London City Runners near Tower Bridge has leased a 1800sq.ft. Network Rail arch and has opened a venue. This will serve not only as a permanent home for the club, but also a café-bar open to the public and aimed at runners. It was officially opened by Brendan Foster CBE on 31st July
London City Runners is one of London’s largest and most well-known running clubs. The club has seen 9,000 runners registered since it was founded in 2010 and has won multiple awards over the years.
It has also become a meeting point for many local residents with nine marriages and three babies clocked up from within its ranks.
However, its success and rapid growth means it has outgrown 8 successive venues in 8 years. In June the club secured a lease on a Network Rail arch on Druid street in Bermondsey. In 2 months the space was renovated with the help of the club’s members and local businesses.
Tim Navin-Jones (founder) says: “We are about to embark on something incredibly exciting. This venue will not only ensure our club’s survival; it will also create a space that runners everywhere can visit when they come to our city.”
It is the only café-bar aimed at runners in the UK
London City Runners holds three sessions a week, on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Sundays, and runs a couch-to-5k course on Mondays.
The new venue will allow the club to hold running and wellness related events, host speakers and workshops.
Thanks to the new space, the club will be also introduce running to the wider community, reaching out to resident groups that could benefit from exercise such as the elderly and people who may feel excluded from other sporting venues.
“This is a great opportunity to promote running as a way to tackle health inequalities in the area. Running is a great way to bring people together. By opening our venue we have an opportunity to expand its reach to people for whom a running club is not normally accessible. It has the potential to be a great force for social cohesion in our area,” Navin Jones added.
