Mile End Climbing Wall — Attraction in London

Went here few times on weekends. To be clear I am not interested in bouldering and can't say anything about bouldering areas. Maybe they are much better than top rope and lead room.

Main things which turned us away were busy and slow reception, small choice of routes, policing stuff, priority on courses over people climbing, sneaky locker charges.

Place is super busy and it took me and my partner about 15 minutes to get throw registration and 'test'. Test is made of pictures with harnesses, knots and ATC belay device. You need to point those mistakes to pass it, most of which are difficult to spot and they are not obvious. Maybe because we have so much different equipment? Anyway it felt like a test designed to be failed unless you been trained to pass a test like that

Back to climbing itself. Where is only one room for top ropes and leading. With 8 set top ropes and 7 sets for leading. And one auto belay. On all days then we were in this gym 4 to 8 of top ropes were reserved for courses. So that means if you didn't brought your own rope and where are people coming for a course and take all 8 top ropes you are left out of the boat. To make it even worse stuff requires you to vacate the top rope if they need it for course. Saying 'no' leads to a conflict.

Another thing is policing stuff then you climb. In this small room for climbing where are always 1 - 5 people watching you like prison guards. I fully understand the worry for safety, but I never felt so uncomfortable belaying before!

Once you are done climbing and about to leave you return your key and.. you have to ask (!) to have your deposit back. First time I thought guy at reception was daydreaming when he just grabbed the key and went away. It appeared it's common practice to assume that all clients are willing to leave the deposit as donation to the charity. I know it's just 50p, but I found it very rude to take it...

For those times when the great British outdoors just won't cut it... Mile End Climbing wall is more than just a climbing wall. They have several, in fact!

One if the better gyms in the city, nestled next to the canal in Mile End park. The gym offers several rope climbing areas, as well as copious opportunities to boulder.

Bouldering will take you to a covered outdoor area (my personal favourite), which boasts a wide variety of surfaces and difficulties. This includes at least one wall dedicated to Tour see Stade courses. These are fantastically fun routes, changed every so often by a collection of cunning Frenchmen, under cover of French hip-hop and off-peak hours.

In the rest of the gym you'll find a room to test your mettle for traversals and overhangs. The climbers who frequent this room are made of stern stuff...and perhaps a not-insignificant amount of gibbon DNA. The bulk of the gym consists of a large room combining top-rope and a wide variety of bouldering courses. These courses change frequently and offer a lot of fun and interesting challenges. I'd hazard to say that Mile End integrates volumes and built-in 'natural' feature on their walls better than any other gym in London.

The only downside being that the gym leans a little more towards experienced climbers. As a beginner, you'll find a fair number of great starter routes, but the difficulty does increase at a steep curve. You may run out of options unless you're comfortable pushing yourself quickly.

Regardless, the staff are fantastic, skilled, and helpful. The patrons and atmosphere are inviting and friendly. More importantly, the rental shoes are high quality and well maintained, keeping the wafts of other-people-foot-smells to a bare minimum!

Should you feel the need to start buying your own kit, you'd be hard pressed to find a better selection of gear...

Fantastic venue. I took my son here whist having a break in London. It was a great find and will definitely go again. We visited on a Friday morning during the kids Christmas holidays and it wasn't busy. I was surprised by the excellent set up. From the professionalism of the staff making sure everyone is kept safe to the huge range of routes to climb. It is set over several rooms packed from floor to ceiling (quite literally, there are rooms where you have to climb across the celling from one side to the other). The venue has options for all abilities from young children and first timers to professional climbers. The staff are excellent, very friendly and helpful whist remaining professional ensuring everyone is safe. The session cost just £7 which includes climbing shoe higher which is fantastic value, and very surprising being in London with such a great set up. Refreshments are available and are reasonably priced too which is another nice surprise as other venues like this usually charge a premium for a captive audience. There is also a separate sauna area which can be added on to the visit or used on its own and costs about £10 and offer a climb and sauna bundle or a few quid more and plan on giving it a try on my next visit. I think this would be great venue for a corporate team building experience and also for stag and hen parties (before any drinking of course).

To sum up If you want to try climbing for the first time or want something to do on a rainy day go and...