Nuffield Health The Oxfordshire Health & Racquets Club

Negative experience: 1. I have reported multiple times that Wi Fi in first floor is completely unusable. This together with no reception means that you are unreachable. The staff in reception, nodded, agreed but nothing is being done. 2. The men's showers either constantly brake or there is no warm water. I think this venue needs some money spenting in infrastructure, every year it seems to be getting worse.

Negative experience: Dark, windows-less spaces. I will never come back.

Negative experience: The staff are great, really good classes and personal trainers, but the management are absolutely awful. I have just received my second notice in less than a year that my membership is going up. Their policy is, if you cancel at the start of the month, you only need to pay until the end of that month. Of course it is no coincidence that they send out the email about pay increase on the second so even if you cancel straight away, you have almost 2 months to pay for to leave. I will be paying over 15% more next month than I was this time last year. So a word of warning for anyone considering joining, they can increase the price whenever they feel like and there isn't anything you can do. The gym is worse than when I joined, the hot tub has been covered up and hidden, and towels were never bought back after covid. I will say that Matt is brilliant, I enjoyed doing personal training with him, so I would recommend him if you are sadly already stuck with the gym, but may be best to look elsewhere if you aren't

Negative experience: The Club used to be very good but now everything is falling apart and it is becoming a run down place. First the jacuzzi gone and now the steam room. The sauna room is overcrowded and too cold now. There is so much Black Mould in shower area (below zero hygiene), most of the showers are not working and water is always cold, the soap container is always empty and the changing room is so dirty and disgusting. Most of the machines in the gym facility are broken and the wet cleaning wipes are constantly out. If something is broken it never gets fixed again and when you complain then you are threatened that you will be banned from the facility. There facility does not offers towels, plastic bags, cleaning blue rolls anymore and it closes too early now and you must get in an hour before closing time as they lock the automatic entrance doors. Membership fee is not cheap and you do not get the basic service, facility and even the minimum expectation from a health club. The only reason that most of the people go there is because it has a car park and located in Summertown, other than that there is no other benefits.

Negative experience: Club is not maintained well, steam room has been out of action for two weeks and apparently will not be repaired for another week. Showers often broken three and four at a time, swimming pool could be cleaner. Expensive membership for the facilities. Towels have not been supplied since covid.

Negative experience: Facilities have been removed from the club over the last few years without suitable replacement or adjustment to the membership fee. In addition money is not being reinvested in the club or it's equipment which is disappointing. The gym is frequently full of school children making accessing the gym equipment difficult during the afternoons and evenings. It was made deliberately difficult to cancel my membership, with an additional two months of fees being taken from my account without consent despite adequate written notice being given. I would be very cautious about joining this Nuffield Health Club.

Positive experience: As a visitor, I like the location, facilities and Cafe Bar area in this busy health club. The excersise equipment is extensive with Spa and beauty treatments including massage and an outdoor swimming pool. I would have given 5 stars if there was a Jacuzzi.

Negative experience: I registered here on July 22nd and received e-mails. I said what I really wanted was tennis. They sent me a link for the application, I downloaded it and it didn't work. I sent an e-mail for this and I came here before August 1st and they said it would be resolved. They said you can make a reservation from the reception during this period. They made the first reservation correctly and I told them to make a reservation for the following week by specifying the day. They didn't and I didn't receive a confirmation e-mail. I've been registered to this gym for 7 days and my problem hasn't been resolved despite reminding me every day (in person or via e-mail). I thought I was in a corporate sports center. I still can't get tennis training, I can't use my application. It really is a sports center with bad organization!

Fantastic experience: Visited this place last Saturday while on a weekend trip to Oxford. Although not my home Nuffield gym the guy at reception couldn’t have made me feel more welcomed. This place seems popular with the outdoor pool and modern gym facilities catering to very friendly locals. Having a large toilet in the gym area is an added bonus for people with mobility issues like me. I wish my gym was more like this one and I look forward to my next visit.

