Bloomsbury Fitness

Positive experience: Mid men grei pris

Positive experience: So populated, but free

Positive experience: When will the refurbishment end? No notification was given to inform us this was going to happen. I went to the gym as usual today and found it dismantled. There wasn’t even a push notification through the mobile app about this. I still can’t find any details about these works—not even on the website, which references more details in a blog below, but there’s no blog. There’s also nothing in the news section. I need to understand what’s going on and what will happen with my subscription, which covers the entire year.

Fantastic experience: Fast, fun and easy

Fantastic experience: The changing rooms are spacious and have well maintained toilets and shower stalls. There are ample amenities to use at the gym with about one and a half floors of equipment to use.

Fantastic experience: For the price, as a student you will get no better. Great location as well, really close to a lot of London unis.

Negative experience: I don't recommend this gym at all. Besides always being very crowded, as most of the comments say, the equipment is insufficient, quite outdated and in poor condition in general. The studios lack ventilation and often smell very bad, and the overall cleanliness of the place is quite deficient. Additionally, over the past year or so, there have been quite a few changes in personnel, and it seems like the staff who had been working at the gym for a long time are no longer there. Unfortunately, most of the classes are now deliver by new instructors who either lack sufficient experience or interest in providing quality classes. The same goes for customer service at the reception. There used to be a super-efficient lady who would quickly resolve problems or doubts for you, but now customer service tends to be nonexistent with repetitive and unenthusiastic responses that don't solve any kind of problem. Honestly, for about the last two years or so, this gym has been getting worse and worse! All of this, combined with the constant price increases... I recommend that you look for other alternatives in the area (there are many) that offer competitive prices and better conditions. There's an Anytime Fitness in Euston Rd. right behind the Wellcome building, 5 minutes from this gym. It's a bit more expensive, but the facilities are excellent as are the classes offered and the customer service. You also have F45 on Tottenham Court Road, which although small is very comprehensive, Virgin Active for something more premium, or if you're looking for cheaper options, The Gym on Tottenham Court Road next to Lidl and 5 minutes from this gym, or YMCA, a bit further away but still nearby. Seriously, don't waste your time and money at this place! Revised review! I had to post it again because it seems that it was deleted after a few days. Really?

Positive experience: Bloomsbury Fitness is lively with UCL students, but the equipment can be scarce during peak times. While the devices are relatively new, more are needed to accommodate the crowd. It's an okay gym option, but could use some improvements.

Positive experience: Equipment and space are pretty good for the area, doubled in price over the last couple of years though so I ain't going back

Negative experience: No good dont come its crowded already don’t ask me tk share bench press me need bench press alone pls dont ask pls idk how to say no :(( ( also pls put some sexy lighting and more mirrors i want to see my juicy chest when i pose )

Negative experience: The staffs are not helpful at all and they were trying to charge me extra money every time I enter the fitness center. I even can’t login the application and book any classes included in my membership.

Negative experience: The facilities are good but the timetabling is not helpful at all. I check the app regularly and even though it shows no classes in the studios, there are classes when I go to the studios to do some practice. When I asked reception they seemed shocked that I would even ask them thsi question and said they can't give a timetable for when the mandela studio is free even though that would save so much time and prevent wasting a trip if it isn't free unlike what the app says. Please make it more clear when the studios are actually free and tell your staff to be less hostile when asked a question :)

Negative experience: The facilities are adequate for an amateur work out. The number of classes seem to have been cut significantly, with boxing off the list this week. The online booking system is in shambles, as many of my new member friends unable to register a booking account.

Negative experience: This gym is going from bad to worse. Apart from everything else that other members have already reported, I cannot explain how incompetent (and lazy) is the new instructor taking over the majority of classes (a blond lady on their 20s probably). She has been late a few times, her classes are way too boring or lacking enthusiasm and on the last weeks she has always found an excuse to not deliver the class. Either not enough number of members, or not appropriate attire or having the members been late (which has not always been true), etc. It has not only happened to me but also to other members I know and have had their classes cancelled by this person, even though they have woken up early to attend classes at opening time. Please bring back the old instructors if possible, or look for another one who really wants to do the classes.

