Substation Brixton

Negative experience: Too many kids on a Saturday afternoon, which was frustrating for obvious reasons. The air was filled with excessive chalk dust, indicating the very poor ventilation, which made my eyes uncomfortable the entire time. I also didn’t like the grading system - why not just stick with the V scale? I heard that route setters created their own system because people complained about routes being too easy or too hard for a given grade, and they got annoyed. It seems like they were overly influenced by others' opinions. While the routes themselves are fun, the gym's unique grading system is not friendly for visitors.

Fantastic experience: Really helpful and friendly staff. Great facilities, something for all levels.

Fantastic experience: Went of our kids 9th birthday with a bunch of kids. They all had a wonderful time. Very calm energy in the place but it was equally really exciting and energetic for the kids.

Fantastic experience: Substation has been a home away from home for the last year. Love it here!

Fantastic experience: Substation is a great place to boulder as a beginner. I’ve only been climbing once a week for the last few weeks - so I am really at the start of it all. There are quite a few great beginner climbs that are interesting and can help you learn some core techniques. The staff are really friendly and knowledgable and are really supportive of beginners. There are spaces and equipment to help you stretch or work on your finger, shoulder and core strength and the changing facilities are clean and well managed. There are different lockers to store your stuff and a water station to fill your bottle. You can also fill your water at the cafe/bar which serves delicious pizzas and IPAs for a post climb celebratory meal -

Fantastic experience: Great climbing. Great facilities. Great staff. Highly recommended.

Fantastic experience: Great climbing gym, really like the variety of options, as a near beginner myself I felt encouraged by the levels of the routes and will be back. Also find the space aesthetically pleasing and inviting with lots of natural light!

Fantastic experience: I always have a wonderful time climbing at substation. It's one of my favourite London climbing gyms.

Fantastic experience: A really nice place for children to climb! An amazing space for birthday parties. Pizzas were amazing, too:)

Fantastic experience: Great place, everyone is super helpful and friendly! Real sense of community and Shaz makes the best coffee!

Fantastic experience: Really great bouldering gym with very friendly & knowledgeable staff, lots of fun social events & fantastic pizza restaurant.

Fantastic experience: Best climbing wall for younger kids we’ve ever seen.

Fantastic experience: Great place. Route setting is great at all levels, and staff is friendly and helpful. Great kids clubs and programs. Cafe has great pizza and food a really great prices.

Fantastic experience: Substation Brixton is the bees knees. I was blown away by the friendliness of the staff and their disposition to make me feel welcome. I was inspired to pay it forward offering first bumps and generous smiles to my climbing comrades that evening. Good vibes rub off! The generous open plan means a lot of space. Despite being peak time 18:00 (+/-), it didn't feel claustrophobic and the air quality was decent. Well thought out range of betas with a great mix of challenges that cater to both strength and technique! Maybe it's the jet lag, but I got the sense that the bouldering walls were slightly taller... At least compared to what I'm used to in Northern Europe. Gym area was nice. Tidy and well equipped. Didn't have anything at the café due to time, but it looked inviting. Extra kudos to the lovely staff member that helped me parachute in and get my climb on in not time! Highlight of my day♡. She deserves a raise and a pleasant person of the year award. Will be back.

Fantastic experience: I love this place! Great selection of classes for strength and control to support bouldering workouts. There's a lot to be said about the gyms that do not have mirrors, where people come for the sport, focus on exercising to progress with bouldering levels and also join in for a social. There's also a small shop in there if you need to get yourself a pair of climbing shoes, pizza restaurant and coffee shop. I daresay the coffee is way better than you find in most high-end coffee shops! Studio is large and spacious with big windows so doing yoga and strength training classes is doubly enjoyable.

Fantastic experience: My sister in law recommended me Substation! Had a lot of fun while I was doing a good workout! Staff was very friendly and disponible for everything! I will come back for sure

Positive experience: Lovely staff and climbing wall! Could use more down climb holds to reduce chances of injury and knee damage for us short people

Fantastic experience: Great cafe, great climbs! Lovely yoga studio too

Fantastic experience: Brilliant rainy day fun in an excellent venue to develop children’s love of climbing. Super fun climbing routes for the little ones and a great welcome from knowledgeable, climbing enthusiast staff. We will be back for sure!

Fantastic experience: Our family visited Substation in Brixton for the first time today, and we had an incredible experience, thanks to Kirill. From the moment we walked in, he was friendly, professional, and made everything so easy for us. As first-timers, we weren’t sure what to expect, but Kirill took the time to walk us through everything we needed to know. He explained the setup, gave us a great tour of the walls, and ensured that we felt comfortable and confident. It was such a fun and welcoming atmosphere, and we’re already planning our next visit. We’re also excited to book the kids’ room for a birthday party—it’s the perfect spot for a fun and active celebration. Thank you, Kirill, for making our first experience so enjoyable! We can’t wait to come back.

Fantastic experience: Best bouldering gym in london

Fantastic experience: pretty nice, new, big climbing gym. df should come!

Fantastic experience: Large and nice coffee area! Good for a before or after climbing refreshment.

