The Gym Vauxhall

My favorite place for a quality workout after work. I feel exhausted after that but the next day is excellent - I feel new strength in me. The equipment they have there is in good condition and I can train every muscle group I want.

Good bits:
Very cheap for london, plenty of cardio equipment and fixed machines

The ugly bits:
Cleaning needs work - showers are mouldy and unclean. Equipment can be sticky at the best of times. Towels are rarely if ever used by other gym members so expect sweaty equipment. 
Organisation: Free-weights are left all over the place, only one bench to use - spend a lot of time looking for the right sized weights. The gym will close for relatively long periods (3-5 days) at times throughout the year to conduct maintenance and improvements. Also quite long holiday closing times over the Christmas break.
Traffic: difficult to use the free-weights area between 6-8pm without having long uncomfortable waits (it's often OK in the morning however). There are usually cardio machines and fixed weight machines free regardless of the time however

Overall verdict:
Weigh the price and high traffic times up against your needs -- the balance works for me personally but your mileage may vary.

The bad points: Dirty Many machines not working Many pieces of equipment not working properly Certain pieces of equipment faulty The place smells Nothing provided to clean down the equipment before you use it Staff are very unhelpful if you ask questions and try to sign you up for personal training Te good points: Well there must be some I would have thought.

I was there several times. I really like it:) Well.. the weights in the evening can be quite busy,but if you are more patient it will be ok for you.I am using usually the cross trainers and the treadmills.
Everyone is friendly and helpful.And it is clean!

Been to other "gym group" gyms and Vauxhall has to be the dirtiest and most unfriendly of all. No one puts weights back, the trainers who work there look like that could use a bath, and are unfriendly and spend most the day hidden in there  little room at the end of the gym. The changing room always smells and people leave their old empty soap bottles just lying around the floor of the showers. I can't help feeling that a lot of the problem is the staff. In the Stockwell gym for example, it is very clean, well maintained and the staff are out and about making sure the cleaners are doing their job, and that the weights are put back. I would much rather go here as it's a 100% cleaner. I worry about the germs at Vauxhall as no one cleans anything. Also lately the scales broke and they have not been replaced in the mens changing room, so I can no longer weigh myself!! All and all a shame, with a little effort could be much better.

If you’re primarily going to be using the free weights area like I do then the Vauxhall gym really needs to make some overdue changes, I was member of The Gym Nottingham and the free weights area is a lot better in terms of size, lighting and attitudes of the members. In the Vauxhall gym the weights are all just left on the floor and you have to walk around to find what you’re looking for (even the stacks are not labelled with the weight value). The Gym Nottingham has posts on mirrors warning members that they will be banned if weights are not replaced; this works effectively as all the weights are returned and stacked in the correct shelf because they’re labelled. The Gym Vauxhall free weights area location isn’t that great and there is hardly any natural light because it’s in a tight corner at the back, the area could easily be re-organised to make more use of the space.

In terms of staff, there is absolutely no way to get in contact with staff via phone, as another reviewer mentioned, the phone is not manned and goes to voicemail after ringing a couple of times so if you have an issue then you will have to turn up at the gym when the staff are there.

For a budget gym this is not bad. The equipment is as good as anywhere else, though it has to be said recently some machines have been out of order. The 24 hours opening is great too. On the downside, because this is a budget gym it attracts a lot of chavs, the showers are rubbish despite an apparent recent refurb, customer service is practically non existent, and the personal trainers look quite scrawny which isn’t a good advertisment.

Love it!! 24hr access, nice and secure, no sales reps trying to make you sign up for classes etc.
You can just get on with your work out in peace.

I Signed up for a Full Membership the past weekend and told I had '13 Days' until I was granted access to the gym!!

A Friend of mine signed up for a days membership and got in straight away!

I get it, there's a 'waiting list' (why, I dont know; the gym is always empty), now what difference is it going to make if I sign up Today or in couple weeks time! Its still going to be as packed!

Overall the gym has state of the art equipment and is very good for the working professional.

8/10

Since undergoing surgery I have had to go through a strenuous rehab program. Thankfully The Gym in Vauxhall is there right where I needed it it (5 minutes away from Victoria Station) after work.

Even though it doesn't offer all the bells and whistles Lloyds and Co offer, this is a great facility and massively bargainous.

A* - price
A* - equipment
C - extras

Date of visit: September 2010

After hearing so much talk of no-frills gyms and where the industry was heading, I thought I’d head down to my nearest no-frills club.

The Gym Group’s Vauxhall site gave a really good insight into where the industry is going. The gym is spacious (20,000 sq. ft of open plan space), has lots of natural light and lots of mirrors to accentuate both of these qualities (although I would have put even more mirrors in.) The equipment is new and includes about 37 running machines plus a least the same number of climbers and other cardiovascular equipment. It’s a bargain at £15 per month. I paid £5 for one session, which was all done on the Internet. The entry system is fantastic. It’s just like getting into a bank........