Positive experience: Staff are friendly and machines are easy to use.

Negative experience: Very poor experience overall, as the place is always very very crowded, but today especially as there was no staff present to open the gym and ~20 people were either waiting or calling the number on the website, however it was not working.

Negative experience: Generally very overcrowded, with a lot of equipment in disarray. The cherry on top: nobody there to open it up this morning, having waited for staff to turn up for >30'. Also, nobody picking up at the phone number provided on the website to clarify the situation.

Negative experience: Facilities are old. AND LOW security, my bag and shoes are stolen there. But The workers there do nothing !!!

Positive experience: Really amazing service and good atmosphere. It is a little messy but that's expected in a university gym. Lots of weights and equipment!

Negative experience: A cheap student gym that is usually super overcrowded except for morning. Never expect the shower room to work. Try avoid unless you are really broke.

Negative experience: Mandela Studio is dirty.

Positive experience: Quite busy, deadlift platforms felt very tired

Negative experience: Pros: Cheap and right next to UCL Cons: Very hot, most of the lockers in the women's changing room are broken, as are the ladies toilets, not well ventilated at all and the opening hours aren't great.

Fantastic experience: Well maintained equipment, great music and friendly staff.

Negative experience: Smells like a public toilet and there are some hours of some days which only women can be there. What about the other “ men “ which pay the same as those girls but no, we don’t have to complain. Even though there aren’t any girls but those time are to them. “ you have to leave “ or jus come later. So weird fight to equality when in the reality its so…

Positive experience: Spacious and well provided gym with squash and multipurpose rooms. Changing rooms not very well maintained.

Negative experience: Used to be a great student gym, but since late 2019 went very downhill. The staff are relatively friendly and helpful still, however even for the cheap price it isn’t very worth it. The quality of the equipment has gone bad, it is quite damaged and not being fixed for extended periods of time. For example the lockers haven’t been fixed for the past 2-3 years and it took weeks to fix women’s toilets. The free weights are damaged and racked in unsafe manner. The gym gets very busy very quickly even at less busy times and people are very rude, especially guys. The sheer audacity of these guys to try to steal your space or equipment or force you to finish faster than you have wanted. When you try to defend yourself or speak to them that you are using something, they get very aggressive, rude and try to insult you or manipulate staff. I feel like no rules are being imposed in terms of use of the gym and wish I could speak to the manager to deal with these individuals. I don’t consider this gym as a safe space anymore, especially it has become unfriendly to women, novices or anyone.

Positive experience: Pretty mediocre gym - the place you go to because you're a UCL student and it's pretty cheap and on campus. It's pretty busy at all but the most obscure times. Opening times are OK but not great - 7:30 opening (only 4 days/week) is barely enough for a workout before 9am work or uni. The equipment is fine - there's about an even selection of machines and four free weight platforms, although some of the kit is quite worn (especially the barbells are all pretty worn out). The showers/changing rooms are pretty shabby but can be used if needed (male toilets lights not working/doors broken, moisture damage in showers,...).

Negative experience: ABSOLUTELY terrible experience on using the website. totally not user-friendly. They will force u to buy one year membership as this is the only option for face to face purchasing. Customer have to go to the terrible website for purchasing the monthly membership which will be extremely complicated

Negative experience: The communication is very poor especially with the covid opening and closing times.

Positive experience: Good and cheap for its location, it is usually crowded.

Negative experience: Good gym but don’t bother signing up now cause slots fill up a weekend in advance 5 mins after they’re released.

Fantastic experience: Small but fully equipped gym! Friendly staff.