Negative experience: Insensitive and unprofessional behaviour of tennis coach towards a child.

Fantastic experience: Having read these recent reviews I was a little nervous of visiting this club. I was a member many years ago but wanted to visit for the weekend whilst staying nearby. I was surprised therefore to find friendly and helpful staff on reception, clean and tidy changing rooms and tonnes of equipment to use and all in working order. I’ve been to many gyms over the years and still think this one is a great one.

Negative experience: If I could give this place fewer stars I would - the people here are so nasty, specifically one receptionist who is the most bitter man I’ve met in my life, who made my autistic daughter cry as he laughed in her face (she’s 12 and visibly struggles). Awful levels of hygiene on the gym equipment, terrible service on food (waited half an hour for a sandwich) and it didn’t even taste nice! If you're debating here or David Lloyd’s I’d say Lloyd’s 1000 times over. Nicer people, better service, much cleaner and far better equipment and facilities. The outdoor pool is a miss here- it’s far too cold for anyone to enjoy, there’s limited amount of lifeguards and pool crew, so I had to scoop a load of dead bugs out the water myself, but that’s if you’re lucky. It’s also continuously being closed and opened. The classes are always full and are such a nightmare to get into - I have had to get up early in the mornings to book classes even though im paying extortionate prices already - aqua aerobics gets the highest reviews but it’s constantly full so I will never know… I wish this place was nicer as it is so close to home but it’s the opposite of anything pleasant. I’d definitely say to Lloyd’s or Farmhouse but definitely not here!

Negative experience: This health club is a joke. The general manager is the most unprofessional and rude person she treats her staff like rubbish and I feel senior management need to look closely at how she conducts herself at work she is supposed to be the general manager and should act like one!

Negative experience: I finally felt no option but to cancel my membership of Nuffield Health Oxford. It means giving up a large network of tennis partners and friends built over 14 years which was a key part of my social life. There has been a shocking deterioration in the quality and level of services and in particular the tennis facility is in a terrible state yet increasing fees. Fee structures are opaque with many members receiving heavily discounted special deals. Indoor tennis courts have been closed two times already in 2024 due to flooding which in turn is due to a failure to properly repair and maintain the roof. The roof has leaked for years and caused damage to nets and carpet including rotting. The carpet is beyond repair, a high accident risk, and should have been replaced years ago. “Enjoy playing on a variety of surfaces, whatever the weather” is no longer true. Advertised “Social Events, Tournaments and Box Leagues” are non-existent. The gym is frequently full of school children turning it more into a public type of facility than exclusive private members club. Surprising that parents are happy for their children to be sharing a gym with adults the majority of whom won’t have been DBS checked. Court availability is ever reducing in favour of private coaching time, including local public schools. Some days there are 5 coaches giving paid private lessons leaving only 25% of court time available to members. “School Tennis” is a high user of courts. Nuffield says “we pride ourselves on the service we provide our customers and we always welcome feedback to make sure that we are providing the best possible experience” The reality is very different. Neither local management nor Nuffield HQ take any responsibility or accountability for issues or feedback. Most communication is completely ignored. They are totally indifferent to losing long standing members. On a positive note, staff including those who operate the coffee facilities, reception and cleaning teams and are friendly and professional.

Negative experience: Nice gym but absolutely horrible staff, rude and unfriendly with the general manager being the worst (but the competition is fierce).

Negative experience: Price of membership increased despite the closure of the spa pool and outdoor pool (temporarily) and when I tried to cancel I was ignored. Charged for extra months after trying to cancel and it took several complaints for this to be resolved.

Fantastic experience: Nice place and very nice guys working there, cool bar downstairs and very nice pool with steam room and sauna, outdoor pool is great as well

Negative experience: I would put zero star if that was a choice. The maintenance of its bikes in the Spin Studio is appalling! It’s been more that a year since members were promised the bikes will be repaired and to date has not been. If there was a competing gym near this location, members would be flocking to it. Without competition, this gym just does not care if members are satisfied with their membership. Furthermore, bikes not working are left at the from of the studio making exiting the studio in case if fire dangerous.

