BLOK will offer everything from ballet-based workouts to rocket yoga in the Northern Quarter
When it comes to fitness blends, we’ve seen everything. Yoga and goats. Speed dating and circuits. The list goes on. But a new venture aims to offer a more premium approach to the fitness hybrid, by tying together design, fitness and architecture.
Introducing BLOK, a boutique London gym that promises to work your artistic appetite as much as your abs. The Shoreditch-based brand is branching out to Manchester, with its third gym due to open in the London Warehouse building in spring 2019. And with achingly cool aesthetics and alternative workout options on the cards, the Northern Quarter is a more than fitting location.
Housed on Ducie Street in a Grade II listed Victorian railway warehouse – and the former home of The Place Aparthotel – BLOK Manchester hopes to offer a hybrid blend of fitness and fashion. The boutique brand was founded by a trio of experts specialised in the likes of construction, photography and marketing, who realised that they could harness their expertise to create a new fitness offering.
“Manchester was a natural choice for the third BLOK as it is such a key location for art, design, fashion and technology,” explains Reema Stanbury, who co-founded BLOK with her partner Ed and Max Oppenheim.
“We are drawn to creative hubs and Manchester, especially the Northern Quarter, has a thriving and growing creative community. Our goal has always been to create more than just a gym and for every BLOK site to be a genuine destination.”
The boutique fitness brand offers ample choice for wellness enthusiasts looking to embrace new forms of fitness, with classes ranging from rocket yoga to ballet barre. Boxing champions, professional dancers and yoga figures are just a few of the experts on BLOK’s roster of hand-selected teachers. It’s all very fashionable.
With London classes starting at £15, it’s a pricier offering than some of Manchester’s resident gyms. Those with £20 monthly memberships may scoff at the thought of forking out so much on fitness. But the design-led luxury offering will no doubt appeal to fashionable city slickers squeezing in workouts before day jobs in fashion marketing and design. This is a gym for people who want to indulge in workouts that are good for body, mind and the aesthetic appetite.
The gym compliments the aesthetics of the London Warehouse development, residing alongside co-tenants Native, an in-demand aparthotel operator and Bistrotheque, who are bringing their London success of relaxed bistro dishes back to its founders’ birthplaces up North.
“With a strong emphasis on architecture and design, the London Warehouse development is the perfect location and, through our partnership with Native and Bistrotheque, we are able to create something which truly is the ultimate cultural destination.”
