitely improved my fitness over the past year with this gang and had a blast to boot. All sessions end with a trip to the pub for drinks (weeknights) or lunch (weekends). It's a great crowd!

Rabble makes me sad that I don't live in London right now…read more Rabble is absolutely great, the team are fantastic, and it's just so easy to meet people and enjoy exercise. There are a lot of throwbacks to your time on the playground, and it actually is super fun- when I first went it wasn't when I was converted to gym-bunniness either. It's outdoors, so it's as fresh as you can get for London, and gosh does it make you competitive! I don't know if it's because it's team games where you're against others, or because you refuse to be out of breath and lose at a game in your twenties that you won so much in first school, but it works! Make sure you take enough water, especially if it's hot.

This is a wonderfully old-school and sophisicated London members club - perfect for a game of lawn…read moretennis or just hanging out drinking tea and reading a book in one of the beautiful conservatories or on the terrace (I did the latter!) You can only get in here with a member - and most people are either married into or born into membership at Hurlingham because the wait is around 15 years - but luckily members can bring a bunch of people at a time. The grounds are gorgeous and with a perfect weather weekend you can spend hours wandering around and taking in the beautiful scenery. If you decide to opt for a membership, by the time your name is at the top of the list 15 or so years down the track, you may just be about nearing the right age to fit in with the clientele here. Yes, I'm talking OAPs. This club is a million miles away from the media crowd you find in most well known members club, this really is a place for the old-school English gentleman in his suit - which gives it a special vibe. Oh and don't forget your crisp whites on the tennis courts, no other gear allowed here!

This private club is a wonderful sanctuary in the middle of busy London…read more Its grounds are simply divine and the view onto the Thames is really gorgeous. You feel like you've stepped into some alternate universe where everyone is friendly and nice. There's a great playground for children, an outdoor swimming pool and jacuzzi i think, tennis courts, croquet lawns etc. There are the usual rules regarding wearing only white. The restaurant is also quite yummy though I wouldn't say it's mind-blowing. The BBQ in the summer is delicious though! Obviously the down-sides are that it's ridiculously expensive to become a member and the waiting list is close to almost a century.

This is a local sports club offering a wide range of services to it's members and local community…read more It has extensive grounds which enjoys holding various events for example, at the weekend it is full of children and adults alike training and playing football. It also holds archery shoots and has an on site bowls green. At other times of the year it has fun days, football tournaments and firework displays. The club house has recently been decorated and now looks clean, fresh and tidy. The club house has a fully licenced bar that is open 7 days a week. It also host regular events for example various dance classes 4 nights a week. The dance hall is avaliable for hire to the general public to hold thing like wedding receptions and birthdays in. Christmas and New year parties are also held every year.

ive been to many boxing gyms over the years and this is the best one by far!…read morestaff are so friendly and great with the ladies.My son also goes to the junior lessons and loves it!! there is such a positive vibe around the gym and everyone here is like on big family 5 stars!!

From the owner: Boxing class for all levels, beginners to pro boxers. We…read morehave Junior classes, Teens, Late Teens, Adults, Competitive as well as our popular Womens class. Great atmosphere, fun & energetic, not intimidating in the slightest, that we can promise! Come down for a FREE Taster session & check us out! Contact us today to arrange.

Guildford with 86 rope lines, both lead and top rope, and its extensive bouldering wall is one of…read morethe leading climbing walls in the world. Sutton is the newest and most exciting bouldering wall that we know of, with hundreds or routes with something for everyone, also housing a fantastic caving adventure experience ideally suited for children. So - young or not so young, male or female, big or small, fit or a couch potato - come and enjoy the total thrill of climbing at Craggy Island to get fit and of course, to climb to new heights!

Highly recommend this place. The staff are really really nice and chilled and there's a really fun…read moread friendly atmosphere. The cafe is nice too - they sell a variety of smoothies, paninis, fruit and granola type bars. They sometimes have some hot soup and jacket potatoes too. Great when you've been climbing for a few hours and are hungry. Great for climbers, families and children's birthday parties too. Definitely family friendly. Only down-side is that they aren't too good for parking - you might have to go back to the main road to find a space.

Really nice staff here, and a good lounge type area, but this gym still has a 'basement' feel that…read morebrings it down. It's also not really in Mayfair, tucked in behind Primark by Marble Arch. I'd go back for the large jacuzzi etc and the selection of amenities, but not one of the best!