Negative experience: Don't pay for a day pass with them, use Hussle (formerly PayasUGym) as it's substantially cheaper. Busy gym that's messy and rude staff and broken lockers and showers. Cheap and it shows. Ok range of equipment

Negative experience: Tried a few classes before joining but should have tried it for longer as there are lots of issues with this gym. The first issue is the smell, the entire gym smells awful most of the time these days, some days its okay but more often then not, its foul and overwhelming. They really need to have their equipment sanitised often, including the equipment in the studios. And they need some sort of ventilation!! Second problem is that its always overcrowded, the equipment is bunched together really closely and the classes also get crowded. Third, on paper the classes looked varied and interesting but in reality two classes with different names are actually the same class. eg Zumba and Latin Aerobics are the same, Bodyworks and Body Pump are the same. The decent classes only run a few times a week and the class duration is never well thought through. Some classes that run for 40 minutes is a max of 40 minutes including warm up and stretching. Yet other classes that run for 60 minutes end up taking about 70 minutes with warm up and stretching.

Negative experience: Pros: +Friendly and helpful staff +Lots of machines +Lots of cardio machines Cons: -The weights rack always has dumbbells all over the floor - The power racks are usually full and difficult to get onto one (especially by the barbell soc) -In general it is very busy -About half of the lockers and showers don't work which is super annoying -The toilet lights don't work -I don't think anything has been fixed - it just gets left Overall, you can defo workout here, but it is likely to be busy and a bit messy

Fantastic experience: It’s home of UCL Team. It has a range of equipments and usually not that busy (I never go during rush hour 5-7pm). They have great deals for students just ask at the reception. The range of classes they offer are great too including boxing, spinning and yoga and many more. I love it.

Negative experience: • I went there at 3 pm and it was very very crowded, I couldn't even read the free weights zone. • Talking about free weights, there were a lot of them everywhere on the floor. It was a big mess. It took me a very long time to find the weights I was looking for. • The equipment is a bit old compared to other gyms that are CHEAPER than Bloomsbury Fitness. • The diversity of equipment is very limited. I couldn't do my usual workouts because of the lack of equipment. • There is almost no space to work out.

Fantastic experience: SWOLE IS THE GOAL. SIZE IS THE PRICE. ITS TIME TO GET RIPED MF.

Positive experience: A wide variety of weights and cardio equipment, but the music is typically played so loud I can't hear music in my headphones.

Negative experience: Join a commercial gym for the equivalent price. This place is nowhere near equipped for the number of regular users.

Negative experience: As most other reviewers have pointed out, you can expect this gym to start out at a base level of "overcrowded" and work up from there. I would typically head there first thing in the morning as it is barely worth it to go there in the evening time. It really is a tiny facility for what is supposed to be one of the top universities in the world. To add to this, the showers are regularly out of order (gym staff never notify members in advance if this happens, causing people to turn up and have no option of a shower facility). The customer service is shoddy at best, any complaints would typically fall on deaf ears. The weights area is pretty pathetic, with a bare minimum of free weights while a dis-proportionally large area is given to bar weights/benches etc. Space for stretching and core work is minimal also. The only relatively positive aspect of the gym comes from the classes which are quite good and varied but, even then, their booking system is a shambles with many classes being overbooked and nothing being done about it. All in all, I'll be making sure to join the new branch of "The Gym" in this area as soon as it opens EDIT: updated review to say that I have now left this gym. The staff's indifference to any of the above issues is pretty insulting. The Gym Bloomsbury is a far better option in every sense EDIT #2: Visited the gym as a guest in March 2019 and I was absolutely amazed to see that, not only, had they not fixed the lockers or showers that had been out of order but now over 50% of the showers were out of order, even more lockers broken and, in a brand new addition, several of the benches in the male changing room have been smashed and are unusable. Embarrassing stuff.

Positive experience: The classes are great

Positive experience: Quite packed with inexperienced visitors during peak times. As with most gyms.

Positive experience: You get what you pay for. Fine for students. Equipment is decent but it gets very busy and not all areas are equally clean. Men’s changing room ceiling has been leaking for what seems like decades

Positive experience: It’s a good place to workout, however, the heavy weight hall is always packed with guys and as a woman, I feel its impossible to enter that section and workout. I got membership for a month but received no entry pass...it’s annoying to go to reception and give my details every time I enter. They should have a guest pass or temporary pass... something for short term gym users....otherwise very friendly staff and warm atmosphere...

