Myself and my wife (and fellow co-founder Tessa) have lived right here in Bath for many years, it’s a place we cherish and in our mind there is no better place to live and work.
The story of FLY Fitness began when Tess met Lucy, our third co-founder, whilst both training to become PT’s here in Bath. They instantly bonded over a shared appreciation for ‘self love’ through fitness and a mutual desire to try and help other people realise the benefits of mindful exercise and how it adds to life’s happiness.
I’ve always been equally passionate about this, and as somebody who loves to train and who loves to meet new people, I was absolutely on-board to create somewhere that offered just that. After countless hypothetical conversations around what it would mean to create a fitness facility that valued mindfulness and fitness in equal measure, became a key part of the local community and aimed to improve every aspect of their mental and physical health, our conversations began to develop into something concrete. We had the beginnings of a plan.
The dream then became real when the three of us began looking around the city for a potential space. The more we looked, the more we began to build upon this vision and the more ambitious the plans became. As somebody involved in property development, I knew what I was looking for. Location was important, of course, but I was looking for potential, something with character that would allow us to be bold with our structural and interior designs and somewhere that encompassed the city’s famous historical architecture.
3-4 Bath street , was originally built in 1791 by Thomas Baldwin and is made from the beautiful, local, golden-coloured, Bath Stone. More recently, the building was used as a Nationwide Bank.
There were a few reasons why we specifically chose this building, firstly it was the size. It had large rooms and great, tall ceilings. It had the potential we were looking for.
Our first course of action was to open up the entrance. We removed the existing bulky staircase and replaced this with a 3 story metal spiral staircase, illuminated by bright white lighting, beaming the FLY logo from the roof down into the reception area.
The main bank floor has been replaced by the FUELD cafe and a large free weights room. As we moved up to the first floor, we converted the offices into a beautiful yoga / dance studio, and a second free weight area. We wanted to make the most of the large georgian windows and the tall ceilings. This was something that was especially important to Tessa. After years of working in an office, she always felt that after being surrounded by fluorescent lights and digital screens, the eyes and the brain need a break, they need softer light - especially when carrying out the more holistic routines.
As you’d expect, renovating a Grade 1 listed building comes with its fair share of challenges. When we took it over, it was in a poor state of disrepair - it needed TLC. The challenge was doing this in a sympathetic way and of course retaining it’s features.
Arguably our biggest challenge came in the form of the bank vaults that lived in the basement. This is now home to our ‘dungeon’ room, the showers and the male and female changing rooms.
The vault doors alone weighed 2 ½ tons each so we needed some serious help! We had to literally call around and ask people ‘what is the best way to break into a bank vault’. The first company told us that they didn't feel comfortable advising on this - until we explained, of course. Eventually after struggling for four days and with the help of a crane and a specialist demolition robot we broke them out of the bank.
We are so proud of the work we have carried out here, we think we have created something truly special for the community of Bath and couldn't be more excited to show you around.
We look forward to welcoming you warmly when our doors open.