Esporta Health & Fitness Wandsworth

Great gym! It is in a secluded-a-bit-in-the-middle-of-nowhere-place but this location suits me :)

It is on one side of Wandsworth Bridge on the Wandsworth side, and if you live in the area it is definitely more worth to come to this one than the other Virgin gym (it is now Virgin, not Esporta anymore) more centrally located in Wandsworth.

As you enter you find reception on the ground floor, together with the swimming pool area, which is great, with two large showers with both cold and hot water (handy if you want to replicate the hot-cold water treatments from spas :), two large jacuzzis and all the usual stuff, including a good size swimming pool with nice relaxing lightning.

Then the 1st and 2nd floors have both machines areas and studios. The studios have a good range of classes, and there are also quite a few Aqua classes on the swimming pool.

However, there are not enough number of classes, definitely not close to other Virgin gyms, there is no Aqua Zumba in the swimming pool and there is only one vibration plate (you can find as many as 6 in other Virgin gyms), although the good news is that it is normally not used. If it wasn't for these things I would have given it 5 stars.

Finally, I just wanted to highlight the great buffet breakfast that you can have on Saturday mornings from 10am to 1pm, with boiled eggs, ham, cheese, tomato, toasts, cereals, fruit, small pastries, etc. all for £5! And this includes a hot beverage from their Starbucks coffee counter! Great value! Shame they don't do it on Sundays too :) Oh! And this is open for everyone, not just members.

Nice gym, rude staff

I visited Esporta Wandsworth (London) on 18/10/2010 having a British Gas voucher for a free swim entitle two adults to enter.

One member of staff who positioned herself as a Manager was very rude, bossy and patronizing. She refused my friend and me to enter, stating that each person must have a separate voucher, which was not the case, and I proved this later.

To make my first experience even worse, and when I asked to see a senior manager, she had made a lie story, that it was me, who were rude and was using a foul language! The lie was appalling!

I totally agree that these people have no understanding of the customer service whatsoever, and they do not care what impression their guests can have in the end.

As I was not giving the entry, I cannot comment on their facilities inside, but I have had enough in so-called “front-line service”.

If you respect yourself, your dignity and your privacy – stay away from Esporta!

Worst gym ever! Catalclysmic adminstation errors by the gyms member management team.

On the surface when you first visit the gym it looks very nice and the sales people try their very best to meet your needs. I agreed to sign up for a joint membership with my girlfriend for a year. The 1st and 13th month were to be free, plus I received some guest vouchers and beauty vouchers which I thought was a good deal.....from there onwards it all went bad (surprise surrprise)

It turns out the beauty vouchers ran out at the end of the year which was 2 months after I joined and they wouldn't renew them when I found out.

The facilities were older than they looked, some of the running machine don't work, there are cycle machines with seats and straps that can't be altered, screeching weights machines, and the radios don't work for the TVs.

The sauna is not hot!

The changing rooms and showers - dirty floorsthese are ok at best however the towels stink of oil or something noticeably bad.

Sometimes there are no towels at all.

Parking - none existant. When I signed up I could park in the B&Q opposite however the policy for that car park has now changed. When I went for a run, weights, swim, jacuzzi session at the weekend for a 2 hour relax session I came back to the car to find a £150 parking fine.

However the very worst thing of all is trying to leave...I aksed to terminate my membership and was told I couldn't because the contract was the contract blah blah blah....I gave in and stayed for the year using the poor services as best I could. Eventually I came to leave but was told I hadn't given 3 months notice - I shoud have read the small print! - I agreed with the member management that I'd leave only 2 months later as I should get my 13th month free. There was then a dispute about the original deal they had signed me up on. No-one recognised the 13th month free part of the deal.

Since that point I have made 20 plus phone calls to try and leave this gym.....today I'm still a member and am waiting for confirmation that I am not a member. I will have a little party all to myslef when this eventually happens.

This has been the worst customer service experience of my life!

All I can say to finish this off is esporta 'just don't do it'.

Dreadful gym, rude staff, dirty and grimy changing area and a contract that is impossible to get out of within a 13 month period. There have been a number of occasions when no towels have been available and once ALL of the towels smelt of cigarettes.

This is a really nice gym - posh enough to make you feel like you’re treating yourself, but not by any means snooty! The gym bit is spread over 2 floors, with all the usuals - treadmills, crosstrainers, rowing machines and all the other things that I don’t know the names of! It never seems to get too busy - I’ve never had to wait to use anything - and there are always a couple of staff members around to give you a hand if you need anything. There are big televisions at one end, and you can take headphones to plug into whatever machine you’re on.
I haven’t used the swimming pool yet but it looks nice and is a decent size. The ladies changing rooms are lovely, loads of room, big lockers and nice showers with soap, shampoo and towels provided - oh, and hairdryers. The gym also has a cafe and a salon which I think does massages and beauty treatments. Overall, a really good gym!

Good gym right next to Wandsworth Roundabout.

Split level workout area, great pool and steam room area, and a reasonably decent cafe out front.

I’ll confess I’m not much of a gym freak, but I was lured here for a good few months before I lost my will power, due in no small extent to the up-market, classy and cool feel of the place.

With free internet as you sip a costa coffee post workout, feeling smug that you’ve shed some of your artery clogging friends, it’s a pretty good place to work away the blues.

I joined Esporta Wandsworth in August 2007, having previously been a member of a number of other clubs, and I rate it highly. It takes up three floors of a modern purpose-built building beside the Thames, which includes a car park, something that all clubs should have but in London often don't - and an excellent bar/cafe (run by Costa) which has a good short menu and some ok wines. The cafe is open to non-members, as is the hairdreessing salon by the main door. The cafe also has three free internet stations available to all, and free newspapers.

The 'business end' of the club has a large pool (with two decent-sized jacuzzis), a sauna and a steam room, and meets my requirement for warmth, being a constant 28C. Two floors of exercise equipment and work-out rooms for eg yoga are extremely well-appointed and seem never to be crowded. I have yet to wait for anything - and the fitness staff are helpful and have reasonable expectations. There is also a beauty salon / tanning section.

Friendly staff at the main counter are good at remembering you and the atmosphere is relaxed and not at all intimidating to anyone less than a jock. Smart, dry and spacious changing rooms have decent-sized lockers and ample showers (with good quality shampoo and body wash). As a friend said last week, 'it's a place one could happily spend the day in'.