Virgin Active

I usually go to the Wandsworth club when I need a change of scenery from VA Putney which isn’t too often but they do have an alright pool and a really nice sauna/​jacuzzi set up there. I used to really like taking the Aqua Aerobics classes
The gym floor has a nice open space with several treadmils, cross trainers etc. The locker rooms are also quite spacious but my only pet peeve about the showers is that they don’t stock conditioner (whilst the other VAs do). If you are visiting from another club, remember to bring a towel or a £1 to rent one there. Also, they have an on-​line class booking system (or you can call the club directly to book). They don’t usually check against the list if you have booked so you can usually rock up but the classes can get crowded.
Overall, it’s a nice club — definitely not the best but for the lower tiered clubs definitely has better amenities.

Completely unethical membership team.
I originally signed a 3-​month membership. At the end of this, I decided I might renew. The membership person told me I could transfer to their Diamond membership (1-​year, rolling) and pay a transfer fee so that my 1-​year membership would be effective from my original join date (on the 3-​month membership).
This sounded a good idea. Pay a £10 transfer fee so that I could be on a 1-​year membership that would end (so long as I cancelled it in time) about the time I planned to move out of the area.
The membership guy gave me the date I had to cancel by (25 August) if I didn’t want to roll my membership onto another year (and, basically, have to pay for an entire new year’s membership whether I liked it or not — something a lot of people get stuck with when they sign on to Virgin Active gym memberships, but I was sure I wasn’t going to get duped by this, having been very careful with all the Ts and Cs, getting verbal confirmation of everything before I signed on the dotted line). I put this cancellation date in every calendar and diary I had just so that I wouldn’t forget.
I happily went about my business.
25 August approaches, and I fill out cancellation forms online. No one calls me. I call Wandsworth Virgin Active to cancel, and they tell me I should come in. I make the special trip out to Wandsworth — for I do not live there anymore — to cancel and I’m told my membership isn’t due to expire until December and that no one can resolve my issue for me since the membership team all went home.
Um, no.
I call in the next day to speak to a membership person, Angelina. All she does is speak over me in a monotonous, bored tone of voice for 10 minutes, telling me that I was given the wrong information and that a verbal agreement isn’t the same as a written agreement. I ask her to find my original signed agreement and see what’s written on it when she says she’s ‘looking at my agreement’ and I find she’s really only looking at their electronic records. And she says she will. Yeah, fucking right, she will.
She says I should just send in proof that I have moved out of the area and that they will forward it on to their head office to make a decision about the remainder of my agreement.
I told her I’m cancelling my Direct Debit because I’m not paying them another dime, and I don’t care if it goes to a debt collector because they are a completely shady, unethical company. I could send them proof of my address changing, but that is BESIDE THE POINT.
It’s shady, Richard. SHADY.
Branston, I expected more of you.

Last year I had orginally joined at the Putney gym but found this gym far superior. There are different price bands at Virgin gyms and if you sign up at one gym you are allowed to go to any of the other gyms in the same price band. Lucky for me that Putney and Wandsworth were both in the same price brand (or below I believe). And it is one of the lower pricing brands (though still expensive in my opinion).
As the other reviews said the gym is SUPER clean and there is a large open floor plan with lots of different sections. I never got to try out one of the classes but if I join again I’m definately going to sign up. I watched a few of the dance courses and not only did they look like a good workout, they looked fun! A great place to make some friends!
The pool is great but be aware that there are open swim times and times designated for classes and family swim. If you have some little kiddies it’s a great place to bring them.
The staff are friendly but if you are coming from another Virgin gym someone on the desk has to let you in as the computer systems are not connected.
I did give up my membership after 5 months. I was on the month-​to-​month plan from the beginning which allowed me to quit without cancellation fee. If you go on holiday or need to suspend your account you can do that as well. If only the monthly fee were lower I would have probably stayed on year round… like less that £50 a month. Do you hear that Virgin gym??? You’ve got a loyal customer here if you just cut the cost.
I’m sorry to be hung up on the costs, especially since they get higher the closer to central London you get but Putney has a Leisure Centre not far away for much cheaper and it is real competition for Virgin.
Overall, I really found this a great gym and would recommend it to anyone.

This is a very good gym.
There are absolutely tons of treadmills, bikes, cross trainers, lifty, pully, weighty things and stuff that I believe makes you work out by vibrating you.
OK, so you may have guessed that I don’t know a lot about working out and exercise and things like that. However, what I do know is that I eat like a particularly unhealthy pig, drink more beer than I tell my doctor, and have a job where my usual position could be described as ‘slouch’.
But I turn up to this gym a bunch of times during the week, strap on my headphones, do what the machines tell me for an hour or so, and I’m in pretty good shape. OK, so I’m not quite a pro wrestler, but I’m not afraid to take my shirt off.
There is also a spa pool thing — but I’m not going here to ‘unwind’ I’m here to feel the pump and combat my love of pizza. — So I’ve actually never used it.
The staff seem to know what they are doing and there are plenty of classes, but I’m ma gym loner, so I rarely talk to them, that’s the way I like it.
Warning though. Virgin Active ain’t cheap. They have the latest sweat inducing tech, but it does come at a pretty hefty price.

With my newfound love for baking and there being no let-​up in my perma-​love for boozing, I decided that I would HAVE to find a new gym. My previous gym had been in my work building and was VERY cheap. Virgin Active in comparison is pretty expensive in comparison (about £65 a month) but I am not sure that this is especially a rip-​off. Gyms, it would seem cost alot.
You do get quite a bit for your money. The service is efficient and helpful without being over-​the-​top (I hate over-​friendly personal trainers!) and the joining process took about half an hour in total.
The gym itself is HUGE — there are lots of weights, machines for cardio workouts, space for classes and spinning. There is a modest pool, sauna and jacuzzi.
The changing rooms are huge and there are always lockers. In the month I have been going so far I have only once had to wait more than a few minutes for a machine I want to use to become free.
I would without question recommend this gym to a friend — it’s clean, upbeat and professional.

I bought a trial pass for this gym at the weekend and will not be joining. I should start by saying that I am not a fan of gyms (or exercise) and mostly went to check out the pool. This will explain number 1 on my highly personal list of
Reasons I Didn’t Like Virgin Active, Wandsworth:
1) The gym area was full of rows and rows of smart looking exercise equipment, all arranged over one enormous hellish open-​plan floor, with zones notionally marked out by paths which zigzagged around the space like a PE maze from my nightmares. It is like some mental workout factory full of sweating people jogging on machines, bending weirdly on mats and receiving shouty personal training. My eyes! My eyes! Too much to take in, and I think I’d prefer a more intimate little local gym with walls if I was to join one. I can see that it might be quite funky and motivating if you were that way inclined though.
2) The entrance is via a petrol-​stinky multi story car park.
2) The staff when I visited were all incredibly rude and inefficient.
3) It all felt a bit cheap, corporate and impersonal.
The pool was small but clean and pleasant enough. I appreciated the lounging chairs, sauna, steam room and jacuzzi.
If you ring ahead it’s £7.50 for a day pass, so with all the spa facilities, snazzy gym equipment and a café, this is a bargain worth trying. However, I didn’t like the vibe of this place at all, so as they say on Dragon’s Den, «I’m out».

A great gym with a good mix of cardio and weights machines. The pool is really nice too — although the jacuzzi seems to break down quite a bit. Great range of classes with good instructors. All the staff are really friendly and it has a nice atmosphere. It almost makes exercise enjoyable ;o)