Negative experience: A disgraceful lack of service and of civilisation demonstrated by a group that claim interest in looking after people’s health. We have guys playing hockey in the pitch outside and the refused entrance to one player to use the toilet. I was also member here when living nearby, so glad i’ve left.

Positive experience: Nice gym with good pool facilities and a decent cafe. Seriously short of bike parking spaces with bikes left everywhere as a result.

Fantastic experience: Loved this place as a visitor. Staff are super friendly and fabulous especially Bev B. We had a wonderful swim in outdoor pool and I would just go back for the food and juices in café. Great place.

Negative experience: Very pricey for what you get. Almost double the price of Cambridge branch (which is around £60-70 per month) but has a much poorer sauna and steam room. Depends if you think the indoor tennis and outdoor pool are worth justifying the much higher cost. (See my review for the Cambridge Nuffield Gym, which compares favourably to this one). Overall it is okay but has much room for improvement. In particular, although the steam room is at a decent temperature, the sauna is definitely not hot enough. It should be set to 90 degrees C, a pretty standard temperature, which is something that can easily be done. If management rectifies the above it would be worth me upgrading this review, as this is a club with potential.

Negative experience: Very very very dirty everywhere, just everywhere (jim, jim's floor, exercise mats, all the tables in the cafe, etc.). terrible service.

Positive experience: Not long ago it used to be classy wellness centre with a good gym. Now just an ordinary gym with wellness and spa facilities being cut off one after another. Membership fees increasing, you pay more for getting less.

Positive experience: Very good range of classes, good gym, racquets and tennis. Unfortunately the outdoor pool, my main reason for joining, seems to be mostly out of operation in the past year.

Negative experience: I was satisfied with this club when I joined in 2018, which justified its expense by providing leading facilities, long opening hours and high standards of customer service. Since the pandemic, available facilities, opening times, benefits and customer service have been stripped back to the bare minimum that the club can get away with. Communication is now very poor – facilities are sometimes closed for weeks at a time without customers being informed. Some of the lovely staff remain, but management show contempt for customers and ignore all communication, and refuse to bring back anything taken away during the pandemic, despite other Nuffield gyms bringing back e.g towels and normal opening hours. Despite no longer providing the facilities for which customers signed long contracts, they remain very stingy about guest passes etc, which cost the club basically nothing. The jacuzzi has just been closed permanently to cut costs, and the outdoor pool has been shut for the last six months for the same reason. The pool was supposed to reopen this month but apparently now needs retiling, which given the glacial rate at which management performs far simpler repairs, will probably take months. It feel like this club is in terminal decline and I would leave it if I did not live so nearby. I will revise this review if things improve. I would say most tier 2 Nuffield gyms costing half as much provide better service in 2023.

Fantastic experience: Great gym. Clean equipment and great staff. Imran at Reciption always smiles and welcomes members every time. I do wish that the jacuzzi was still open. But five stars all the way.

Negative experience: I used to be a fitness instructor and have therefore experienced many facilities, staff team dynamics. I am not a member of this gym, but have been a guest both before it was Nuffield and many times since. Well, I cannot say I have ever encountered anything quite so disappointing. The staff on the desk seem to have zero idea about the timetable and have given the wrong information time and again. How many times have I got in the pool on the basis that I have the right session only to be told by the lifeguard that it is closing? Time and again. Useless, disappointing and so unprofessional. The Jacuzzi and outdoor pool both closed due to cost cutting measures despite there being over two thousand paying members. The toilets smell of urine. The members treat it as a dump with clumps of hair abandoned on the floor and empty bottles left for someone else to clear up. A fountain that pumps slime all summer. Disinterested staff and manky facilities.

