Gyms for LSE students

Hi,

Yea, the LSE Union gym is pretty poor! Apparently they are building a new student centre soon though, and that will see new state of the art facilities? Doubt we will see it in our lifetime though!

Personally, I would never join one of the rip off commercial gyms. Gymbox, Fitness First, LA Fitness, Virgin Active and the like... if your financial situation changes you will be in the poo because you will be tied into a contract.

I am not a member yet, but will soon be signing up to the Jubilee Hall gym, which is run by Westminster Council. The nearest gym to LSE is in the Covent Garden market building, which has to be among the coolest buildings for a gym, and precisely 8 minutes walk from Houghton Street. As it is not for profit it is considerably cheaper than a lot of gyms in the area (£50 per month, I'm not sure if students get it any cheaper), and you are not tied into a contract so can end it whenever you like. I think you may be able to suspend your membership if you are going away as well, which could be handy for the summer holidays etc (at least this was the policy with a similar scheme I was a member of). There is a £35 joining fee as well. Alternatively, if you pay a £50 joining fee and the same monthly membership rate, you can join the UK Fitness Network, which means you can use any member gyms, of which there are loads in the south east.

As I said, I'm not a member of the Jubilee Hall yet but I have had a look around and it is pretty nice. I was a member of the equivalent scheme run by Bromley Council and the gym I used, in Beckenham, is lovely, spacious, modern, good staff etc. If you join the Jubilee Hall trust you can also use the one for Houses of Parliment staff, one in Hampstead and one fairly close to Bankside. There is a similar scheme run by Camden council and the nearest gym to LSE is the Oasis Centre on Holborn, but I get the impression that is a bit more grubby! If your finances allow it though, I would just join the UK fitness network and then you can pick and choose where you go. If you google Jubilee Hall Trust and UK Fitness Network you can find out more. They don't have the same shiny marketing as the commmercial gyms, and may not have all the bells and whistles which immediately catch your eye when you go for the tour, but I think they are very good value.

I use the UoL Union gym, it's been great so far. Quite a few LSE people are members.

The best one would be at UOL union. I use to go there as it was really close to uni and there is no contract and can stop paying whenever I wanted. However sometimes it got really busy and had to wait for a machine to use and also quite a few LSE students started going.

However if you are willing to travel to places like vauxhall or West Hampstead there is a gym called thegymgroup which is only £16 a month for new members and you can cancel anytime you want and I think its better than some of the gyms I have paid more money to use.

There are also other cheap gyms around London such as fitspace (in holloway road) however most gyms around Holborn are quite expensive

Which halls are you in? I think only Carr Saunders is close to that, isn't it? Also, do you go during uni time? So it's like a 15 minute walk?

Did you used to go during lectures?