Forum Topic

Everyone Active @ Twyford Sports Centre

For anyone who didn't already know this membership of the Acton Centre also gives you access to the classes at Twyford Sports Centre (Twyford High School). These have been running for years so it's a bit less chaotic than the new place. The yoga, aerobics, body conditioning and circuits are all very good but I think they may have some new classes as well...

Jackie green ● 4321d31 Comments

No pool, though.

Susan Kelly ● 4320d

There are really very few classes at Twyford for adults - and no Pilates!The desk person at the town hall said there was a branch at Stratford - near where I start work on Monday. Brilliant, I thought, given I will have to leave so early to get there. It turns out she meant Stratford Upon Avon. Bother and Blow.

Sara Nathan ● 4320d

No Susan, the pool is at the Town Hall site and yes Twyford is a smaller centre but the classes are very good and I thought it might be useful for members to realise that they can use both sites.

Jackie Green ● 4314d

That was made clear when we joined but, as Sara says, Twyford seems very inferior.

Susan Kelly ● 4314d

I was hoping there was an EE gym over at Stratford east london - but most of them are way out of town - ours is easily the nearest to Central London - then nothing till Romford, Essex

Sara Nathan ● 4314d

We were probably quite lucky to get one in Acton then, TBH.

Susan Kelly ● 4313d

My daughter lives in Leyton. The gyms round there are run by a company called Better, and they are.

Chris Hurley ● 4313d

I wanted - as did the other members of the Town Hall team who were supposed to be consulted on the development but, in the end were wholly ignored - for the gym to be much bigger and managed by Ealing so that the profits (and a large, well-run gym can be very profitable) could ensure there were funds available to secure the provisions in the rest of the building.Of course, if you outsource the gym, there are no redeployable profits.

Sara Nathan ● 4313d

Hard to see how EA can make a profit on subs of £25 a month including all classes.

Susan Kelly ● 4313d

Northolt swimming pool is also EE. It has a big gym attached to it.much larger than acton.

Kim Rugg ● 4313d

Yes - we were taken to see Northolt - among other places and it seemed an excellent model - which we fed back enthusiastically. Ignored of course.At that time Northolt was run by Ealing Leisure and was putting loads of money for upkeep back into the fabric.Susan - you make the profit from the people who pay the subs but hardly ever go - not from the troublesome you and me who actually attend - a relatively small proportion of the membership of any gym. Hence the huge discounting in January: all those lovely people who enroll for a year but never go past the beginning of February.

Sara Nathan ● 4313d

We were actually members of EE while the Acton pool was closed - used the head out to Northolt 3 times a week for our swim (joined when it was run by the council)!I don't know why, but Northolt pool seems so much nicer than Acton's, despite them being - on paper - the same. I suppose Acton is busier, and the lane swimming seems less organised. I've currently given up on swimming and just use the gym.Harrow pool/gym is also EE, I believe, and there's another one out that way, too. Harrow is one of those odd pools that's 33.3 metres long and the deep 'end' is in the middle - could never quite get used to using it!

Elly Belpassi ● 4313d

I wonder how, when they are working out the finances, they decide what percentage of members will never come.

Susan Kelly ● 4313d

No idea but I suspect it is similar across the chains - which is why it is so hellish trying to leave a gym and why they are so foul about it: the business model depends on people paying but not going.

Sara Nathan ● 4312d

I have just suspended the EE membership for 6 months as I have a shoulder injury that prevents me doing much.I have never had a problem leaving a gym if I give the corrects notice.

Kim Rugg ● 4312d

I suspended my Fitness First membership when I had bad eczema and then they re-started it and started taking money from my bank account - without my permission - some six months later.Luckily that is illegal and my bank got all the money back. Fitness First was a total nightmare to deal with about it though.Leaving the Park Club was easy - but that's not a national chain.

