Third Space Canary Wharf — Attraction in London

If you value your health, comfort, or money, do NOT join Third Space Canary Wharf. Worst “premium gym” experience I’ve ever had. It left me sick, freezing, and furious at how little they care about their paying members. For £245 a month, you’d expect excellence. What you get instead is a giant, soulless warehouse with freezing temperatures, mediocre classes, overcrowded machines, robotic staff, and a so-called members’ lounge that feels more like a noisy airport waiting area than a perk. This is not a Third Space. A true third space should feel human, safe, and caring. This club is the complete opposite: cold in temperature, cold in atmosphere, and cold in how they treat their members. It is not a safe space. It is not a community. It is a corporate trap. The temperature issue: Walking in feels like stepping into a cold-storage unit. The gym floor is icy (even the PTs wear jackets indoors), the female changing room is freezing, the lounge blasts icy air conditioning at your head, and there is ZERO fresh air circulation – no open windows, just stale recycled air and other people’s CO₂. Every time I trained, I sneezed and left feeling sick, not stronger. Complaints went nowhere: “thank you for your patience, we’ll look into it.” Translation: we don’t care. Weeks later, nothing had changed. This is health-damaging in a place supposedly about health. Machines: Sales promised there would “always be a machine available.” That was a lie. During peak hours the machines are full, you wait around wasting time, and for £245/m that is unacceptable. Classes & facilities: Average at best. Pilates here is not the place to actually learn. The climbing wall is only for beginners, open at odd times, and their induction skipped the most important thing: teaching proper warm-ups to avoid injuries. The pool? 23m instead of a proper 25m – yet they still call it premium. Members’ lounge: Oversold during the tour as a quiet workspace. Reality? Always overcrowded, noisy with blasting gym music and chatter, impossible to get a seat, and absurd rules like “no laptops on sofas.” At £245/m that’s a joke. Parking policy: Only 3 hours free on weekends. That’s not welcoming. I was refused parking validation at 8:02pm while people were still in the changing rooms. “Rules are rules,” the staff said. No smile, no flexibility. Summed up the entire vibe. Staff & service: Cold, disengaged, robotic. With thousands of members and 300+ staff, nobody knows your name, nobody cares. Customer service is nonexistent. You are just a number in a corporate revenue machine. Upselling: Constant harassment. Supplements, PTs, treatments – endless pushing. That is not premium. Water fountains require your own bottle. Forget it? Then you wait at one awkward fountain by the sauna. Thirsty and inconvenient. Reports on Chinese social media (Red Book) show members being charged for PT even after cancelling a month in advance.

This gym is not female-friendly, not Asian-friendly, not international-friendly, not ADHD- or asthma-friendly, not weak-immune-system friendly. It is designed for bankers with corporate subsidies, not real people who value their wellbeing.

Summary: Constant freezing temperatures, no fresh air. Machines overcrowded despite sales promises. Classes mediocre, climbing wall for beginners, pool below standard. Lounge overcrowded, noisy, restrictive. Parking validation unwelcoming. Staff robotic and unhelpful. Constant upselling = harassment. Zero community. Poor value: 10x the cost of a budget gym for 2–3x the service.

At best, this is worth £100/m. At £245+, it’s a scam dressed in shiny marketing. Third Space is cold in temperature, cold in staff, and cold in atmosphere. It damages your health instead of improving it. This gym left me sick, ignored, and ripped off. Do not be fooled by the branding – this is not premium. It is not a third space. It is not even a safe space. It is corporate, exploitative, and hostile to the very people paying its bills. Avoid...

This is an absolutely fantastic club BUT it used to be better. I have been a member here for 3 years now and the club is fantastic. Below I would like to enlist the things that are important to me when choosing the gym:

Classes: I am the kind of person that doesn't know how to use all the machinery in the gym and so I am very fond on classes, and the choice here is fantastic! There are so many classes to choose from, where the trainers are always open to questions and feedback. Some are of course better than others, so if you didn't enjoy your Vinyasa I would recommend trying the same class that is conducted by someone else as it can make a world of difference. My favourite classes are: Yoga with David (for the last 3 years I have not been to a better yoga class!), Spinning with Channah, Zumba with Luisa and Core45/LGA with Sally. However, since those are popular they are quite difficult to book which leads me to my next point...