They hung up on me shortly after they called me to question me why I cancelled after being a…read moremember for 3+ years and I began replying that my unhappiness goes back to the time when I was BULLIED by the PT "Lorik" at the Swiss Cottage branch. Yep one day the PT "Lorik" flipped when I was putting my foldable bike in a room as I had been doing for about two years as agreed with one manager when joining the club. "Lorik" had a power trip on me, he was very rude, with abusive manners kicked me out of that room treating me like an idiot and kept antagonising me in front of other members as he wanted literally to finish the job by kicking me out into the street. He didn't want to hear a single word from me but I stood my ground pretending to speak with a manager inevitably creating commotion that could have been avoided if he would have listened to me first and then involved a manager to handle the situation professionally rather than BULLYING a peaceful customer acting in good faith and as per instructions. Needless to say the manager after making up a poor excuse that wouldn't justify BULLYING anyway, told me to put back the folded bicycle in that room for that evening and the next time just bring the name of the manager I had the agreement with as they didn't put it in the system which certainly is not my fault as I actually requested it at the time just to be safe. I made a phone complaint to the support line who redacted my written complaint to water it down, then they said they'll have a word with that PT and his manager to make sure it won't happen again, they promised to get back to me to confirm this but they never did. This damaged the precious momentum and work/life balance I gained by cycling to the gym because me and my gym buddy had no other option than moving to friendlier branches for a while, which then led us to cancel both memberships because this chain it's not up to expectation and they do not listen to their clients. I listed the remaining horror story of the Swiss Cottage branch on the review page for that branch, regarding the Mayfair branch I can tell that all the staff in direct contact with the clients and PTs have always been polite and professional. The problem is that everything gets stuck at that level: - When I joined the branch manager promised to get some support handles for Calystenics/hand stands since there would be lots of space to use them: it never happened. - A machine that I really depend on was broken and a safety hazard for months, it took me a month chasing the polite staff to keep chasing their managers with the request to get it fixed and to ensure no one will use it in the meantime. Broken machine signage was ineffective, kept falling off so members kept using it unknowingly and the technician didn't have a clue how to fix it so when it finally did it, it was the wrong way. Took ages of chasing again to get him to come back and properly fix it, I emailed pictures, explanation etc basically doing their job. - After reaching higher levels of frustration not being able to train because of missing clips I had to request clips for the barbells as there were more barbells that clips and they never replenished. I guess people steal them even though that's not an excuse, I pay a generous membership swiftly so I expect to find the equipment I need. - Same story for pulleys machine handles, the machine was free and I couldn't use it because there were no spare handles, the polite staff couldn't find them in the whole club. Happened more than once. Differently than Swiss Cottage this gym was decently cleaned but there was a stench of urine in the toilet no matter how often they tried to fix it as if it was a structural problem with the urinals' plumbing. Airplane vacuum pressure toilets were really cool though!! No maintenance in the showers, tiles detaching from the wall, many soap dispensers always clogged. After members managed to force the lids open to get the soap from the top, the staff would lock it again and it must have never crossed their mind that if members force them open every day it's not because they are vandals, it's because at a certain point of the day the same dispensers always get clogged. Dumbbells and barbells left all over the weights floor, most clients can't be bothered to put them back, the staff doesn't keep up and there's no enforced etiquette either, I've seen members doing supersets on a bench and then leaving dumbbells and barbell behind. So it's a cemetery of barbells getting scavenged here and there when needed which is a trip hazard. They don't have a single straight bar where you can hang. They have dozens of handles or bars but either they're not straight and/or they're not high enough and/or they are way thicker than an Olympionic bar and/or there's not enough clearance to do pull ups and legs up. ...TO BE CONTINUED...

