From Mayfair’s newest members’ club to East London’s coolest calisthenics den, this is where the capital gets fabulously fit.
Forget the days when a gym membership meant a row of treadmills, a chlorine smell you couldn’t quite shake, and a vending machine posing as post-workout nutrition. London’s luxury fitness scene has had a full glow-up, and the best clubs in the capital now double as members’ clubs, spas, co-working spaces and, in one memorable case, an actual laundry service. We’re not complaining.
The trouble is, everyone and their trainer seems to be opening a “wellness destination” right now, and not all of them earn the title. Do you want a boxing ring endorsed by a heavyweight champion, a Mayfair spa with a six-figure membership list, or a micro gym you can have entirely to yourself? Decisions, decisions.
We’ve sweated it out (and showered it off) across the capital’s best clubs, from the boutique East London studios to the hotel spas with price tags to match. Consider this your shortcut to the gym membership that’s actually worth the joining fee.
Virgin Active Mayfair
Best for: A full social wellbeing takeover
Price: From £250 per month with a £250 joining fee
Why we love it: We’ll be the ones to say it, we didn’t expect a nationwide gym chain to make this list either. But the newly reopened Mayfair branch, near the Marble Arch end of Oxford Street, has rebranded itself as Virgin Active’s first “social wellbeing club”, and it genuinely gives Third Space a run for its money. Across two sprawling floors you’ll find enough Technogym kit to keep even the most dedicated lifter happy, plus a swimming pool, contrast therapy area and spa-style changing rooms that don’t feel like an afterthought. There’s a co-working space with its own café and bookable meeting rooms too, for the members who like to segue from spreadsheet to squat rack. Classes range from Reformer Pilates to muay thai and the brand’s signature Lift Club, and the wellness menu runs to physiotherapy, body composition scans, compression boot recovery and a full treatment list. Ask nicely and they’ll even do your ironing while you train. No, really.
Dabbs Fitness, Mayfair
Best for: No-nonsense results
Price: From £225 per month
Why we love it: If you’re after saunas and shelves of luxury haircare, look elsewhere. Dabbs is for the crowd who’d rather spend their money on trainers who actually know what they’re doing. Sessions cap at four people, meaning proper attention on your form, not a vague nod from across the room. Training blocks change monthly, each one built to progress on the last, so the real results come to those who stick around. It’s not flashy. It works.
The Method, Notting Hill
Best for: Dance-meets-strength training
Price: From £442 per month with a £530 joining fee
Why we love it: The Method landed in Notting Hill and quickly became the studio West London didn’t know it needed, blending ballet, Pilates and high-intensity conditioning into classes like the HIIT-heavy Blast and the body-sculpting LSD. Big things are on the way too: 2026 brings new outposts in Paris and New York, alongside an expansion of the London flagship into The Club, a serious health destination on Westbourne Grove. Inside, expect three purpose-built studios for dance, strength and reformer work, plus The Lab, a recovery space with contrast therapy, a Swedish sauna and three ice baths (brace yourself). There’s also an outdoor garden terrace, a private members’ lounge and a café outpost of Mayfair favourite Nathalie. New strength class Brace joins the roster this year. Consider us fully signed up.
Jab Boxing Club, Victoria
Best for: Celebrity-trained boxing
Price: From £30 per class, membership on application
Why we love it: Founded by former boxing champion George Veness, whose client list runs from amateur fighters to the likes of Lily Allen, Jamie Redknapp, Justin Theroux, Emilia Clarke and Sam Rockwell (what an interesting dinner party that would have been), Jab is one of the sharpest training operations in Victoria. The retro, 1970s-inspired space has since partnered with Jo Malone, Ralph Lauren and WIT Fitness, and it’s easy to see why. Sessions cover 12 rounds of boxing in 50 minutes, functional strength work for upper and lower body, and guided hot and cold recovery to bring your nervous system back down to earth. A second site opens in the City this autumn, so get your name down for founding membership now.
