FAQ: Gym / fitness room

Does Connaught Hall have a gym / fitness room?

No. Unfortunately, our fitness room had to be closed in 2009 because we were unable to insure users of the fitness equipment against injury.

What used to be the fitness room is now our library.

All University of London students can join the "EnergyBase" gym at ULU on Malet Street and the "Bloomsbury Fitness" UCL union gym on Gordon Street, both of which are very nearby. There are also Fitness First, Nuffield Health, and Bannatyne’s gyms within easy walking distance of the Hall and most offer discounted membership rates for students.

Welcome & fitness room

It's been a pleasure to meet some of the first wave of new residents to move in this weekend. I hope you are all starting to settle in and looking forward to lots more arrivals over the next two weeks.

Quite a few people have been asking about the gym / fitness room.

The University has asked us to close the gym on insurance / health & safety grounds: if we kept the gym open and someone hurt themself, our insurers would not pay out, which would cause problems for the injured resident, the hall finances, and all the other residents whose facilities would suffer as a result of the hall having to foot the compensation bill.

I do really think this is a shame but the truth is that the fitness room was only ever used by a small minority of residents and its closure opens up the possibility of us creating a new, exciting social space in the basement that should be more widely used. This is a project that the elected Residents' Club Committee for 2009-10 will enjoy.

Be sure to let us know if you have any ideas for how we could use the old fitness room in future.