Nuffield Health

Never in a brilliant state of repair despite the high membership costs. There was a broken glass panel for months on the men’s changing room door, and they’re constantly apologising for having ice cold showers, moving the changing rooms around and so on, with very little improvement after each refurb. Also, I think if you’re a member of a club paying £60+ a month, little touches like free coffee from the machine are not much to ask, rather than trying to grab more money out of us. If it’s a club, how about you try and make it feel like one?

Decent gym, is currently being refurbished so will be a lot better. Has everything you need and the facilities are what you’d expect.

Before deciding to join Nuffield, it took a number of frustrating phone calls to try and get an indication of pricing as apparently there are «so many different options…» blah blah blah. It would obviously be useful if I could remember some of the prices I was originally told, but I can’t. What I can say is that there are both 3-​month and 12-​month contracts available and that with a generous corporate discount I’m paying £62/​month on a 3-​month contract. Generally I think you’re looking at high-​60s to mid-​70s plus a £20 joining fee.
The club itself is decent but not spectacular — there are a number of cardio machines (treadmills, bikes, cross-​trainers, steppers & rowing machines), weights machines, free weights, miscellaneous other bits of equipment and mats, a small pool with steam room, sauna and jacuzzi. The majority of the cardio machines face 4 wall-​mounted TVs and most of the machines have headphone sockets. There seems to always be a couple of machines that are out of order or simply unusable without being marked out of order and the club doesn’t seem very proactive (or reactive after it being pointed out) to get things fixed. There is also a 20 minute maximum rule on cardio machines on Mon-​Weds evenings which is enforced when it gets very busy (which some weeks it really does).
Membership includes access to a number of classes such as the Body* range, yoga, pilates, spin etc… and the ones I’ve been to (BodyStep and Pilates) are superbly run and very enjoyable. The staff are really friendly (although often hard to track down on the floor) and personal training is available — the (inclusive) induction is also very thorough and introduces you to an initial routine to work on. Overall, it’s not great value for money, but the location is spot on (although having to walk out after a workout to the smell of hot popcorn requires extreme will-​power!) and you can generally get everything you’re after.