Negative experience: 1) does not provide towels despite having pool facilities 2) staff unclear of processes for checking in ClassPass visitors 3) staff quite rude regarding previous points listed when I asked for assistance

Positive experience: Awesome and great sized pool, cool gym (the music in the background is great)! And the restaurant is nice :) plus the staff are also really kind and helpful!

Negative experience: Been a member here 10 years during which it has changed hands from Esporta to Virgin Active and then Nuffield. On the plus side it is large, with easy parking and a reasonable mix of facilities. My partner used to complain about some of the classes but that was a few years ago. On the downside, it is really the only club for miles in a wealthy area so knows it doesn't have to try too hard. And doesn't . No towels, no Sky sports and lots of entitled kids from St Edward's marks it down And it is now getting worse. Constant cost cutting and removal of services with no communication. Often the staff don't even know. It was bad when they stopped giving towels and instead offered kitchen roll but now even that has gone. And they dress up this blatant cost cutting as being an environmental issue....

Fantastic experience: Review of the Nuffield beauty suite: I keep meaning to leave a review about the beauty suite! I’ve been coming for a few years now and every time the experience is fantastic. It is by far the best place to get beauty treatments in Oxford, not just in terms of the skill of the team but the actual environment and surroundings which is clean, relaxing, and very quiet. I have had massages, eyebrow shape/tint, nails etc and the quality is always excellent. I would highly recommend. The website for booking can sometimes be temperamental so it is better to ring.

Fantastic experience: Litrally has everything you need in a health centre. Inside and outside pool. Inside and outside tennis the list goes on

Positive experience: Very mixed feelings about the gym. This is a totally different experience to the ones in London that are professional and clean with professionals in attendance. It's almost always full, they kick members out of some parts at specific times even though they pay the highest fees in Oxford for access monthly and they don't provide towels like their other tier ones in London plus close earlier and open later. London is a better experience imho

Positive experience: Great equipment, size and range- the outdoor pool is lovely. But, sometimes one specific member of staff can be rude and I was made uncomfortable with a man in the steam room who said "don't be shy" in a creepy way when I opened the door, which made me weary. Obviously, that's more on the man rather than the gym! But overall, the gym is very big with clean changing rooms, majority of staff are friendly, gorgeous outdoor pool and indoor, as well as a sauna, steam room and hot tub :)

Fantastic experience: Great for training, group classes, swimming and relaxing with sauna/steam room.

Negative experience: Leaving one star because we didn’t get to enjoy the membership at all after joining and left the membership with great disappointment. The availability of facilities is even worse than public leisure centre. The swimming pool doesn’t allow children after 6:30pm, and squash rooms are doubled used as they rent it out for clubs forgetting that we as paid members also need those space, and renting it out leaves members very limited choice of time. Almost not able to book in anything that we like to do. Poor resource management , not friendly to users at all.

Positive experience: Clean and well equipped

Negative experience: All the staff are very rude. Especially the receptionists. Horrible atmosphere. Dirty facilities, not worth nearly the price they charge. Even though they no longer provide the services I signed up to when I joined they expected me to carry on paying the extortionate membership fee. They have given all my details to a credit recovery company, who have been harassing me for months now about 1 month membership payment. Avoid getting involved with this gym in any way.

Positive experience: Pretty good gym; definitely recommend the Beauty centre, which has great treatments with very good products.

Fantastic experience: Very good gym and staff is so helpful

Fantastic experience: Friendly staff and clean gym

Positive experience: Brilliant gym, lovely free weights section but could do with some more benches as it often is full. Nice staff, would recommend.

Fantastic experience: Excellent gym

Negative experience: Took money from my account after I'd cancelled my membership, as COVID was approaching, said they wouldn't give it back to me even though it was their error. Not a good look considering many are struggling in 2020.

Positive experience: Rip off. Gym and facilities are great but workers are usually unfriendly (especially the older male receptionist) except the personal trainers, and price is ridiculous for what you get. Go to buzz if you can.

Fantastic experience: Excellent gym facilities and classes. Friendly and helpful staff. Indoor and outdoor pool. Clean changing rooms. Tennis courts. Only thing more I would want is some indoor pool loungers to relax on.

