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Inside Hammerhouse

What it's actually like inside, starting with the bit that puts people off

The outside of the building tells you nothing. This page is the tour Kelly would give you if you rang: the room, the kit, the people, and what happens on your first visit.

The front of the engineering unit from across the road: dark corrugated steel, a roller door half up, a car park, and a corner of the Riverside stadium in the distance
The view from the road. Corrugated steel, a roller door half up, and a corner of the stadium over the car park.

Kelly hears this a lot.

A roller door, black steel, a car park, and nothing on the outside to say what goes on in. A lot of women have told Kelly they drove past for weeks, or sat in the car, because it looked intimidating from the road. We're not going to pretend the building looks friendly.

What we can do is show you the inside, one thing at a time, so that by the time you get to the door you already know the room.

The unit

An old engineering unit with the lights on

High workshop windows, a concrete floor, black steel racks and platforms, and the sleds parked along the wall. Daylight does most of the work until the evening sessions, when the strip lights take over.

It's a working building and it sounds like one: plates going down, chalk in the air, people talking between sets. Warmer than it looks from outside, and busier.

A wide view of an empty gym interior featuring black racks and platforms under high windows.
01Racks and platforms under the high windows, mid-morning, unpopulated.
A chalked thumb resting on the rim of a black bumper plate, chalk dust in the grooves
Chalk on a plate rim and a thumb. There is a lot of it about.
Three steel sleds parked against a brick wall with a strip of worn turf in front of them
The sleds, parked along the wall between sessions.
The open roller door seen from inside the gym, daylight and the car park beyond, a rack in the foreground shade
The door from inside, roller up, car park and daylight beyond. This is the way you'll come in.

The kit

The kit, explained for newcomers

Three things, each with one job. The powerlifters already know all this; it's here for everyone who has never been shown.

  • A woman adjusting the hooks on a squat rack to set the bar height while a coach stands beside her

    01

    Racks

    A steel frame that holds a barbell at the height you need, so you can take it on your back or in your hands, squat or press it, and put it back without lifting it off the floor. The bar can start empty.

  • A lifting platform with a loaded barbell resting on it, chalk block to one side, daylight across the floor

    02

    Platforms

    A flat, solid area of floor built for lifting a bar from the ground and setting it down again. The plates are rubber-rimmed bumpers, so a bar can be put down firmly without anyone wincing.

  • A man in his fifties pushing a loaded sled along a strip of turf, daylight from the side

    03

    Sleds

    A low steel frame you load with plates and push or pull along the turf strip. Hard work, nothing to learn, and almost impossible to do wrong, which is why beginners often meet it first.

  • And none of

    Machines with TVs on them

    There aren't any. Everything in the room is a bar, a plate, or something to put them on, and a coach to show you how. That's what makes it a strength gym rather than a leisure centre, and it's also why nobody is hiding behind a screen.

Seven members of mixed ages chatting round a platform between sets, a woman in her sixties among two powerlifters and a couple of beginners
Between sets on a weekday evening. Nobody in this picture is looking at anyone else's bar.

Who trains here

About 280 of us, and the room belongs to all of them

There isn't one kind of person at Hammerhouse. Powerlifters train on the platform next to someone in their sixties doing a first squat, and the beginners' block uses the racks beside them. The strongest people in the room are usually the least bothered about what anyone else is lifting.

If you're worried about being watched: everyone is busy with their own bar, and most of them remember their own first week well enough to say hello.

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
A coach greeting a newcomer who has just stepped in through the roller door, seen from inside the gym with daylight behind them
Step three. A coach meets you at the door, not a desk.

Your first visit

Your first visit, step by step

So you can run through it in your head before you've left the house.

  1. Book a time.

    Use the form on the Join page, or get in touch first if there's something you want to ask. Kelly or one of the coaches confirms a time with you, so you're expected.

  2. Park up and head for the roller door.

    That door in the photographs is the way in. Wear whatever you'd be comfortable moving in; nobody needs special kit for a first session.

  3. A coach meets you at the door.

    A person, not a reception desk. They know your name and that it's your first time, so you're never standing in the doorway wondering who to ask.

  4. They show you round.

    The racks, the platforms, the sleds, where to put your things. It takes a few minutes and you can ask anything, including the questions you think are daft.

  5. You do a first session together.

    The coach takes you through it at your pace, starting from wherever you are, whether that's an empty bar or no bar at all. It's free, and nobody is in a hurry.

  6. Then it's up to you.

    Membership is monthly with no contract. If it's for you, you join. If it isn't, you've had a look round and that's all.

Finding the unit Never lifted? Read about the beginners' block

The easiest way to know what it's like is to come in. Book a free first session and a coach meets you at the door.

Book a free first session