We understand there are proposals at Nuffield Health Portsmouth Fitness & Wellbeing Gym to remove the bar. This may seem like a small change to make especially as we know most of the Nuffield Gyms have never even had a bar. However, whilst noone expects a bar to be operated at a financial loss, if indeed this is the case, we would like the decision makers at Nuffield to seriously consider all other avenues rather than closing our bar.

Our bar is our social hub; it has helped make our club special. It is a meeting place for many after a workout or a game of squash. We also have social functions organised, such as quiz nights, curry nights and end of season presentation nights. Our club is to many of us a social club as much as it is a gym.

A brief history for the decision makers. This club (with a bar) has been part of our community since the 1970’s as it was originally a squash club. It has been open for over 50 years. In the 1990’s it was renovated into a gym with a pool and squash courts and looked similar to how it is today. Over the years the building has been called Portsmouth Squash Club, Club in the Park, Metropolitan Club, Cannons and now Nuffield Health but the social side including the bar has been an ever-present part of this club.

The name may have changed but there are many members who have not and some who even go back to the Squash Club days. Nuffield are the current custodians of our unique gym/social club. So, we would like to appeal to Nuffield to respect the social community in a club that many of us have been loyal to for years and years. Maybe we are a bit of a quirky club within the Nuffield Gym brand, we are not quite in the standard mould of the other Nuffield facilities. But it is our history that makes us different. In our club, unlike most others there is a core loyal membership base, members who really do not want to take their trade elsewhere. The bar is integral to this as it is the social centre of the club. It would be a massive loss to many of us if this was no longer there. We would like to ask you not to close our bar and consider what other options there are in making the bar work again, so our members can continue to enjoy the club in the way it has been enjoyed for over half a century. So please “Save our bar!”