The Boardroom set to close rock climbing gym in Wimbledon and cut more than 15 jobs

Announcing to their employees that one of their branches will be closing at the last minute says a lot about why the owners still see themselves as an independent business

On 27 May the Boardroom Climbing, a rock climbing gym in South West London, announced that it will be closing its doors permanently on 8 June 2025, just under two years after it opened. The reasons given for its closure were “persistent leaks in the building, increasing rent, and lower-than-needed footfall”. This news was preceded by a similar, albeit much shorter, announcement made recently by a different climbing centre in London which said that two of its gyms will also be shutting down on 31 August.

It is probably safe to assume at this point that more gyms will follow, as the market is saturated and maintenance costs keep rising. The conversion rate from casual to regular climbers for most of these gyms, for example, has always been a problem and membership numbers are nowhere near high enough to cover all the overhead costs required to stay afloat, run sustainably and grow. How some of these gyms plan to brace for the impact remains to be seen, but we’re likely to see climbers of all levels moving around more frequently as time passes.

There has been a genuine outpour of support from the climbing community since the Boardroom made its announcement. Those who climb there regularly took to social media, and those who make part of a staff-led WhatsApp group showed their affection towards the staff by sending messages which read that Boardroom was the best and friendliest gym in London by far. There were some interesting suggestions floating around in the group chat in the hope of keeping the gym open. These were neither turned down nor disputed: sadly, they went largely unnoticed.

There’s no reason why we shouldn’t believe the official narrative about why the Boardroom decided to close, but there is ample room for speculation. The constant leaks the owners mentioned in their closing statement was an open secret to all who climbed there, for not a single month went by without dirty water dripping from the ceiling. In short, this was a problem from the beginning, but concerns raised by customers about the structural integrity of the building were ignored.

Further, the “lower-than-expected footfall” was in all likelihood due in part to its location inside the Wimbledon Quarter, a large shopping centre adjacent to Wimbledon Station with a large number of retail stores and luxury gyms that charge extortionate prices. Their most regular clientele during the daytime were parents visiting with their precious young’uns, newbies who made climbing one of their New Year’s resolutions, and curious onlookers who walked past the gym every so often and wanted to see what the hype was about.

Even so, the deciding factor in all this must’ve been the increasing rent. After all, Wimbledon is a prime location, highly desirable to investors because of its proximity to the high street area, on the one hand, and well-sought after by wealthy landlords who are looking to diversify and expand their portfolios, on the other. In other words, the rent per annum must’ve been high since they first opened, so high in fact that a small independent business from Wales wouldn’t be able to afford long term. I’m not going to tell you how much the rent quota is, but a quarter million pounds is a lot of money.¹

However, the ins and outs of a small business that is struggling financially aren’t important. A pair of entrepreneurs took a gamble, tried to expand and failed. What’s more important is that everyone who worked there – some of them part-timers and some on a full time basis – are going to be out of a job in less than two weeks. That’s several front of house staff, a number of professional route setters, one coach and centre manager (a total of fifteen-odd people if calculations are correct). This, of course, was to be expected; besides, businesses go bust all the time. But that’s not all.

The details of the meeting which took place between the owners and staff aren’t exactly clear, but those who still work there now, inclusive of the manager, allegedly found out they were getting sacked just two days before the official announcement was made, leaving many of them confused and feeling insecure about possibly not finding other paid work in time to cover next month’s bill payments. Some of these folks may have a side hustle or might already be going to interviews as we speak, but in reality most of them are going to have to apply for benefits and dip into their savings, if they have any, to cover their monthly rent and pay for utilities.

If these allegations turn out to be true, and employees found out they were losing their jobs two days before upper-management decided to make it public, then it’s confirmation that people’s suspicions of how the two owners have managed the gym over the last couple of years were not altogether without merit. In other words, failing to give their employees due notice speaks volumes about the pair’s incompetency and lack of care, regardless of whether or not they were legally obligated to do so. This comes down to two main reasons, which are standard in any industry.

First, the owners must’ve seen this coming months, possibly even a year, in advance. A failing business usually shows several warnings signs before it is forced to close down. This is elementary business literacy, as any teenager across the country studying business at GCSE level can tell you. Besides, some of us remember that major concerns about footfall were already there as far back as 2023, the year the Boardroom first opened. In fact, the general consensus among a number of staff members who used to work there was that Boardroom would almost certainly have to shut down if numbers didn’t improve in early- to mid-2024.

Second, and more importantly, the two of them must’ve been involved in a series of back and forth negotiations with Romulus, the property investment and development group which owns and manages commercial spaces inside the Wimbledon Quarter, before deciding to call it quits. It’s common practice to provide three months’ notice when a fixed term tenancy is about to end, a period in which landlord and tenant can make offers to each other and figure out if they find common ground.² Even in the unlikely scenario that a landlord doesn’t want to renew the lease, the tenant gets told in advance in order to make proper arrangements. However, if you’re renting a commercial space negotiations in some cases start six months or even a year in advance, as one of the representatives at Romulus was able to confirm to me on the phone.

It is very hard to believe they weren’t aware of their financial difficulties, or that negotiations didn’t take place at any stage before 25 May, the day when they decided to finally break the news to their staff. There’s been a lot of conjecture in the community about why they waited so long to tell them, and your guess is probably as good as mine. But it is very likely from conversations that I’ve had with people at Romulus that a significant period of deliberation preceded the announcement, and that owners Lee and Davis oscillated for a while between accepting the quarter mil offer or walking away.³

That’s why those who worked there and were affected the most by this sudden closure mustn’t listen to voices in the community telling them the situation is more nuanced than it looks. Let’s not lose sight of ourselves, Romulus is the source of the problem, but the least upper-management at Boardroom could’ve done is take responsibility and give their loyal members of staff a heads up before pulling the rug under their feet. The fact that they didn’t says a lot about their business acumen, why they still consider themselves an independent business, and what they think about their subordinates.

So don’t be blindsided by cynical dyed-in-the-wool neoliberals who try to hijack morality and justify the unjustifiable by claiming the owners are feeling this far more keenly than anyone else does. If you’re not aware, the pair are well-cushioned to sustain the blow because they have a financial safety net to rely on; meanwhile more than a dozen people are probably going to spend the next two weeks filling out Universal Credit forms. This situation is proof that employers treat retail workers as expendable. If you think they care about you, think again.

1. You can contact the Wimbledon Quarter and speak with the general manager, who can get you in touch with someone at Romulus. The unit is 9,258 square feet and it’s currently priced at £26 per square foot (service and business charges not included).

2. Some tenants even have a right to a longer notice depending on their circumstances.

3. The only other plausible alternative for this last-minute announcement is a break clause in the tenancy agreement or an agreement with Romulus in the eleventh hour that allowed them to end the tenancy early because they were already behind on payments and couldn’t afford to pay rent anymore, for example. Even if this turns out to be true, they should’ve been transparent with their staff and told them about their plans to surrender the lease.