Fantastic experience: Fantastic Nuffield! Best one in the country!

Fantastic experience: Brilliant facilities, family friendly, but with enough space to train seriously too.

Negative experience: BE CAREFUL WITH NUFFIELD HEALTH = NOT FULLY HONNEST. The club is fine and the people are nice, but, we unsribing, be careful : it is a TWO MONTHS notice, not ONE as they mentionned. We wanted to cancel our membership this summer, we came at the office presenting our relocation contract. They made a copy and telling us that is was fine : nothing more was needed. And now, 3 months after leaving the country, they keep taking money. BE CAREFUL

Fantastic experience: Nice gym.

Negative experience: Facilities not bad, but it is not very clean, specially the changing rooms and loos, and the cafe is terrible. The towels they give you are tiny and you only get one, so they might was well not bother. It all feels a bit scruffy and not very professional. Reception is a mess. Not worth the money. The Jacuzzi is often cold and smells.

Fantastic experience: Fantastic facilities, makes you want to work out and have a great session, can't wait to go again

Positive experience: Lovely gym with indoor and outdoor swimming pool, just a bit expensive

Positive experience: Excellent club with new gym.

Positive experience: Not always the cleanest and classes have been cancelled over the summer.

Fantastic experience: Amazing staff and top facilities

Fantastic experience: The new gym equipment is perfect and in a nice open layout, both swimming pools are perfect for both leisure and for doing laps. And both the tennis and squash courts are clean and lively.

Fantastic experience: Good gym

Fantastic experience: Great facilities would recommend

Negative experience: I check on google maps “Virgin Active” and I found this club . They should delete the name to appear on map when you’re looking for Virgin Active. Membership Virgin Active is not available in this club!!!

Positive experience: Very professional

Fantastic experience: My local gym, and one that i have been going to for the last 5 years. The two pools, steam room, sauna and free parking are really the cherries on the top of a lovely gym, with all the equipment you could ever wish for. Well worth the price, especially if going to gym is a lifestyle choice rather than a chore!

Negative experience: They charge a lot for membership so I Got a free trial to test out the facilities first. It is not worth £85 per month. Weights benches were unstable, the punch bag was cheap and had tape rapped around it, steam room out of use, jacuzzi was cold, sauna smelt moldy and the floors in the wet rooms were dirty! I have worked in many gyms even at management level so my advice to them would be... 1. Regularly Audit equipment and replacing if deemed unsafe 2. Do regular cleanliness checks during the day 3. Monitor temperatures of the spa 4. Get a decent punch bag I hate being negative but I’m upfront and honest. If I have a bad experience I will let the public know but I’ll also do the same for good experiences

Positive experience: Decent place but not the easiest or most logical process to cancel membership...

Negative experience: Friend was just refused a manicure service because she had cancer 10 years ago. Apparently they didn't have the right insurance. Nuffield discriminates against cancer survivors! I quit this gym because of its poor service.

Negative experience: Standards have continued to slip since Nuffield took over from Virgin. Poor front of house. Food and drink offer is full of unhealthy rubbish and a poor selection. Looks tired. We stay members because of its convenience in terms of location, however there are definitely better options a lower prices in Oxford.

Fantastic experience: Best gym in town. OK--not cheap, but if you join you'll get so much for your money. Outdoor heated pool, indoor pool, Jacuzzi, sauna, steam room, racket courts, excellent gym equipment, hi tech spin studio with colour zone coaching and virtual video options, amazing personal trainers, discounts on physio, lovely beauty salon, healthy food and decent coffee, peaceful terrace area, kids space, clean and calm changing rooms, and above all the best classes I've ever been to, arranged perfectly to suit any schedule. Pure gym and buzz are good and much cheaper alternatives in town, but if you're into group exercise you'll get the best instructors around. People of all ages and levels are members, and I've never once felt awkward like I have with more pretentious places. Overall my membership here has changed my life massively. Highly recommended.

