Customers angry after city gym's sudden closure

A CARDIFF gym has announced its permanent closure a month after losing access to its own premises. Naked Ground health club's locks were changed by bailiffs on November 4 and angry customers have questioned why membership payments were taken for November and December.

- CONOR GOGARTY

The business, which initially described the closure as "temporary", has now confirmed it will not reopen. In an email to members it said all payments taken on December 1 had been refunded and it would be "processing" refunds for those from November 1.

Customers have criticised the gym, a 16,000 sq ft site in Splott's Portmanmoor Road industrial estate, for accepting November payments three days before bailiffs entered on behalf of the landlord. They also claimed messages requesting updates had been ignored for weeks.

The law requires bailiffs to give seven days' notice before visiting a debtor's property. Naked Ground has not answered our inquiry on whether it knew it would be closing when it took the payments.

Naked Ground, which took over the premises from PB Performance around Easter last year, charged £34.99 a month for standard membership and £59.99 for premium.

According to its website, the brand was co-founded by England international cricketer Tom Curran. The Cardiff health club included a cafe, also called Naked Ground, and the brand's website says it also has coffee shops in Ibiza and the Fulham area of London as well as coffee vans at the Lord's and Oval cricket grounds.