David Lloyd - Kidbrooke Village

Overview
Set just south of London between busy roads and housing areas I found a building which from the outside I wasn't sure if I had accidentally found DLs office or a gym. It's red brick exterior almost putting me off I decided instead to go and have a bit of a session in Kidbrooke Village.

As with a lot of David Lloyd's this facility is set out over 2 floors, with the downstairs containing the bulk of studios, the indoor pool, café and changing rooms. With a section of the upstairs housing the main gym area, this gym suffers from the same challenge I am finding with a few David Lloyds which is a minor complaint, navigation. I had a good wander around the café and had to guess that the gym was upstairs, it’s a small ask but for the simple minds out there could we please have some more signs…

Once my poor addled 5am start brain had navigated me upstairs I found a rather odd layout but one I am seeing more, with a synergy to one side surrounded by cardio equipment, a main cardio area with a stretching section and then the weights area up some stairs including the free weights and cable machines.
That said this DL does mix this up a bit,  there is a second free weights area which houses a couple of benches (also seen at DL Reading and Oxford so far), but the other minor oddity here was that the benches (flat, incline, decline) were all down a set of steps where the rest of the free weights were up the stairs. This isn't the end of the world but in a plat hogging situation this could be a bit of a pain.

The rest of the free weights area was set out with a good set of dumbbells up to 50kg set out in front of a large and well-lit mirror (great lighting!), with the plate lifting equipment to one side. I was a little disappointed to only see 1 cage and 1 squat rack in here where other David Lloyds have had a bit more.
This appears to have missed some of the weight kit refurb that other places have seen, though the synergy is new the plate lift kit is the older hammer strength and the cable kit is a bit older.

The cable equipment is functional and there is a good range but with nothing new or random, a good solid set is present and a surprising number and variety of different handles and grips for the cable machines! I found about 5 variants to use for my lat pull down, I was not complaining.

The cardio equipment was a good selection of quiet new kit with a few unique pieces of ski trainers which I haven't seen in many places and a huge number of rowing machines. The stretching area was quite large for a David Lloyd, in fact probably the largest I have seen which I think could be why the weights area felt a bit smaller. All this kit was clean and fresh and the wifi for cardio was strong as ever, being new these almost all had screens built in so there aren't many TVs about which I prefer.

All in this gym was a small David Lloyd as they go for a weights area, it felt like some of the space could have been recycled from the stretching into cable kit to free up room for more free weights of plate kit. That said the gym wasn't too busy, I got my work done and there are a huge number of mirrors in every direction which always makes me a happy Ben. 

In summary you can get your work done here, but if this places gets busy you might feel the pinch with a smaller weights area if that’s your poison. The other facilities at the David Lloyd may make up the difference for you as ever depending on what you are after !


How busy?
Training from around 6-8 it was pretty quiet, there were a few other people training in pairs but not anything to interrupt what I was doing.
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Equipment
Free weights area
2 squat racks (1  with deadlift platforms)
1 flat bench, 1 incline, 1 decline
4 free benches
Dumbells up to 50kg
Set of plate machines including
Chest
Row
Shoulder press
Cable machines including
Low row
Cable cross over


Facilities
Outdoor Tennis courts
Indoor Pool
Heated Outdoor Pool
Café
Steam room/sauna
Changing/showers
Studios (inc spin)
Free weights area
Weights machines
Cable machines
Cardio area
Synergy 360

Pricing
As ever David Lloyd can vary by location on where your base is, recently talking to a friend they got a starting rate of
£90 for standard
£70 per person for couples
I have as other reviews had between £60-90 as the range and worth a haggle
Remember there is a premium over this for tennis/squash etc

Other bits
Parking was ample and not busy at all
I got lost in reception again and scared people looking like a weirdo
It’s a small DL as they go compared to something like Oxford


https://www.davidlloyd.co.uk/clubs/kidbrooke-village
https://www.facebook.com/DavidLloydKidbrooke/

Final Gym Rating:
2 pack!
A nice clean gym, but small for the likely DL price.