Negative experience: Awful. Signed up for a month membership to use classes. On the first day went to a class - which was in a dark squash court and the teacher didn't turn up. Went downstairs to reception and asked what happened and I was told to go back and wait (not even an apology). I waited for another 15 minutes and no one showed up. I was then told that the teacher 'probably looked at the booking system a couple of days ago and so didn't show up'. Awful. They then agreed to refund my membership, but said they could not instantly process it, so to leave my email address and they would refund me on the following Monday. I have still heard nothing and this was a month ago. I have trie d calling and sending emails but no response. Do not waste your money!

Positive experience: Know what you're in for.. Difficult to review because its brilliant and infuriating at the same time. The good - £240/year for students, £300/year for non students which makes it really cheap by any standards. If you're into bodybuilding or powerlifting this place is brilliant 4 barbell platforms with 2 other bench press sets and large selection of free weights and machines. Classes are good too. Opening times (7.30am-10.30pm) are decent. Not too full before 1pm weekdays and 3pm on weekends so you can get your workout done. The bad - Only a relative handful of cardio machines. Absolutely packed between 4pm and 9.30pm on weekdays to the point where it's difficult to get your workout done (unless you're prepared to have it take double the time it would otherwise). The ugly - The staff used to be really good with Baz, Tristan and Adrian etc. Now you find staff on reception are almost insulted should you dare speak to them. Headphones in, on the computer (usually watching YouTube because they haven't realised you can see the screen reflected in the glass behind), we get its a student gym but some basic standards need to be upheld. Conclusion - if you want to do your weights and a bit of cardio or class and can avoid peak times its good. Otherwise go elsewhere.

Negative experience: Extortionate cost to use squash court, despite attending with a member and the fact that courts are in disrepair. Unhelpful reception staff also failed to share this information with me, prior to using the facility.

Negative experience: Unfriendly gym with an extremely bad vibe. Would definitely not recommend to anyone who is serious about training.

Negative experience: Worst gym ever!

Negative experience: Always wayyyy too crowded!!

Positive experience: good gym lots of equipment

Negative experience: The gym seems to have a pretty serious funding/management issue. A large number of the lockers don't work at any one time. There are holes in the ceiling that drip mysterious water on you while you're changing and several of the showers are frequently out of order. It's been like this since I joined in October (photos taken 8/2/18). I'd join student central across the road.

Negative experience: Overcrowded, understaffed, poorly managed, broken lockers and it took me 2 and a half months to get a refund. Appalling.

Negative experience: Super crowded, there seems to be no ventilation and the equipment is very old.

Positive experience: Big gym in a good area in Bloomsbury. The student prices are quite good and they get lower the longer you buy your membership for. It is quite spacious with multiple squat/bench press racks and a few deadlift platforms also. Pretty much every other machine you could need is also present but it does get very busy during peak times so unless you want to work in with someone, you're going to have to wait until the machines you want are free.

Negative experience: Booked to play squash here, arrived and was told that my booking had been cancelled because of a fault with their system and that I should have been called (I wasn't) and that there are now no courts available. Basic incompetence.

Positive experience: Good student gym with nice new equipment and a decent selection of classes. The area with mats (for stretching and floor exercises) is very small though and the gym itself is really busy from midday onwards.

Negative experience: Very cramped

Fantastic experience: Come here all he time!

Negative experience: Complete waste of my money because my purpose was to do weight liftings. and making mascules. I ended up registering another gym before experation. 1. Very good :) New fancy quipments, Large spacious studios, squash studio, many rowing machines and various programs. Best place for you if your exercise purpose is one of these and doing cardio exercises 2. Terrible :( Someone left a review that 'this place is crowded'. It not true. It's crowded, overcrowded, and super overcrowded. It is very hard for you to get a chance to do deadlifts, benchs and pull ups.

