Low cost gym planned a stone’s throw from Waterfront in Woolwich

Plans are in for a low cost gym at 33-35 Hare Street In Woolwich – a short distance from the Waterfront leisure centre. Energie Fitness operate many gyms under a franchise network and now have their eye on SE18. Fit4less is one of their brand names.

This site recently covered falling gym membership at the Greenwich Centre which has seen drops of 10% over the past year as many low cost gyms moved into Greenwich. This was taken from a council report:

Could the same now happen in Woolwich, at least in the short term? Although low cost gyms already exist in the town, adding more will have an impact.

In addition, The Waterfront’s car park begins to close from the 15th January to make way for new high-rise flats.

The Waterfront leisure centre itself will move to General Gordon Square after 2020.

The monthly membership of Energie Fitness gyms are often lower than Better charge for Greenwich borough gyms. £16.99 a month is a common price point with Energie.

Greenwich Council have placed huge stock on leisure centre rejuvenating towns. Sometimes at the expense of much else. The Greenwich Centre has done little to improve the rest of east Greenwich and probably wont as long as the public realm and adjacent junction remains so poor.

Unappealing pedestrian and cycling links from Peninsula new-builds add to the problem in enticing customers.

And in Plumstead, plans for a new gym and library have seen costs jump by 48% to £16.6 million. It’s located a fair distance from the heart of the High Street so wider impacts will be limited. It will take just one or two low cost operators to open in the area and it could be in trouble.

So is the strategy of improving towns using leisure centres running into trouble? The trump card Greenwich leisure centre’s have is swimming pools (though not in Plumstead) but is that enough in years to come?

The planning reference is 17/3891/F. Click here to search.

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