Fantastic experience: Highly reccomend! My son loves the pool and my partner loves the gym!!!

Fantastic experience: Been a member here for nearly a year now and the club has excellent facilities. The outdoor pool is a real treat, and the gym Is well equipped. The staff and members are all sociable and friendly and everyone seems to be having a good time getting fit.

Positive experience: A decent gym with enough equipment, although it gets pretty busy. Rather expensive in my opinion. Some reception staff could appear a little more friendly.

Fantastic experience: A gym that has everting. Outdoor and indoor pool, tennis and badminton courts and sufficient equipment for all. Enjoying the time here.

Fantastic experience: Went as a guest, good gym, excellent squash court and tennis

Positive experience: Nice gym and changing facilities. Friendly staff. Decent squash courts. Tennis facility massively overpriced and elitist (typical for tennis though) . The club does suffer from recurrent problems- running out of towels for instance. Overall a decent place.

Fantastic experience: Very good place

Negative experience: Good facilities but poor organisation.Staff very friendly and efficient however often can't get through on phone to book (some classes can't be booked online), and they often run out of towels. Would expect more for £100+ per month!

Positive experience: Not many people during Christmas holiday

Negative experience: Too expensive

Positive experience: Great choice of sports

Fantastic experience: Great facilities, location and food.

Fantastic experience: Got all you need...tennis, squash, outdoor and indoor pool, spa, lovely cafe

Fantastic experience: Great gym in a superb setting.

Positive experience: A well equipped gym area and reasonably sized indoor pool, as well as an outdoor pool. Reasonably good tennis facilities but courts are in a need of surface renewal. The place suffers from frequent malfunctions of various pool and shower facilities. Pools may be closed or access may be limited, and showers are quite temperamental with frequent temperature and pressure changes. The jacuzzi is small for the size of the club; some days it is too hot, sometimes quite cold. Steam room is cold, and one cannot throw water on the hot stones in the sauna - only dry heat. Cleanliness is a perpetual problem. Showers range from dirty to filthy, the smell in the steam room is foul, and the tables in the cafe are sticky. Benches in the men's changing room have been sourced from a skip or a dump site, and, despite cleaners milling around the changing rooms, they are always dirty. The management of the club just doesn't get the basic notion of hygiene.

Positive experience: Massage was a Christmas gift, lovely! Had a jacuzzi,swim and a steam room treat. Was so disappointed with the food looked lovely but lacked flavour, ordered the piri piri chicken and avacado bagel so tasteless and so so dry! Please try and season your food so off putting and disappointing, will never eat there again unless standards on the food are improved!

Negative experience: Nuffield Health is very disorganised club with very rude receptionists!

Positive experience: Good atmosphere

Positive experience: Nice health club with an indoor and heated outdoor pool. But you have to be a member. The changing rooms are spacious and you can borrow a towel. The indoor pool is quite dark, but nice and clean. There's also a hot tub to relax in afterwards.

Fantastic experience: Good

Positive experience: Great facilities and love coming here. Wide range of classes, nice pools and a big gym area. Food is delicious as well but takes such a long time to come out! Ordered a wrap and some fries and waited for over half an hour when it wasn't even that busy.

Fantastic experience: Superb club, best facilities in Oxford and wonderful staff who are a credit to the company. The Reception staff are always warm and friendly as well as all staff on site. I am always made to feel welcome and they go out of there way to be of assistance. Sarah has been excellent in her role and has always been quick to help with our St Clares students. Highly recommended.

Negative experience: Small range of equipment

Fantastic experience: All nice. I go there every day. Mostly cycling and pool area, no classes or weights. Read T&C carefully and go there for yourself not to be served.

