Why are there suddenly so many gyms in Wimbledon?
We asked the man running the most luxurious one
Good morning, Wimblers — and a very good morning it is! I hope that everyone is grooving into the new year smoothly. I’m doing fine bar this horrible head cold I seem to have picked up last week. I hope that everyone else is in fine health! Thank you to everyone that has reached out via email with ideas or just to say hi — it means so much! As always, please do keep sharing our newsletter with your friends, family, acquaintances, enemies, estranged work colleagues and whoever else has access to the internet and lives in SW19.
This week we’ve got quite the edition for you. Expect your usual recommendations (this week features a lot of family activities), local news snippets and an “in conversation” piece all about fitness and Wimbledon’s relationship to physical and mental health.
Get in touch if you have any ideas, feedback or stories: zak@thewimble.com.
Happy reading!
News snippets 🗞
👩🌾 Merton has been named as the second-best place to retire in the UK. The Telegraph put Exeter first, which of course we are appalled by! Us Wimblers know that SW19 should come top of that list. But I suppose second place isn’t half bad. Other areas in the capital such as Kingston-upon-Thames and Westminster also made the top 10. Dan Miller, of Savills, told The Telegraph that:
“For many retirees, Wimbledon Village is the ultimate London location due to its slower pace of life, close-knit community feel and good range of boutique shops, independent cafes and pubs. Downsizers will often comment that the village gives them the best of both worlds: a taste of the country while also being well-located for all that the capital has to offer. In addition, it’s an easy bus ride down into Wimbledon Town with its theatre, tube and train connections.”
🎾 Save Wimbledon Park (SWP) has started legal action to “challenge the validity of the Mayor of London’s decision to grant planning permission to the All England Tennis Club”, according to SWP’s website. SWP have listed three errors that they believe were made in the planning decision, which you can read here. The AELTC have already publicly announced that they wish to start their own legal proceedings. Read a breakdown of the current situation in The New York Times.
☕️ A local recovery café is providing a lifeline over winter. The South West London Recovery Café is run by Hestia Charity and is part of St George’s Mental Health NHS Trust. The café is open every day of the year and is there for anyone experiencing a mental health crisis and living in Wandsworth, Merton, Sutton, Richmond or Kingston. The café also offers one-to-one support, a chance to socialise, as well as referrals. Check out more info here.
🚨 A third arrest has been made over the stabbing of journalist Pouria Zeraati. On Tuesday, A 40-year-old man was arrested on suspicion of conspiracy to commit grievous bodily harm. Zeraati was stabbed as he approached his car on Queensmere Road, Wimbledon, on March 29, 2024. The news comes after two men from Romania were arrested in December. Check out the full details here.
🦉 Members of the Wimbledon Common Nature Club met on Sunday for their first session of the year to learn all about barn owls. The club, which is aimed at 6-14-year-olds, spent the morning answering questions before a hands-on exercise involving the dissection of owl pellets (anything for science, eh!). The group will meet again on Sunday, 2 February, and anyone interested in attending is encouraged to contact the club on 07837 910072 or by email.
The Wimble’s to do list 📜
🍴 Kimchi Workshop: Those of you who haven’t yet tasted kimchi are missing out — though I should warn you, it really does produce a funny smell in your fridge. This Friday, Good Fermentation is hosting a kimchi workshop in Wimbledon. Expect cutting techniques, ingredient selection, kimchi tasting at different stages of fermentation, a light meal and even a goodie bag. Kit and tools are provided. To book, just click here.
Where: William Morris House, 267 The Broadway, Wimbledon
When: Friday, 10 January, 6:30 PM
🧸 Little Teds Family Session: The Wimbledon Museum is hosting a morning of discovery through the medium of storytelling, music and arts & crafts for young visitors. Tickets are £5 and can be booked here. (Adults do not need to buy tickets to accompany their little ones.)
Where: Wimbledon Museum, Wimbledon Village
When: Sunday, 12 January, 10:00 AM - 10:45 AM
🍷 Prams & Pinot: Wine Tasting at Friarwood: Look, if I wasn’t doing Dry January, I’d be at the first wine tasting offered to me. But, alas, I am doing Dry January. Head up to the village next Monday lunchtime to try four different wines alongside some light nibbles. (It’s all free!) Take your prams, children and stuffed toys — but this event is all about the parents. Go on, you know you want to.
Where: Friarwood Wines, Wimbledon Village
When: Monday, 13 January, 1:30 PM - 3:00 PM
🖼 Planet Art Preschooler Club: These weekly sessions aim to inspire the next generation of artists while also teaching them the importance of recycling, reusing and caring for our world. I couldn’t agree more! I still remember being president of the Green Society when I was in Year One — these things stay with you! It’s £15 per session or £75 per half term. You can book your child’s spot here.
Where: The Garden Hall, St Mary’s Church, Wimbledon Village
When: Term time on Tuesdays, 2:00 PM - 2:45 PM
🍺 Pub Quiz at The Dog & Fox: It’s that time of the week again. Gather up your smartest friends, work up a thirst and head over to The Dog & Fox for your weekly pub quiz. What better way to get through January than with a friendly, albeit competitive, quiz?
Where: The Dog & Fox
When: Wednesday, 15 January, 6:00 PM - 8:00 PM
Property of the week 🏡
When are we going to run out of outrageously nice properties in Wimbledon? Never, is the answer to that question. This three-bedroom flat in Atkinson House, the former estate of the Duke of Wellington, is the sort of apartment I imagine a spy might live in, or an assassin like Eddie Redmayne’s character in The Day of the Jackal for those of you who have caught the show. This flat boasts an apparently boundless communal garden, cinema room, concierge, gym and an underground carpark where you can store your Aston Martin DB5. The pad will set you back £1.5 mil so start saving if it takes your fancy. Check out more images here.