To see the rest of my review visit my blog at http://fit4nothing-reviews.blogspot.com/2011/03/gym-group...

I've been a member of The Gym for a number of months. I mainly use Brighton but also often use the Vauxhall one. Great venue, great equipment and for the price, how can anyone complain?! I'm a happy bunny :)

£15/month with no contract for a 24 hour gym, but you get what you pay for -- it's a cheap pack-em in gym with appalling customer service (if you can find a member of staff).

Equipment is often broken, but if you go during quiet times then it's fine as you can find working equipment. Some of this gym's clientèle are somewhat dodgy too.

Mon-Thu week nights are extremely busy and you can expect to wait quite a while for some equipment.

I recommend it if you want to save money and can avoid week night evenings. If you can only go at peak times then it's better to pay extra and go elsewhere, eg. the Southbank Club on Wandsworth Road, the Queen Mother Sports Centre in Victoria, Paris Gym (men only) in Vauxhall or Horizons gym in Stockwell.

I was a member here from when it first opened to about a month ago. I found this gym to do exactly what it is supposed to. You pay a small admin fee when you first join, and then just £14.99 pm after that. At the moment, there is a small waiting list to join the gym in Vauxhall, which is about 2-3 weeks, or was a month ago.
To enter the Gym you need your 8 digit passcode, and then you go through the airlocks.
The gym itself has quite a large amount of equipment, both cardio and weights. The free weight section however is quite small, crammed into a corner and generally feels more like a prison yard, as the one time I did try to use that area I was told that I was in the way of someones circuit - fair enough - but then I would have to wait for the rest of his group to do their thing.
The cardio and weight machines were generally in good nick. And were frequently cleaned. There are also quite a few mats to work out on both upstairs and a few on the ground floor.
I generally went at about 0900 and even then it was quite busy, I never had to wait for any cardio or weight machines, but there were still quite a healthy amount of people there.
My main gripe is the locker room. Generally it was clean, but the lockers tended to be small in size. They did have a few larger lockers, but they seemed to always have someones kit in from the night before, so were always taken. The problem with the small lockers is that when we hit winter and we need to stash bags, jackets, shoes etc, there just isn't enough room. Also the last time I went there were only six showers, and had a problem with mold. Though, when I left they did say they were upgrading.
There were a mixture of people attending, some very ripped, and some not so. Men seemed to outnumber women about 2-1.
One nice little thing is that you can log onto their site and see how long you were in the gym for, and they also give you a fortnightly email with suggestions on food, exercising and other little tips.
The cancellation process was very easy. I logged onto the site, cancelled and that was it. They then said I should cancel the direct debit with the bank. There were no fees for cancelling, and no contract which is always nice.

Sterile, cheap and cheerful. No classes seem to be run here too, but for the price you can't really complain.

No contract needed too, which is a bonus!

The Gym (The Gym Group) in Vauxhall needs to teach it’s staff a lesson in customer service by all accounts. A work colleague, who not long joined and he is now very much regretting that he did, said “How easy it is for them to smile and take the cash but then cut themselves of from following up on any form of customer relationship or service”, after the first phone call to them about a problem.

The story starts by him going to his new gym over lunchtime and once he arrived back to work he realised he had forgotten his trainers. He called a number which I found on the internet for ‘The Gym’ in Vauxhall so he could call them and they could retrieve the trainers and keep them safe for his return trip after work. Well, the phone number that came up on the net had isn’t ‘The Gym’ Vauxhall but to ‘The Gym’ membership centre and they were a little put out by being called and it’s not someone joining (very put out from what we could here). He asked if they had the telephone number for the Vauxhall gym and to his surprise the reply was a simple no, they don’t have the phone numbers to any of ‘The Gym’ outlets.

So we called various directory enquires and finally got a number, which he called and called and called. The phone rings but no answer. He eventually had to pop out an go down to the gym to get them before they go walkies. On his return he told us all of the answers he got from the young 20’s something South African girl who works there about the unanswered phone calls. Apparently this is an unmanned gym and that is why the phone may ring but there will not be any staff there to answer he was told. So he pointed out to this very ‘moody assistant’ that the gym is manned between 8am to 8pm (the fact that she is there, standing in front of him, means it’s manned) and he called only 15 mins ago (2:30pm). Her reply was that it’s his fault for leaving items in the lockers and not to do it again. In fact he tried again to get an answer but again he is the one being ticked off, again the question was avoided.

Our colleague likes the gym, it’s new and has everything in it he needs apart from staff with customer service skills, he wanted this posted up as a warning for others – it’s shinny, cheap and new but beware of services you will not get.