One room, twelve machines.
A Georgian building on Picton Street with plaster walls we did not paint over, a floor that creaks in one specific place near the window, and twelve reformers that get serviced every eight weeks whether anything is wrong with them or not.
11a Picton Street, Montpelier
Bristol BS6 5PZ
Open in maps
The main studio
Twelve Balanced Body Allegro 2 reformers in two rows of six, with about a metre between them — more than most studios give you and the reason we cannot fit fourteen in here.
No mirrors at the front. This was argued about and the argument was won by the people who pointed out that mirrors make a room full of people watch themselves instead of listening. There is one mirror, at the side, for instructors to check alignment from an angle.
Jump boards, boxes, magic circles and light hand weights live on the shelf by the door. The overhead lighting is warm and dimmable and is never above 60% during a class.
Through the glass door
The small studio
Three tower units, two wunda chairs, a ladder barrel and one more reformer. It holds six people and that is a hard limit — spring work needs an instructor who can see all six at once, and at eight nobody can.
This is whereTower & Chair,Rehab & Recovery,Prenatal & Postnatal and everyprivate session happen.
It is the quietest room in the building and the one with the window onto the back garden, which has a fig tree in it that has never produced a single edible fig.
Getting in, and getting around
Including the bits we have not solved. A studio that only lists what it does well is not telling you what you need to know before you travel across a city.
Ask us something specific- Step-free access
- Yes, from the street to both studios and to the accessible toilet. The front door is 900mm and there is no threshold lip. The building is Georgian and the corridor is narrower than we would like at 1100mm, which is fine for a wheelchair and awkward for two people passing.
- Toilets and changing
- Two changing rooms, two showers, and one accessible toilet with grab rails on the ground floor. No lockers with locks — cubbies only, and in nine years nothing has gone missing.
- Hearing
- No induction loop, which is a genuine gap and one we intend to fix. Instructors will happily teach from where you can see their face; just say so at the start.
- Quiet and light
- The main studio has no mirrors at the front, no overhead spotlights and no music in most classes. Jump Board is the exception and is loud on purpose.
- Getting here
- 11a Picton Street, four minutes from Stokes Croft. Buses 5, 24 and 70 stop on Cheltenham Road. Bristol Temple Meads is twenty-five minutes on foot or ten by bus. Eight bike hoops directly outside.
- Babies and children
- Non-crawling babies are welcome in the small studio during Prenatal & Postnatal. There is a mat, and somebody will always pick them up. We are not able to take children in the main studio.