Fantastic experience: Amazing wall, set the problems often with great variety! A very social gym and the cafe is spot on. One of the best walls in London easily

Fantastic experience: Great climbing centre, loads of interesting varied routes. Always have great music too!

Fantastic experience: Really great bouldering, good variety of different levels of difficulty. Friendly staff and the place was really clean!

Negative experience: Most expensive gym in London, average setting, and insane temperatures and poor ventilation - just go to blocfit.

Fantastic experience: best climbing gym in london! great workout/gym area too (for a climbing gym)

Fantastic experience: Love this space, the vibes, the community, the climbs, the staff are really nice and helpful especially the more you come & they have a great cafe

Fantastic experience: Spacious, well maintained, fun routes and plenty of choice

Positive experience: Quality climbing gym, friendly staff and atmosphere with interesting climbs.

Fantastic experience: Nice and clean gym, also has a project wall with pretty hard boulders

Fantastic experience: Lovely, welcoming space which is super accessible, has a nice cafe onsite and is really convenient for a weekday climb.

Fantastic experience: Lovely cafe, nice traybakes and baby friendly with sofas

Fantastic experience: My 3 year old son got straight to it! Absolutely loved it. Will probably be going most weekends especially now winter is approaching!

Fantastic experience: Always enjoy coming to this gym. A great variety of climbs at all levels.

Fantastic experience: Amaizing place cool rut setting beautiful people

Fantastic experience: Great variety of walls for intermediates/beginners like me! Also great music!

Fantastic experience: Really friendly staff and great route setting, hard routes required technique and/or strength, not just a longer reach

Fantastic experience: My favorite climbing centre in London at the moment, it’s nice and open plan meaning in peak time it doesn’t feel claustrophobic like some other gyms do, great variety of boulders. Good facilities. Nice cafe too.

Fantastic experience: I love the community here and the staff are so friendly! The pub quiz is also an absolute hoot

Fantastic experience: Fantastic range of bouldering problems. Well equipped and good space for the gym area. My favourite is the large roof area, quite rare for a London gym. Pricing is a bit high but overall it's a great gym

Fantastic experience: My 3 year old had a great time at Wild and amazing confidence builder all around

Fantastic experience: Lots of people remote working :) nice vibe

Fantastic experience: Very good experience. Sarah is a very good Yoga Instructor

Fantastic experience: Love this place! My favourite in London.

Fantastic experience: Large, well maintained and clean climbing gym with friendly staff. There is also a bar where you can get pizza and beer

Fantastic experience: Went to “the wild” which is the kids’ climbing section and it was great - super well maintained and colourful!

Fantastic experience: Excellent walls, excellent bar, excellent coffee

Positive experience: cafe is brill shaz man is the no 1 lad deff drinks his milk on the daily. He is the backbone of our society

Negative experience: I love this gym, the climbs are fun and it’s a huge space but the day pass at £17 is so expensive… puts me off coming. They should introduce off peak and super off peak pricing to make it accessible and fair for everyone

Fantastic experience: Been there 5 or 6 times. I like the fact that their walls are slightly taller than average and the route setting is consistent. I've never experienced this place being overly crowded. £17 is good value for money. Better deal off peak for sure.

Fantastic experience: this gym is so cool. I came here for tunnel roofs at first then they surprise me. I can feel the route setter's dedication, skillfully integrating competition-level moves into the route, allowing even those at an beginner or intermediate level to experience and practice them.

Fantastic experience: Great experience, helpful staff, good environment for total beginners

Fantastic experience: Great routes, hasn’t been too overcrowded!

Fantastic experience: Great climbing routes and lovely clean facilities, lockers that u can create your own code!!

Fantastic experience: It's a brilliant facility and Perri is a great coach who helped make our climb awesome. Highly recommend climbing here - ask for Perri!

Fantastic experience: Great climbing wall, friendly staff, good cafe and right next to screw fix ! What more could you want !

Fantastic experience: The movement class is great - Shaya is an exceptional teacher!

Fantastic experience: Great place positive staff very helpful & a great place to climb. Modou was especially a very good member of staff.

Fantastic experience: Modou was an excellent, friendly and helpful member of staff. I work at a climbing gym and he made my day and I bought my mum along for her first climbing experience :) cool gym with cool climbs :)

Fantastic experience: Great climbing location, really friendly, enjoyed the extensive walls and the weights too.

Fantastic experience: Everything you could want in a climbing gym. The upgraded cafe is also excellent !

Positive experience: £17 is way too pricey for a single peak entry unfortunately!

Fantastic experience: Great place, super fun and cool. Very friendly staff members

Fantastic experience: Fantastic space catering from the beginner to the pro. Fully stocked gym and a good cafe to relax in. Everything I want from rock climbing gym.

Fantastic experience: Great setting across the grades, massive variety of wall angles, probably the best gym I’ve ever been to

Fantastic experience: Hefty tunes, hard blocs. What more do you need?

Fantastic experience: Amazing and very clean gym!

Fantastic experience: Fun varied route setting for climbing, amazing yoga teachers, just all round great space!

Fantastic experience: Great gym facilities, friendly staff and huge variety if boulders! Membership prices are reasonable! I highly recommend Substation.