“A club is something you’re part of, a gym is something you go to”: In conversation with Third Space, Wimbledon 🏋🏼
There are gyms, there are premium gyms … and then there is Third Space: London’s famous luxury health club. With 13 sites across the capital, Third Space has continued to boom in popularity since its inception. But don’t let the workout equipment fool you; Third Space is not a gym. Third Space is a lifestyle, a community. Third Space has one simple philosophy: to be the “Third Space” for its members, whatever its members wish that “Third Space” to be. The company offers everything from HIIT and cycle classes to personal training and even Brazilian Jiu Jitsu lessons. This week, I sat down with Ryan Le Quesne, the senior general manager of Third Space’s Wimbledon branch.
So, Ryan, let’s start with you. When did your fitness journey begin?
I actually started out with a degree in economics from the University of Manchester. I decided early on that fitness was a passion of mine. I remember seeing a glossy brochure for a personal training qualification at the YMCA, so I went for it. I loved being in a classroom full of 30 other individuals of different ages and backgrounds. I got my first job at Holmes Place — which later became Virgin Active — in 2003, then I went on to work for David Lloyd Leisure before joining Third Space in 2014. I was privileged to be a part of the brand before it even launched.
Third Space markets itself as something “different”, something personal. What do you think makes Third Space so unique, and why has it been so successful?
One of our main pillars is to be the “best in class” at everything we do. When we started out, Colin, our CEO, was talking about competing with boutique gyms and fitness centres. If you look at us over the past few years, it’s very much the reverse of that. Boutiques might even envy the product that we’re offering. The past 12 months have really been a purple patch for us. The demand for membership has become insatiable which has culminated in us introducing waiting lists to ensure we manage capacity at our clubs, to protect the member experience. We’ve also opened five new sites in the last year. Actually, we had a story only a few months ago when our managing director, sales director and CMO were visiting the States. The trio were wearing our logos, and people actually stopped them, tapped them on the shoulder and said, “Are you guys from Third Space in London?” So we’re really starting to have a footprint outside of the UK as being “market leading” and “world class” in many of the elements we offer.
Do you think Wimbledon is a fitness-focused area, comparatively speaking?
It’s interesting. When you look at Wimbledon on the map in relation to our other sites, it’s much farther away from Central London. When we launched this space in December 2023, there was a large portion of our members who had no idea about our brand. But I think Wimbledon has really changed in recent years. What are they calling it now — “WimbleGYM”? — because of the sheer number of gym operators [15 and counting] in the area. But I like to think that we’ve been quite disruptive in what we can offer the community of Wimbledon in terms of what they’ve been offered in the past: average middle tier offerings of what a gym is synonymous for rather than what we can offer here with a club and community.
Third Space is like many premium health clubs in the sense that it isn’t cheap. Do you think people’s attitudes have changed when it comes to spending money on their health?
Yeah, I think it’s related to how the industry has ballooned over the past 15 or so years. And that’s come about from more disposable income not being spent on what it might have traditionally been spent on: alcohol, going out, cigarettes, even. Instead, the younger generation is more educated about health and fitness and they’re starting to make different choices. They’re choosing to spend their time on themselves in different ways and the social element of coming to a health club like ours is just that much more than it used to be. That’s why we’re so focused on creating a community here.
Vocabulary around fitness has also changed, especially on social media with fitness influencers. Is this always a good thing, and how has that affected business?
I would say our education is leading-edge for our trainers. But, having said that, this education is not necessarily what we would be talking to our members about, unless they wanted to learn about the science — which a lot of them do. Our aim is to make our sessions “personalised and simple”, and a part of that is, frankly, not to overcomplicate things. Because, to your point, people are able to go online and find conflicting studies and different research papers. We want our trainers to really understand that simple is often better, at least as a starting point when coaching our members.
And finally, what is the vision of Third Space, and what makes it a “health club”?
We want to inspire our members to be their personal best. We’ve got 13 sites across London, each with certain attributes and strengths, and we want our members to be able to use them as they wish. Inspiring them is one of our lofty aspirations, but it’s core to what we do. We have the best people in the market creating the best programmes for that particular discipline or training. We look at our club on every level. We won’t just pick one supplier for one piece of equipment and stop there. We will scour the market for the best market leaders in that particular area of fitness equipment, and we will go after that. Our mission is to be the best health club in the world in the eyes of our members. A club is something you’re part of, a gym is something you go to. That’s the difference.
Third Space, Wimbledon can be found here along with a list of membership pricings and offers.
Question of the week 🔍
Last week I asked which famous keyboardist and co-founder of The Style Council was born in Wimbledon. The answer: Mike Talbot.
Q: When was the New Wimbledon Theatre built?
You’re up to date 👋
Thank you to everyone who read this week’s newsletter. I hope you enjoyed it and that our recommendations have helped to shake off those January blues. Please do email me if you have a story to tell or know something that I don’t! In the meantime, have fun, enjoy yourselves and take a break over the weekend!
“For many retirees, Wimbledon Village is the ultimate London location due to its slower pace of life, close-knit community feel and good range of boutique shops, independent cafes and pubs. Downsizers will often comment that the village gives them the best of both worlds: a taste of the country while also being well-located for all that the capital has to offer.” - I'd love to meet a retiree that can "downsize" to Wimbledon Village. Have the Telegraph ever been there I wonder?