Why we built Salus House

To train well in this corner of South East London, you had to travel for it. Third Space, if you were willing to travel. David Lloyd, if you were willing to bite your tongue. Otherwise, a gym in one postcode, a reformer studio in another, and a spa for the occasional weekend. Good things, scattered.

We wanted them in one house. Close to home, considered in every detail, and run for the people who use it.

An unlikely pairing

Louie has spent more than twenty years in boxing and strength and conditioning. I trained in ballet, where every day starts at the barre and nothing is ever quite good enough. On paper, an odd match.

In practice, we grew up in the same thing: disciplines where you turn up, do the work and keep refining it long after anyone else would stop. A boxing gym and a ballet studio have more in common than you'd think. Both reward repetition. Both are honest about where you are. Both are better with good people around you.

That is what we wanted Salus House to feel like. Strength and grace under one roof. Hard work, done properly, in a place that looks after you.

A house, not a gym

That difference shaped every decision we made, from the layout of the rooms to who stands behind the front desk. We think of health in four parts: train, move, recover and connect. Each has its own space, and each matters as much as the others.

Train. The gym floor is fitted with Technogym equipment, free weights and racks, laid out so it never feels like a queue. Our coaches run strength and conditioning across the week: Salus Signature for full-body strength, Barbell for those who want to lift properly, and HYROX for anyone training towards a race, or who simply likes to be pushed.

Move. The reformer studio sits behind a run of arched mirrors, lined with Merrithew reformers. Classes are kept small so an instructor can see you, correct you and progress you. Alongside reformer, Sculpt builds posture and tone on the mat, and yoga is taught in the Red Room, under low red light.

Recover. This is the part most clubs treat as an extra. Here it is half the point. The sauna and ice bath are yours to use whenever you visit, and red light therapy, in partnership with BON CHARGE, is part of the house. Recovery isn't a reward for training hard. It is what allows you to keep training at all.

Connect. The part you won't find elsewhere. Coaches who know your name and remember your knee. Faces you come to recognise at 6am. Friday Night Lights each month, when teams of four take on the floor and stay for a drink afterwards. Member events, and a run club that ends at a different local café each time.

An hour here can hold all four. Train, then the ice bath, then the sauna, and home before the evening has gone. We open at 5am on weekdays, and parking is free.