Booking System: This is where the gym loses the star from me. There used to be no booking system when I joined this club, which was a stressless experience where you needed to show up 15min earlier for the more popular classes and just show up for the not so popular ones indicated with a wristband (WB) or a token (T). This was however, later dropped and an app was introduced which is a NIGHTMARE. First of all the popular times when the classes are conducted (before 8am and after 6pm on the weekdays and whole weekends) are booked up instantly. They book 2 days in advance so booking the really popular classes (i.e. Yoga with David) requires some intensive planning, setting up alarms because if you will forget, you will not attend (you can of course join waitlist but if you are 5th+ on the waitlist you will most likely not make it). But this is not the worst part of this booking system. The penalty system is. I love classes and I book them 6 days a week, but I never know what time will my work finish, as I often need to stay longer and I am unaware of that fact until 5:30 pm. If the class is at 6:30 pm I won't make it, but I also was supposed to cancel it 4 hours in advance to avoid a strike. 4 strikes in a month and you are BLOCKED from booking any classes (yes from a gym you still pay for £170 a month) for a week (I think it used to be 2 wich was utterly ridiculous and for me it was better to freeze the membership for a month asap if that happened). I would much prefer if we didn't have any bookings at all because that makes the gym experience very unpleasant.

Cleanliness: The club is very clean and it smells amazing. What I find off putting when it comes to gyms is usually the sweaty smell. But here, probably, due to the fantastic air refreshment system you get none of that. If anything it smells like cowshed. When it comes to cleanliness the club, particularly the changing rooms, feel like they are constantly being cleaned and you can spot the staff vacuuming and polishing throughout the day, which for me is a good thing.

Amenities: The club has a lot to offer: Steam room and Sauna which are very nice, a Swimming pool which gets a bit crowded at times but has a good quality of water at a perfect temperature for a workout, climbing wall (you need to complete an induction first in order to be able to climb, which if I remember correctly is £30, but is worth it), changing rooms with cowshed products (They smell divine) as well as cobs, cotton pads, hair ties supplied which is a bonus if you forget your own.

Useful thing to know, if you loose your card the first one is free, the next one is £5.

Overall it's a great, clean beautifully smelling club with so much to offer with an utterly unfair and stressful booking system, where you can get banned from going to the amazing classes just because you got sick, your plans changed, you overslept or you had to stay...

Been a member since May. I love the space and equipment in the gym - main reason for joining. But for the expensive fee you pay you would expect Wi-Fi to work - and it doesn’t on the third floor - cardio area (where you need it to). Also has been poor on the second floor, worse when busy. Despite raising this with staff nothing has been done for over a month now. Also very weak or no air con on the third floor where the treadmills are. It’s like a sauna at peak time. Disgusting conditions. Members for over a year have told me they have complained about this and nothing has improved. Rumour has they don’t switch the air con to save money. The club is meant to be undergoing a refurbish but this seems slow and no measures to deal with the poor air con during the heatwave. Locker room is dated and needs an upgrade. The reception staff aren’t particularly friendly. Every gym I’ve been a member of they welcome you when you walk in. Despite having about 5 staff on the reception desk they seem more bothered talking amongst themselves. Also some seem quite arrogant. A hello when you walk in would be welcome. Trainers and floor staff are mixed. Some say hello and friendly. Others aren’t. Gym floor is generally kept tidy. Peak times it is very busy so despite the vast equipment you could be waiting around for equipment. Overall expect more for the fee. Basics such as having good Wi-Fi and air con is not met at this club. Please listen to your members complaints and act on them. Canary Wharf needs to come up to par with the other newer clubs you have opened up. This week the Wi-Fi has stopped working completely on the third floor treadmill side treadmills. The managers response was that there was no issue. Now they don’t believe clients complaints. I had to send a screenshot showing there was no internet connection at all. I’ve also been told there is no head office or way to escalate the complaint. What corporate has no escalation to their complaints procedure ?! Especially charging the most expensive fee for a “commercial gym “ in London. So poor. So if you have a complaint expect management to challenge you, and do nothing about it. Canary Wharf needs a severe change towards customer service.

Update: June 25: The air conditioning has not been working on the majority of the gym floor including cardio / treadmills for over three weeks. It’s been absolutely unbearable in this heat. No offer to members of using other clubs or compensation. You pay £230pcm to use a gym where a basic requirement isn’t met. Along with this the gym is undergoing a refurb so it’s busy, less room to workout and no air con. Ridiculous. I emailed the manger asking if the paper towel dispenser in the ladies toilet could be replaced as there is only one and people are queuing for paper especially in rush hour. A month later the response is there is a delay getting one. Buy one from Amazon! This club really doesn’t care about getting things fixed promptly to ensure members get the basic services they have paid for let alone the premium price members are paying for what is supposed to be a “luxury gym”. It’s not luxury if you have no air conditioning and one paper...