The Gym That Holds a Century of Strength

Hey, my friend,

On Sunday, I watched a YouTube video from Will Tennyson's visit to Bethnal Green Weightlifting Club in East London.

It is a gym that has been open since 1926 and is believed to be the oldest powerlifting gym in England.

The moment you see it, you can tell it has a history that has been lived in every day.

The walls are lined with photographs from decades past, the wooden platforms are worn smooth from countless lifts, and the plates and bars have the marks of thousands of hands.

In the video, Will walked past racks of dumbbells that looked older than many of the lifters using them.

He also spoke with members who were quietly preparing for their next lift while nodding to friends across the room.

Among the lifters he met was a Paralympic powerlifter who had trained there for years, a man whose determination was clear in every word as he spoke about the role the gym played in his success.

He explained that the support he found there went far beyond spotting a lift or giving technique advice.

It was the belief of the people around him that kept him pushing for more, the same belief that helped him earn medals on the world stage.

Will also met a young woman with a tattoo of the gym’s name inked into her skin, a permanent mark of how deeply the place had shaped her life.

She spoke about finding her strength here, about how it became more than a place to train, and about the friendships that had become as solid as the steel in the weight racks.

Over the years, this gym has been a place where strangers became friends, where people who had never picked up a barbell learned from others who took the time to show them, and where countless small victories were met with genuine celebration.

Some members have been training there for decades, others walked in during moments in life when they needed something steady to hold onto.

And many have found that stepping onto those worn platforms changed far more than their strength.

Hearing about it makes you think of the places in your own life that shaped you without you even realising it at the time, my friend.

Maybe it was a sports club, a community hall, a youth centre, or even a quiet corner where you worked on something important.

Somewhere that gave you confidence when you needed it, or people who believed in you before you knew how to believe in yourself.

Bethnal Green Weightlifting Club has been that place for thousands of people across nearly a century, and now it is facing an eviction notice that could end it for good.

Once a place like this closes, it is gone in more than the physical sense. The history, atmosphere, and countless connections formed within its walls cannot be recreated elsewhere.

There is a petition to help save it, and adding your name is a way of standing up for spaces that change lives quietly but profoundly.

You can sign here: https://bgwlc.co.uk/save-bgwlc.

It may seem like a small action, yet it can help keep the doors open for the lifters who are there today and for those who have not yet found the place that might change everything for them.

And before you go, I hope you find a little time today for something that makes you feel stronger, lighter, or simply more yourself, whatever that might be for you, my friend.

That is it for today, and see you tomorrow.

Take care,
Prasad Mairale
Petals of Positivity 🌸