Studio Fix, Kensington
Best for: Truly inclusive training
Price: From £169 per month and from £25 per class
Why we love it: Studio Fix arrived on High Street Kensington in 2024 with three studios across 7,500 square feet, and quietly became one of the most genuinely inclusive gyms in London. Founder Najeeb Abunahl designed the boxing programme, which focuses on upper body strength, after struggling to find accessible classes while temporarily using a wheelchair himself, and the result is a space where wheelchair users and everyone else train side by side, not separately. Beyond boxing, book yoga, HIIT, weightlifting or lagree, a megaformer workout rooted in Pilates principles that’s become a firm favourite among the celebrity set (we can vouch for the results). Freshen up in the golden-hued changing rooms, Dyson hairdryers included, and don’t skip the peanut butter and jam protein shake on your way out. A genuine treat, even at 8.55am on a Monday.
Espa Life at The Corinthia, Embankment
Best for: Hotel-spa serenity
Price: Gym access included with Espa Life spa membership, from £7,500 per year
Why we love it: Tucked inside the five-star Corinthia London, Espa Life is 3,300 square metres of mosaic tiling, hanging lights and electric fires that make you want to slow your heart rate on arrival, not raise it. That said, the fitness offering holds its own, with kit from BLK BOX, Technogym and Peloton, plus bespoke PT Pods built for weights, rigs and turf work, delivered in partnership with performance group AMP. For a gentler pace, the yoga schedule spans vinyasa, yin and pregnancy yoga in both group and one-to-one formats. Don’t miss the AMP Run Club, a gentle 5km loop of the city at 8am every Saturday for those who’d rather sweat outdoors.
Lanserhof at The Arts Club, Mayfair
Best for: Medical-grade wellness
Price: From £6,500 per year
Why we love it: Lanserhof built its reputation at health resorts across Germany and Austria, and its no-nonsense, science-backed approach (think full-detox diets and medical assessments led by actual doctors) landed in Mayfair in 2019, directly opposite The Arts Club on Dover Street. Six floors of slick interiors by Düsseldorf firm Ingenhoven Architects culminate in what might be London’s most stylish changing rooms, an all-white, vaulted space that feels more gallery than gym. Open to members and non-members alike, you can book 3D body scans, cardiovascular screenings and reformer Pilates classes capped at four or five people, then work through a spa menu that runs from massages and facials to cryotherapy and vitamin infusions. You’ll leave stronger, healthier and more than a little smug.
Equinox, across London
Best for: American-style high performance
Price: From £240 per month; E by Equinox from £350 per month, plus joining fees
Why we love it: Equinox reinvented luxury fitness in America before landing in London in 2012 on Kensington High Street. It’s since added a Bishopsgate site and, for the truly discerning, the ultra-exclusive E by Equinox in St James’s. The standard clubs come loaded with every piece of equipment you could want, alongside boxing, fitness and yoga studios, changing rooms stocked with complimentary Kiehl’s products, and a marble-clad lounge for the cooldown. Both have full-service spas and juice bars too. But E by Equinox is where things get properly indulgent: personal training takes centre stage, alongside a cryotherapy chamber, a regeneration room, compression therapy and a laundry valet that means your gym kit is always someone else’s problem.
KX & KXU, Kensington & Chelsea
Best for: Old-money glamour
Price: KX from £615 per month plus joining fees; KXU from £340 per year
Why we love it: Come on, it’s KX. Pronounced “kicks”, this Chelsea institution has been setting the standard for luxury health clubs since 2002, and the rumoured member list (several royals, plus Eddie Redmayne and Pippa Matthews) tells its own story. Beyond the stately gym and fitness studios sits a holistic spa, a club room, a restaurant and a juice bar, so the leap from morning yoga to a working lunch requires zero effort. A few lunges down Pavilion Road, sister site KXU offers a trendier, pay-per-go take, with strength and conditioning, cycling and the notoriously tough Games circuit session, plus barre, yoga and hot Pilates under mirrored walls and low lighting. There’s also a wellness clinic with cryotherapy and infrared sauna, and most classes stream on demand for the days you can’t quite make it in.