Positive experience: Good equipment like bikes with monitors so you can watch Netflix, but unfortunately often very crowded

Negative experience: Always Always crowded with too many people! Please seek for another gym.

Positive experience: It's a low cost gym, so as you would imagine it's often overcrowded. To add to that even tho it was renovated not so long ago, the machinery often is out of order. And as for the free weights, there are only two sets of the most popular weights (10, 12.5, 15, 17.5, 20, 22.5). A massive pro is that the instructors are always there to help you out and they do a pretty good job in my opinion. There are plenty of lockers and the enough shower cabins. It's really a 3.5 star

Fantastic experience: Not too much people in the morning. Feeling good there.

Positive experience: Really impressed with this gym: very modern equipment (more so than so £100+ membership clubs); lots of variety of equipment; very cheap especially for students and great locker facilities. It's the perfect budget gym, not the biggest gym - but good enough. The only serious downfall is that they HAVE NO WORKOUT MATTS, if you like to do a lot of matt workouts (situps, etc) you have to do it on the dirty floor, its very unhygienic and you have to buy a towel too, so you cant even grab a towel to lie on. My hands were brown / dirty after working out #ewwwww

Fantastic experience: Squat racks and bumper plates galore.

Fantastic experience: Wide range of equipment and best gym I've been to. Great for students and inspiring place to be, always come out feeling refreshed.

Fantastic experience: great place for students. The people working out around you will inspire you

Fantastic experience: Best gym in central London hands down. Awesome people, great equipment, no need for yearly contracts. This is my home from home :)

Fantastic experience: Good fitness center with all needed facilities and helping staff.

Positive experience: Cheap membership and decent squash courts, just ridiculously busy all the time

Fantastic experience: It's a great gym and very well priced. Good selection of cardio, free weights, and machines. Locker area is generally clean. It can get really busy at peak times.

Positive experience: Good gym, can get busy but good atmosphere and clean changing rooms

Fantastic experience: Good value for the price. Especially if you don't like swimming as there's no pool. The classes are fun and new equipment has just been installed.

Fantastic experience: This gym is the shiz! Easy sign-up process (less than 10 minutes). Brand spanking new equipment, ample changing/shower space and it's next door to UCL. The best gym I've ever been to.

Negative experience: I used to be a loyal member of Bloomsbury Fitness ever since I moved to London and actually developed good relationship with some of the staff members who have always been nice to me and my girlfriend. Unfortunately, today's (11/06/2016) happenings made me change my mind about continuing my membership. One of the male instructors has started making me and my girlfriend feeling uncomfortable with always finding a reason to approach us and criticize something. Today he didn't let us go upstairs to have our training with jumping rope and cattle bell, whereas when we asked another staff member the day before we were allowed to do so without any hesitation. When we told him this, he insisted on his view, not giving informations to ground his statement. I find this a rather personal antipathy and thus take it personally. We felt discriminated by the instructor. To conclude, even tough I enjoyed training in the gym for months, this individual with his unprofessional and negative attitude made two loyal members leave Bloomsbury Fitness for good.

Negative experience: Very Very unrecommendable because the facility is always full of people

Positive experience: Very cheap. BUT! It gets really busy, equipment is decent, not great. Can only be worth it if you're a student very nearby, personally I hate nothing more than queuing for a machine

Fantastic experience: University gym. Cheap day pass if you buy it through a site called "Pay As You Gym". Great equipment. Oddly, gets crowded around 3-5pm. Great vibe.

Positive experience: Cheap for students, well equipped, certainly worth the cost.

Negative experience: It's only worth it only if you are a UCL student. Overcrowded. Machines are always out of service. The bathroom last year has been closed for one month for renovation. Result? The showers are still always out of service.

Positive experience: If you're a student at UCL then the £160 annual membership is really attractive, as you get full access to the gym and free classes. However as it's a student gym, it's pretty busy all the time and you often have to wait to use treadmills/exercise bikes. The classes are good though, but I wish there was a pool and sauna as well.

Positive experience: Good number of cardio machines and average weights but very crowded a lot of the time. Would reccomend.