This gym/club wants to be sort of like Shoreditch House - at least that's what one of the managers…read moretold me when I recently took a tour of this little gym in Notting Hill. They've just come under different owners, and the new proprietors are aiming to capture a bigger share of the luxury consumer pie by trying harder to position themselves in that cachet of exclusivity and cool - limiting the total members to somewhere around 1700. I'd say they have a bit of work to do. Much like Shoreditch House (and maybe this is where they got the idea that they had a chance of being its pseudo-version in the first place) Body Works West has a beautiful pool... clear sparkling water of a gentle chlorine colour, surrounded by calming neutral tones and blues; the pool is so serene, just looking at it makes the thought of a relaxing swim a very compelling idea (I had to hold myself back from jumping in fully clothed - and I'm not even that big into swimming). Another nice thing about BWW is that they have a good number of power plates - those vibrating platforms that are supposed to boost your metabolism by 50% just by doing some light exercise and stretches atop them - it's a nice extra detail that hasn't hit mainstream gyms just yet, and especially nice if you've wanted to try one. The gym, however, is very small... which isn't necessarily a bad thing, but I guess I do tend to like more roominess and anonymity in my gyms. The classrooms looked especially tiny - definitely not the sort where you can hide in the back. And I absolutely hated their elliptical machine setup- a single row of machines perched high up on sort of a makeshift balcony overlooking the weight/stretching area - the people working out up there looked awkward, and I can imagine why... who wants to be so prominently on display while panting away? In case it catches your fancy, however, you should know that there are DVD players attached to the machines - so that you can sweat away to whatever comedy or action film will make your workout less painless. The manager who gave us our tour (sorry sister to the other manager, Thea, I forget your name...) was a bit strange... ice-cold and uncomfortable to be with - maybe it's because we didn't fit into her image of the new cool customers they are looking for... but still, it certainly tainted my image of the place - if I were rating the gym just based on my encounter with her, it would get 1 star. Seriously, I couldn't wait for our 'tour' to be over so that hard stare and furrowed brow would stop. Thankfully, the rest of the staff that we interacted with were very courteous and nice. While there are some true destination gyms out there with too-rad classes and fantastic fringe benefits, I think gym membership decisions unusually come down to the convenience factor - so if Body Works West is close to you - it certainly has the requisite weights, classes, machines, etc. most gym rats are looking for - so nothing should stop you from joining. But if you don't live nearby...no matter how prestigious this place wants to be, it certainly doesn't offer anything that would make a person want to put in any extra effort to be a member.

This is my gym and I don't know what I would do if I lived further away than I do. It's owned and…read morerun by a New Yorker who wants it to be a full-service gym with all the bells and whistles. The gym itself has about 10 treadmills, 8 ellipticals, 5 cycles, 2 rowing machines, 3 power plates and all the weights and equipment one could want. If you're there off-peak then you basically have the place to yourself! Every member has free monthly training sessions, but the trainers don't do much in the way of helping you out when you're on their own -- they are either too busy chatting with each other or giving privates. Being from New York, I expect attention from trainers even if I am not in a session, but I guess they just do things differently here. I recommend Fabio for men, Simon for everyone and the new girl (Kia?) for women. The classes are great and I think Daniel is one of the best reformer pilates around. The steam room, sauna, pool and hot tub get me motivated to actually get to the gym, and Beauty Works West, next door, offers a whole range of spa treatments. The lobby downstairs is always very nice with internet connection, daily newspapers, tea, coffee, a TV and magazines. My criticisms are mainly due to the workers, in particular Thea or something similar who works on accounts and signed me up. Never in my life has someone working in the service industry -- let alone a luxury health spa/gym -- been so incredibly rude and demeaning. I have thought about writing directly to the owner to voice my complaints, but maybe via avenues like this people will get the message. She has a serious attitude problem and every time there has been an error with our account (yes, more than once!) we have been blamed and scolded (!) I think she needs to get out of client services pronto, but anyhow, avoid her and your experience there can be care free and lovely!

Now that the temperature is dropping and the dark nights are drawing in, we hockey players start to…read morelimber up and sharpen our hockey sticks in preparation for the forthcoming hockey season. Masochists? Us? Probably! After many years playing for a club in north London despite living south of the river for over 10 years, I finally changed clubs 3 years ago when I noticed Merton Hockey Club playing at the Hub, Tooting & Mitcham footballs club's venue about 10 minutes walk away from my house. Having been founded in 1894, the club's current main base is at the Hub Merton Hockey Club runs 4 men's league teams, 2 ladies league teams and a social mixed team. The teams all train together on Wednesday evenings and play their home league matches on the astroturf pitches at the Hub or at Bishopsford School a few minutes up the road There is a really friendly atmosphere within the club and players of all abilities are welcome. There is an active social program, an annual dinner and an Easter tour. The club supports members on umpiring and coaching courses in return for their participation in umpiring matches and joining the coaching team at the club. There is free hockey training for children on Saturday mornings So if you're looking for a hockey club, I can highly recommend coming to take a look at Merton Hockey Club