Third Space, across London
Best for: Workday-to-weekend flexibility
Price: From £257 per month
Why we love it: David Beckham and Prince Harry have both been spotted working out at Third Space, which is recommendation enough for us. London’s leading luxury health club chain now spans Soho, Canary Wharf, Mayfair, Marylebone, Islington, Moorgate, Tower Bridge, Battersea and the City, which means there’s very little excuse not to get your session in. Expect treadmills and elite machinery as far as the eye can see, climbing walls, cycling studios, swimming pools, spas and restaurants, with some venues running full sports halls for volleyball, basketball and table tennis. Members can also book in with nutritionists, podiatrists and physiotherapists, while the brand’s Out/Set programme assesses your fitness and goals from day one and builds (and monitors) a plan around them.
BXR, Marylebone and The City
Best for: Instagram-ready boxing
Price: From £1,800 per year or £180 per month
Why we love it: Endorsed by Anthony Joshua and backed by a membership committee that includes Mark Ronson, Andre Balazs, Sara Sampaio and Eddie Hearn, BXR’s Marylebone flagship draws heavyweight champions and supermodels in equal measure. The industrial, dark interiors are offset by gleaming gold and marble bathrooms stocked with Malin + Goetz, and members really do admit to showering here rather than at home. The boxing ring is the obvious centrepiece of the 4,000 square foot space, but there’s plenty else going on, from hip hop-soundtracked cardio to Sweat by BXR classes including kickboxing and Europe’s only VersaClimber class (not for the faint-hearted). Sister sites include a pay-per-go Sweat by BXR in Canary Wharf and BXR City, which comes with expansive views over London from the 25th floor of 22 Bishopsgate.
Blok, Shoreditch and Clapton
Best for: East London cool
Price: From £90 per month
Why we love it: Blok has been leading East London’s fitness charge since 2016, founded by Ed and Reema Stanbury and Max Oppenheim, and the industrial, laidback aesthetic still feels a world away from Mayfair polish. A curated shelf of Malin + Goetz and a rail of fitness-friendly streetwear set the tone on arrival, before you head into one of three light-filled studios for pay-per-go boxing, barre, yoga or HIIT. Don’t miss one of London’s only calisthenics classes, or Blok Party, the calorie-torching Friday night session set to a proper club soundtrack. True to form, a low-key techno beat follows you into the changing rooms.
The Lanesborough Club & Spa, Hyde Park
Best for: Five-star recovery
Price: From £6,000 per year
Why we love it: Widely considered one of the most impressive hotel gyms in London, The Lanesborough Club & Spa spans 18,000 glittering square feet near Hyde Park, designed in partnership with 1508 London and finished off with a genuinely gold changing room. More than 40 classes run each week, from dance cabaret-style sessions to spin and a run club that loops Hyde Park with a personal trainer in tow. Don’t miss the electrical muscle stimulation training if you want your workout done in a fraction of the time. Afterwards, sink into the hydrotherapy pool, book a thermal treatment room inspired by ancient Roman bathhouses, or head to the spa for a Tata Harper facial. The all-day healthy menu, served from 7am in the restaurant and spa lounge, is reason enough to linger.
Elysium, Aldgate and Seven Dials
Best for: Total privacy
Price: From £25 per hour
Why we love it: Not one for the group class energy? Elysium’s micro gyms, currently in Aldgate and Seven Dials with more on the way, are booked entirely for your own private use via the brand’s app. Turn up, unlock the door with your phone, and the state-of-the-art equipment is yours alone, whether you bring your own trainer or a workout buddy. Each site comes with a wet room and a snug for winding down before or after. Genius, frankly.
Still deciding? Book a trial class at two or three before you commit. Your ideal gym is as much about the changing rooms and the playlist as it is the equipment. Trust us, you’ll know it when you find it.
