London - August 13, 2010

A Cheap and Cheerful Way to Get Fit

Marshall Street Leisure Centre Opens

Exercise does wonders for your mood, but the hefty membership fee at that flashy health club you joined (damn those New Year’s resolutions) is undermining the positive effect of your one and only visit.

Marshall Street Leisure Centre — a new Westminster Council publicly funded gym and swimming pool — is a cheap and cheerful solution.

After being closed for more than a decade, the grand Victorian swimming baths in the middle of Soho have seen a £25 million restoration. The centre reopened last week, charging £50 a month (with no joining fee or contract) as well as affordable pay-as-you-go options (£2 for Westminster residents to use the pool). Forget floating plasters and verruca-infested footbaths; here, you’ll find the original white Sicilian marble lining the 30-meter public pool, a barrel-vault roof and green marble walls.

Set over three floors, the gigantic new space also has two studios for fitness classes, two Finnish log saunas, a steam room, relaxation area and beauty treatment rooms. There’s also a basement gym with cardio machines where you can plug in your iPod and save the statistics of your workout. If that lot doesn’t inspire you, we’re afraid nothing will.

Marshall Street Leisure Centre, 15 Marshall Street, W1F 7EW (07801 477750 or nuffieldhealth.com).

Photo: Courtesy of Marshall Street Leisure Centre

  Cheap, Healthy