Sara Nathan ● 4312d

'I have never had a problem leaving a gym if I give the corrects notice.' (sic)I have: Holmes Place in Ealing. Gave proper notice, in writing, and they just ignored it, tried to threaten me with debt collectors when I stopped my direct debit. Took endless phone calls/letters/emails before they admitted defeat.The lack of a 'contract' is therefore one of EA's (and why do people keep calling them EE?) big pluses.

Susan Kelly ● 4312d

"Hard to see how EA can make a profit on subs of £25 a month including all classes."The monthly rate is not £25,  maybe that was an introductory offer but it certainly is not that now.I also had problems with what used to be Holmes Place but only after Virgin took them over,  nightmare!

Georgiana Eliot ● 4312d

What is it now?I joined at the £250 per year rate - but that only lasted about six weeks last January.

Sara Nathan ● 4312d

£40 ish I cannot remember that exact figure I think £43 per month or if you pay for the entire year you get 2 months "free".

Georgiana Eliot ● 4312d

As I have just done five straight days in the gym and a yoga class, it's proving rather good value.

Sara Nathan ● 4311d

What was the yoga class like? Are we talking bending, stretching and relaxing or something more intensive?

Susan Kelly ● 4311d

It was a Pilates class and the instructor cancelled at around 1700 for an evening class. So this woman - Karen i think - was drafted in as they couldn't find a spare Pilates teacher.Mostly stretching and holding poses of varying difficulty mostly affecting the thighs (it seems this morning!)

Sara Nathan ● 4311d

So it isn't just Aqua that gets cancelled then.

Susan Kelly ● 4311d

Sarah I think you must have got a special deal.I am toying when I compare the price of the park club but then I hear the comments of mismanagement you all make.  The gym is small which is not too bad except there is no adequate stretching area (not if you go in the evening and it is busy).The pool compares well with the indoor pool of the park club but then the changing room seems awful.  But so much cheaper.  I just don't know.

Georgiana Eliot ● 4311d

Sorry Sara not Sarah.

Georgiana Eliot ● 4311d

thanks - am used to it.It costs me about the same for a year at the town Hall as it did for a month and a half of the Park Club - and I only ever really used the gym. So no contest.It's just a shame that the gym isnt better designed - obviously done by business people NOT gym experts. Maybe it will improve when the Ladies Gym starts in the New Year.Apparently the wet changing rooms are to be revamped in the next month or so.Can't compare the classes as I never went to any at the Park Club. But the management there were very unresponsive and unhelpful - which is not what you expect at those sort of rates. And it is even more child-centred so for a different stage of life. And I never felt blonde enough.

Sara Nathan ● 4310d

The wet changing rooms are a bit rubbish, Georgina, but how long is one in there? Five minutes? The pools are good, which is the main thing.Those of us who joined at the beginning of the year, before the gym opened, did indeed get a very good deal.

Susan Kelly ● 4310d

Yes the Park Club is VERY child centred so not my bag either,  apart from fireworks night. I didn't know a ladies gym was opening,  I think the main problem with the gym at present,  for me, is that I didn't like the idea of being on display when stretching and doing floor exercises,  so ladies gym would be good.Susan,  I like to have a proper shower after a swim i.e. get cossie off and like a bit of privacy aka not inflict my unfettered bode on the unsuspecting!  As a child I just dried and dressed but my wants are greater now!By the time they get all the teething problems sorted it will be spring and the lure of the outdoor pool at the park club will beckon.Please keeps us posted though if things improve there as I may give it a whirl.

Georgiana Eliot ● 4309d

No, it's not a place to get a proper shower!I have no great hopes for improvements or refurbishments to the pool changing rooms, TBH, and it'll be a frightful nuisance while they close them to attempt it.

Susan Kelly ● 4308d

But there is an offer at the moment (as ever with gyms at this time of year) I think it's two free months or something like that, at the beginning of next year.Plus the four sessions for the cost of three with a personal trainer

Sara Nathan ● 4308d