Negative experience: I love VA Oxford for its amazing Beauty place ,it's PT,it's swimming lessons coach,the café. In fact anything I pay extra for is fine,but the normal running of the place leaves a hell of a lot to be desired. The welcome is good but not consistent.The goodbye also is inconsistent. The communication of class changes is shocking! The contract says they can change classes without notice which is there to cover them in emergencies, but this motley crew use it as a clause to not bother to communicate changes. I have been in January focused mode and planned to go to every pilates class to kick start my resolutions. I checked if the normal pilates class is being covered WITH PILATES as the usual fantastic Jessica was on hols. Yes,I was assured, only to turn up after driving back in the Swindon rush hour to find the class was covered by a sub standard body balance class by some hippy dippy person who can't teach her class, just does the moves without eye contact. I found out when I walked into the class. This club was shocking, and has had a revival in the past 3 years ( thus the fantastic pockets of operation) The service manager I spoke to, yes ,did apologise but was keen to point out it was someone else's fault. ARE YOU GOING TO TAKE RESPONSIBILITY FOR THE JOB YOU ARE DOING?Apparently not! It's such an easy small communication fix but no one wants to take responsibility. I'm collaring the new (7 months in) manager David Miekels tomorrow, to suggest a solution for him, and hopefully he will read this and approach me!!

Fantastic experience: awesome gym awesome people

Negative experience: The gym is great. People generally very friendly and helpful. They have problems but generally deal with them well in my opinion. My complaint is about the Spa - Tranquility. It was highly recommended by a friend who has been attending for several years. I was on my third treatment and I had had to move the appointment from Tuesday to Friday. So I went in several hours prior to the appointment and explained that my daughter was sick. Apparently if you do not give 24 hours notice or are more than 10 minutes late you have to pay a fine understandably - they did not fine me on this occasion because it was hours before the appointment but I was clearly told the rules. I went to my rescheduled appointment on the Friday- raced to get there on time- checked in and sat down. I then listened to one of the beauticians having a lovely chat all about fake tan, about how she had used it on her watch mark on her arm and for a few nights sleeping it had smelt quite bad blah blah blah. Not a quick chat - 20 minute chat. By the time she came to my appointment I was over 20 minutes late. If there are delays due to timing issues or whatever it is understandable but due to the person having a nice long chat - that she could have easily cut short since I was sitting waiting really made me very angry. I would have been fined had I been rude enough to do what she did. She then really seemed quite amused that I was too late to be able to have the treatment. I have called twice but no one has called back.

Positive experience: excellent gym with a full range of freeweights, barbells, kettlebells and machines as well as more than enough cardio equipment. generally friendly staff and clean facilities. bit pricey for my taste, especially since ALL services are included in a membership, rather than splitting them up and have members only pay for what they use

Fantastic experience: I used Virgin Active primarily to take my young son swimming. They have 3 pools - 2 indoor and 1 outdoor. They consist of a wadding pool for under-5s, a full indoor swimming pool and a full outdoor swimming pool. He loves it. The staff are friendly and helpful and having a lifeguard about gives me a better feeling of security. They provide towels, waddles and a floating mat, and sometimes can drag up a few water toys on the weekends. If you are looking for a kid friendly club I recommend Virgin Active. They have a creche (not used yet as he's going through an attachment period), cafe with kid-friendly foods, and a small soft play in the cafe for kids to expend the last of their energy. There is loads of events for older kids. They have clearly posted adult-only areas and times for those not wishing to be visited by sticky fingers, though my only niggle is that the locker rooms aren't designed for strollers - everything else is fine. In comparison to city centre gyms, yes, they are more expensive. But, the price isn't very high and the everyone welcome focus is far more preferred for me as the city centre gyms are primarily focused on students and adults.

Negative experience: Expect reasonable facilities but be aware of terms and conditions and also don't expect a personal approach. The growth of the business and economics of running the place seem to be far more important to the management team. This reflects on many aspects of the member's experience. Shame as it could be a very nice community based club. Be particularly aware of T&C, joining fees and unclear promotions and marketing, can be tricky.

Negative experience: Staff are rude and don't want to help the normal hard working clients, only the rich get VIP treatment. Most racist club i ever went.