Nuffield Health Friern Barnet Fitness & Wellbeing Gym

I like it. Magnificent building, no kids, friendly staff. Not too busy. A couple of changes since pandemic not to my taste. The “club” area is now equipment which does not suit me so much. Towels no longer supplied, though David Lloyd does still do so. Nevertheless, I am very pleased to be back.

I got very unwell after a run outside and needed to use their toilets. The staff at this gym took great care of me. PT Omar was extremely kind and caring as was the manager on reception (I don’t know her name!) thank you for looking after me!!! Grace

I am writing to you as I have great concern for the site in Barnet. The site has not had any hand soap in the toilets. This is a major health and safety concern and unacceptable to have no hand soap for over week. This is a minimum requirement for basic hygiene and a major health risk, specially when we still have viruses that are still present today. My other hygiene concern is that body/shampoo has not been provided for 2 weeks now due to deliveries as site has been informing me. Again this is unacceptable as this is a basic hygiene requirement that a fitness leisure centre should have, especially when people are informed to take a shower before entering into pools, and other facilities. This therefore will contaminate and increase bacteria and body fat in pools, and jacuzzis as well as inside the steam and sauna. This therefore would mean that site would need to clean and drain waters to compensate the increase in poor hygiene. I do not see that this site will carry such work as this will impair more cost. As a standard they should be approved cleaning products that remove body fats from showers and other parts of the leisure facilities. Could you please inform me what approved products you use on site to achieve this?

We have had equipment in the gym which has been broken for a month. We already on this site suffer from a lack of equipment to work on different body parts, so having one equipment in the gym not working massively impacts on what we can use as a collective in the gym. What are you doing about the equipment that is broken and when would this be fixed or replaced?

I have been told that towels were stopped since COVID to hygiene cross contamination reasons. Towels are the safest to use as towels are washed at 60 degrees Celsius to kill bacteria and viruses, and if you do not use temperatures to kill bacteria and viruses, then there are approved products that help kill bacteria and viruses when towels are washed at a lower temperatures. Could you please inform me when you would introduce towels back onto site?

The gym is 2 minutes walk from my front door and a great location within Princess Park Manor. Mario Papa made the sign up process very smooth and the equipment is just right for my needs. Particularly enjoying the pool and steam room

I'm close to leaving due to how old, run down, and mediocre the facilities are. As an example, the running machines have 1st Gen iPod chargers they're that old!!

Machines and taps will be left for months with "out of order" signs on them. The floor has come up and has missing floor boards in places.

The selection of weights is sparse and there are key training machines missing.

My local community leisure center is 100% better value - it's odd for that to be the case against a private member's gym. It's a shame because Nuffield used to be great but their standards have significantly dropped.

Their saving grace is the location which is pretty, and grand, and feels like a spa - it's just a shame that what you walk into doesn't even close to match it.

I have emailed and complained via the web form about this and had no response.

Have been coming here for a while via Hussle but have recently signed up as a member. Mario Papa helped me sign up and was extremely helpful and the whole process was very straightforward. The gym is very close to home and has good facilities including an excellent pool and steam/sauna facilities. It is very peaceful finishing a workout with a swim. I’ve not tried the classes yet but there looks to be a good selection to choose from. The location a fab with the gym set into beautiful surroundings.

It’s very convenient to where I live, which is the only reason I still go there, and the instructors are also nice. But it’s generally poor value for money. It is looking tired, its often dirty, general maintenance is poor- eg there are light bulbs not working in the changing rooms and half of the chairs by the mirrors have disappeared. The jacuzzi has been boarded up and not functioning for weeks, and one of the sinks in the changing rooms is taped up and not working. The staff on reception are generally unhelpful/unwelcoming and some are actually just rude. One told me she felt embarrassed to work there and another told me that there was no point completing the electronic surveys as no one reads them. Since Covid, despite there being no reduction in price, they seem to be the only gym in the area, NO longer providing towels (with apparently no intention of considering changing this policy- a real pain if you going on your way to work etc). They no longer provide free coffee either. Nuffield please up your game as I certainly wouldn’t recommend it

Vastly overpriced. Good location and lack of competition means they charge too much for what you get. Old machines and just not enough different ones. Broken machines are left broken for months. Pool locker facilities are dirty and old. This gym needs a major refurbishment. Reception staff are friendly though.