Salt walls and massage guns: how posh gyms muscled onto the high street - The Times

[Roisin Kelly]

When Victoria Smart goes to the gym, it’s not her workout she most looks forward to — it’s the changing rooms afterwards.

“Fresh fluffy towels, luxury toiletries, high-tech hair tools … it’s like being at a spa,” says the 29-year-old communications manager from Brighton, who spends “almost all” of her disposable income on the £279 a month membership for luxury gym chain Third Space and regularly visits its Battersea Power Station branch. “The facilities are invaluable. There are Hyperice Normatec Leg Compression boots, massage guns and vibrating balls, which, in my opinion, are integral to wellbeing”.

Last week, Third Space became the first tenant to sign a lease at the Elephant Building at 318 Oxford Street, which, until 2022, was home to House of Fraser but is undergoing a £132 million revamp. The gym will take up three of the building’s nine floors and will have fitness studios, a sprawling gym floor and a “tranquil wet spa” likely to include a hydro pool, sunken Finnish sauna and marble steam room.

Third Space Moorgate’s uphill running track

It’s a lucrative time for gyms. Last year the UK health club industry hit a market value of £5.9 billion, and 10.7 million people in the UK now have a gym membership — the average monthly fee is £47.24. There are more than 300 boutique fitness studios in London alone.

Luxury gyms such as Third Space, Equinox, BXR and 1Rebel are becoming a regular sight among the familiar shopfronts in the capital and beyond. As the high street declines — data suggests the UK lost 37 shops a day during 2024 — landlords are scrambling to fill empty department stores and gyms are moving in. Last year Third Space Clapham Junction opened in a 27,500 sq ft grade II listed building once home to the Arding & Hobbs department store. Since 2019, more than 1,000 independent health clubs have opened on high streets and in shopping centres and retail parks.

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Third Space started in Soho in 2001 and now has 13 locations across the capital. It has carved a niche of being the poshest gym in town, with a price tag to match. Its gyms have unique features: in Canary Wharf, for instance — the largest gym in Europe — there is a 13-metre high climbing wall; in Moorgate, there’s an uphill, spring self-timed running track. Clubs also have dedicated recovery lounges. Such unique features don’t come cheap, though: single club access starts at £230 per month, increasing to £305 per month for multi-club access.

The Canary Wharf climbing wall

JAMIE MCGREGOR SMITH 2018

The Moorgate combat room

But the average UK gym doesn’t offer menthol and eucalyptus-infused steam rooms, a sauna so plush it has a rose quartz Himalayan salt wall — said to be a natural antiseptic and anti-inflammatory — and UV-purified pool water. Nor do the changing rooms stock Arkive hair products by the celebrity hairdresser Adam Reed and employ an army of staff who mop up your wet footprints as you walk. There’s also a “medical centre” offering massages and osteopathy (£150 for a 60-minute session) and smiling staff handing out chilled citrus-scented flannels after spin and HIIT (high-intensity interval training) classes.

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For an extra £75 a month, you can rent an “executive locker”: leave your sweaty gym kit and it’s returned two days later, washed, dried and folded. There are also £9 Breakfast Beat shakes — a scoop of protein powder with peanut butter, banana and almond milk — from the in-house health café, and protein-rich boxed meals of gochujang chicken and blackened salmon.

Clapham’s green marble changing room

Lavish interiors are all part of the draw. “The Clapham gym has marble green interiors like Gwyneth Paltrow’s bathroom, or Bottega Veneta stores,” says one Third Space member, Hikmat Mohammed, 29.“It’s so chic.”

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To be premium, you have to be more than just a gym. At BXR, a luxury Marylebone gym backed by the boxer Anthony Joshua, there are “wellness Saturdays” and “recovery Sundays”, offering “gut therapy”, lymphatic drainage and deep-tissue massages.

A Third Space sound bath workshop

To be accepted to Peak Fitness Club & Spa in the Jumeirah Carlton Tower, a five-star hotel in London, prospective members have to submit a detailed written application — only then are prices disclosed. There’s also E by Equinox in St James’s, where the £470-a-month fee covers a valet service for your belongings and laundry service, and Bamford Wellness Club in the Cotswolds, where herbal teas are served on tap and you can take a rain shower with settings such as “tropical mist” and “storm cloud”, complete with sound effects and scenting. Membership options start from £2,250, plus £750 joining fee. In Cheshire, membership of premium gym CPASE costs £330 a month, while Manchester’s Zeno Health Club and Sculpt in Newcastle both charge £120 per month.

The swimming pool at Third Space Wimbledon

Clapham’s reformer pilates studio

Millennials and Gen Z are spending more of their disposable income on health and fitness, and many gym-goers want more than somewhere to exercise. A recent survey by The Gym Group found 37 per cent of 18 to 24-year-olds see working out as a way to socialise.

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To outsiders, Third Space may seem like a place reserved for the elite. Along with a subscription to the Raya dating app and membership of Soho House, being part of Third Space has become a lifestyle indicator synonymous with aspirational wealth — and some are stretching to afford it.

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“The price feels excessive, especially on my income,” says Smart, who forgoes manicures and hair appointments to afford her membership. The high cost gives her extra impetus to go more often — as many as four times a week, in fact. “I have no regrets,” she says. “Not having to bring a towel or take a soggy wet one home is a game-changer.”

Colin Waggett

FRANTZESCO KANGARIS/VISUAL MEDIA

The decline of working from home is also having an impact. “Our City and West End clubs are busier than they were pre-pandemic, to the extent that we are now operating waiting lists,” says Third Space’s chief executive, Colin Waggett. “For our demographic at least,working from home has to all intents and purposes unwound, so we will continue to open new clubs, such as the Oxford Street location.” Third Space has 35,000 members and a revenue of over £100 million. When the Battersea Power Station gym opened in June, it had a waiting list of 700.

Still, it’s a competitive market. Like many other businesses, gyms have been hit by substantial rises in rent and bills. It has led to the middle market — which boomed in the 1990s with leisure-centre-style gyms such as Holmes Place, Cannons and LA Fitness — being wiped out.

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The low-cost fitness sector is seeing the fastest growth: a PwC report last year found its market share had more than doubled in the past decade. Depending on location and type of membership, monthly membership at the likes of PureGym and The Gym Group can cost as little as £20.

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For Smart, being a member of a plush gym gives her a slice of calm in an otherwise hectic life.

“Living and working in the centre of the City can be overstimulating, so the sense of calm and tranquillity I get from it is a luxury,” she says. Or as the saying goes: health is wealth.