Review based on both customer and delivery rider experience at this Virgin Active location.
From a customer perspective, a single visit was enough to notice a clear sense of obsolescence and poor maintenance of the facilities. Cleanliness and overall upkeep felt below expectations for a premium membership gym, which is also reflected in several other reviews. I made the decision not to return as a result. I also personally know people who have had unnecessary complications even just trying to manage or cancel memberships.
From a delivery rider perspective, the experience is even more problematic.
The Kauai bar inside the facility appears to create consistent issues for riders. Although it opens at 8am, orders are often already live beforehand, which leads to riders being sent there unnecessarily, wasting both time and money. Whether intentional or not, the result is repeated inefficiency and frustration on the ground.
On multiple occasions, orders have simply not been ready on arrival. Out of around 10 visits, I have never once been able to collect an order without waiting or encountering delays.
Overall, this location is poorly organised from an operational standpoint, both for customers and for delivery drivers who rely on basic timing and preparation to do their job efficiently.
This place is awful, avoid at all costs. The cleanliness is abhorrent - every time I go there are hairs, grime, and dirt all over the place. It feels dirty and gross. The gym is almost always overcrowded and lacks any order or decency. The staff in my experience don’t enforce many of the rules - the majority of lockers don’t get emptied at night and people just use them forever so you will struggle to find open ones. People routinely add oils and other dubious substances to the steam room and none of the staff seem to care. To the point that it’s hard to breathe.
The pool is always crowded and even if you go at off hours they have “lessons” or they basically rent out to external groups half (even been 4 of the 6 lanes on occasion) and so all the members have to swim in the few remaining lanes. It’s absurd. Happens nearly every time I go.
They lock you up in a long term contract because they know they provide horrible quality service and everyone would leave as soon as they could otherwise.
They also make it literally impossible to contact them. The staff onsite are utterly useless and barely listen to you while speaking. There’s no way to call the gym to ask questions. The app’s contact/feedback function doesn’t work and just glitches out. And on the phone you have to wait well upwards of 40 mins to talk to someone who also is entirely unhelpful.
They also say you can go to other locations around London. Great, but they change the tiers of the gym at will and block you from accessing them without paying more. Absolutely ridiculous practice and bad business. Avoid this place at all costs. Not worth the money or time.
AP
Alexander Parsons
Apr 25, 2026
Nice gym and Owen was a great PT. A little busy sometimes but otherwise a lovely experience.
MA
Majd Alkasem
Apr 19, 2026
It's not a clean pool, you can see the dust underwater on the pool floor, the water little foggy, the toilets aren't clean as well, I wouldn't mind to pay £5 instead £3.3 for a pay as you go to access a cleaner pool and facilities
NA
Niccolò Alcini
Mar 18, 2026
I got my membership with this gym in October, and I was really excited. Lots of people I know have been talking about Virgin Active as the best gym ever, so I had really high hopes. Spoiler: they were not met.
Starting with simple things. There are basic machines, the like curl and abs ones, that are missing. Even the worst gym in London has them. And the most expensive one does not.
Secondly, people NEVER put weights in the right places. And I know this is a common problem in every gym. But having to go on a treasure hunt for two dumbbells of the same weight in a gym where you pay £ 100+ a month is ridiculous. They’re not in the right place even when it’s early morning, so it’s not a problem related to the peak hours chaos.
Thirdly, and I can’t stress this enough, people are so rude, and no one does anything about it. In 5 and a half months here, there have been maybe 2 times when I asked someone how many sets they had left, implying that I needed the same machine, and they told me if I wanted to do my sets while they rested. Everyone just replied saying “I just started”, “three sets”, and stuff like this. It is so funny how on the wall you wrote in gigantic characters “In this club we spot each other” and yet I have never felt more out of place in a gym. No one helps you, no one asks you if you wanna do one set each, no one talks to you or gives you suggestions. It is simply not a good environment to workout in.
I also want to say that the way tennis courts bookings work are wrong, especially for the sessions with coaching. The app obviously lets anyone book, so I think the coaches should tell some people to avoid, for instance, booking intermediate session when they are clearly beginners to say the least. I was so happy about having a gym with tennis sessions and yet I had to stop going because the sessions called “intermediate” (which is my level) are actually beginners, full of old people who don’t run and middle age people who don’t listen to the coach when he gives drills to do. Once again, really really disappointing.
On a brighter note, sauna, steam room and pool are really nice. As well as the bar. But that’s it.
For the amount of money I pay, I would expect a higher level of everything. Not recommended.