Skip to content

HammerhouseGym

A proper strength gym in an old engineering unit near the Riverside stadium. Here is what's in the room, and who.

What's inside

  • Racks
  • Platforms
  • Sleds
  • No machines with TVs on them

Who's inside

  • Powerlifters
  • People in their sixties doing a first squat
  • Women who thought it looked intimidating from the road
  • About 280 of us
Book a free first session

A coach meets you at the door, so nobody walks in on their own.

From the road, and from just inside the door

It looks intimidating from the road. So here is the road, and here is the door.

A lot of women have told Kelly they sat in the car park for a while before coming in. These two photographs were taken minutes apart. The only thing that changes is standing one step inside.

A closed roller door on a corrugated steel industrial building with parked cars in front.
From the road. A closed roller door, corrugated steel, and not much to go on. We know how it looks.
Inside the same door: daylight across a concrete floor, black racks, and a woman in her sixties setting up under an empty bar with a coach standing a pace away
From a step inside. Daylight on the floor, a coach a pace away, a first squat being set up.
A wide view inside a gym with multiple people weightlifting with barbells and weight plates across different platforms.
A look inside the gym during a session. People are lifting weights with barbells and plates on platforms, with others watching.

How it works

How it works, in plain words

The things people usually want to know before they get out of the car.

  1. Your first session is free, and a coach does it with you.

    You book a time, one of the coaches meets you at the door, shows you round and takes you through a first session. Nobody walks in on their own.

  2. Membership is monthly.

    You pay for the month you're in. There is no contract to sign, so there is nothing to be tied into.

  3. You can leave whenever you like.

    If it isn't for you, you stop at the end of the month. If life gets in the way, come back when it clears.

  4. Never touched a bar? There's a block for that every month.

    The beginners' block is a small group coached from the very first session. You don't need to know what any of the kit is for before you arrive.

Membership, set out in full on Join & Find Us

The facts

About 280
members, from powerlifters to first squats
Four years
in the engineering unit near the Riverside stadium
Monthly
membership, paid month by month
No contract
leave whenever you like
A beginners' group of mixed ages standing round an empty barbell on a platform while a coach crouches to point at it, daylight behind them
A block in its first week. The bar is empty, and everyone is standing round it.

This month's beginners' block

The beginners' block fills up every month. Here is where to find it.

A monthly block for people who have never lifted, coached as a small group from the first session. It fills up every month, which is why the next dates, the questions we always get asked and the sign-up now live on one page instead of in Facebook messages.

One next step

Nobody walks in on their own. Book a free first session and one of the coaches meets you at the door.

Book a free first session

You'll have been round the room and under a bar before you've paid for anything.