Positive experience: Nice place for activities (rock climbing). Nice and welcoming staff. The cafe has less varied menu; mostly vegetarian options; not popular with kids. Overall satisfied with the place

Fantastic experience: Chill vibes, friendly staff, lots of walls. Weightlifting gym area is a nice bonus. Cafe does great pizza. Love this place.

Fantastic experience: Great centre, good atmosphere, good range of climbs

Fantastic experience: It's very nice place to climb and gym training

Fantastic experience: I've visited all the climbing gyms in South London, and this is easily the best. Friendly staff, exciting climbs, clean facilities and an overall great place. Nothing really to fault here, perhaps the variety of climbs could be improved but it's only as I frequent here so often. Roofus is a great addition not many gyms have, and the training area here is fantastic with two Moon Boards.

Fantastic experience: Started climbing a few months back in February, and have been climbing at substation 4 or 5 times a week. I have really enjoyed the routes, the general atmosphere and the staff’s attitude. Really friendly staff, and have made many friends over the course of a few months climbing here. The routes are reset frequently, but not too quickly that you aren’t able to finish a project climb. I have climbed in a few different gyms since starting, and have found substation to be the most creative and fun climbing, which is perfect for me. The prices are a little high, and it ends up being £15-£20 anytime I want to bring a friend to train with me. I appreciate the concession membership however, hopefully they keep the good work up and the prices down.

Fantastic experience: Great space, had coaching sessions which were an absolute game-changer for me. Beau was a great instructor to learn from.

Fantastic experience: Attending a coaching session with Kyrell in Substation was an absolute game-changer for me and my friend. Kyrell's expertise and genuine passion for what he does shone through from the moment we started. He taught us techniques that elevated our skills, but his unwavering support and encouraging 'you can do it' attitude truly empowered us to overcome our fears and push our boundaries. We are hoping to have more sessions with him.

Fantastic experience: We visiting London from Germany and combine our visit with a great experience in Substation Brixton. Friendly staff, great bouldering routes. My child was welcome and we have had a lot of funny time. Thank You so mutch to the staff.

Fantastic experience: Amazing staff, went above and beyond to help me. Very beginner friendly, with routes often changing to keep it fresh. Perfect learning environment & amazing functional gym upstairs.

Fantastic experience: I love substation. I’ve been coming here for the last few months and I always have a lovely time. There’s a wide variety of routes that are frequently changed. Plus lots of space so you’re not on top of each other. The front desk staff are always lovely and obliging. Climbing here has helped my mental health massively and made me a much happier person. I’m very grateful for its existence.

Fantastic experience: Really good facility. Lots of walls to climb, good gym upstairs, good changing rooms and facilities.

Fantastic experience: Just started climbing and it's a fantastic place to do so, real sense of progress with the increasing difficulty of climbs and the staff are all very friendly and have provided tips for improving my technique. All the classes (yoga, pilates, HIIT) are fantastic and the instructors are great. Classes are fairly small so feels like you are getting more focused attention. Great gym!

Fantastic experience: Love substation. Have taken my kids here a few times, the staff are super friendly and the facilities are great. Would highly recommend.

Fantastic experience: My little one had a lot of fun climbing, and the staff were very kind and friendly.

Fantastic experience: Everybody is super friendly and accommodating. My son went for a climbing session today the the gents at the front desk were super friendly, accommodating, and encouraging. Facilities are great. Definitely coming back to foster my son’s love of climbing.

Fantastic experience: Good diversity of routes for any level, friendly staff and pleasant atmosphere.

Fantastic experience: Very nice climbing wall, friendly people and a wide variety of routes for both beginners and experienced climbers. I enjoyed the variety of climbing styles involved, very diverse route settings

Fantastic experience: Great facilities and super friendly staff, I felt very welcome and comfortable immediately. Great range of climbing walls which didn’t feel over-crowded or too busy. I will be returning!

Fantastic experience: Really love the place, my favourite gym in London. staffs are friendly, sets are great, very comfy with nice music.

Positive experience: Great centre - prices have almost doubled over the last year however

Fantastic experience: Best climbing gym ever! Staff is very friendly and helpful, routes change often, there's a gym area if you want to train afterwards as well.

Fantastic experience: Great gym. Good variety of routes, friendly staff.

Fantastic experience: Awesome wall! The setting is always inventive and fun, and the staff is just fantastic! Thank you!

Positive experience: Great mix of angles, holds, and styles and an increasingly good variety of setting. Training area is good too. And the cherry on top is an amazing kids' room, where little people can have an absolute blast and fall in love with climbing.

Fantastic experience: Large place to boulder with a lot of space. Good facility and route settings. Edit: the cafe is now open and adding to even more charm

Positive experience: An excellent bouldering gym but can’t quite give full stars as of yet. The cafe is indefinitely closed!

Negative experience: Classes are very difficult to book on line as the website is badly designed. You spend more time booking then the actual yoga class

Fantastic experience: The best climbing centre I've been to in London. Day pass a little expensive but definitely worth, especially if you get a membership (which is in line with other centres).