Greenwich woman woken up at 6am every day by ‘noisy gym’

Sarah Dacey moved into her flat in Woolwich, Greenwich, in 2017.

Since early 2018, she has regularly heard noises from the unit downstairs, including weights being dropped, music and tyres being flipped.

She said: “It’s been going on for such a long time.

"I don’t really know how many more emails telling them that I’m at my wits’ end and it’s affecting my mental health that I can send.”

Outside of the new PureGym in Woolwich (photo: Joe Coughlan) (Image: Joe Coughlan)

The gym below Ms Dacey’s flat opened in January 2018 and she added: “The first night they opened, they started a class and me and my neighbour next door just came running out of our front doors going, ‘What the f**k was that?’ And they were flipping tyres.”

After nine months of complaining, Mr Dacey said that rubber mats were added to the floor of the gym at the request of the managing agent, but this did little to resolve the issue.

Last year, the former gym below the flats relocated and Ms Dacey along with her neighbour thought this would be the end of the noise in the morning.

However, the relief was shortlived and the tenants discovered that PureGym had applied to move in.

Ms Dacey said she made, along with her neighbours, numerous calls to the owner of the property, Berkeley Homes, and to Greenwich Council to ensure the new gym would not have the same problems.

“We all raised complaints and concerns about the soundproofing,” she said.

“[When PureGym were moving in]n All summer we had drilling and hammering from eight in the morning, sometimes before and I complained about that, since June.

"I was so happy when that finished, and then the gym noises started again.

“So they did all that work. And I had just presumed, like we all did, that had included soundproofing.”

Ms Dacey claims that Berkeley Homes told her and her neighbours that noise testing was done by PureGym before they opened, but claims they are still able to hear noise downstairs.

Since the space below was converted into a PureGym, Ms Dacey says she and her neighbours have experienced noise both day and night, as the gym is open 24 hours.

She said: “It started at 6am this morning with a thump every five or ten minutes consistently between six and nine. And because it’s 24 hours I woke up at about 1.30am last night and heard a thud.”

Living on the second floor, Ms Dacey is partially removed from elements of the noise below.

She said her neighbours on the first floor have it much worse, and can hear the “rhythmic pumping of beats for the classes”.

When Ms Dacey raised her concerns with PureGym directly, she was told to keep a log of disturbances for the next four days.

She said: “I started [on Thursday], the minute I got home at 4pm. And there’s so many I’ve basically given up, because it was like, ‘5.55pm, 5.58pm’.”

With the noise persisting, Ms Dacey said she feels that none of the bodies involved in the issue are acting quick enough. 

She said: “To have any kind of extraneous noise like that is just really disruptive, especially when a lot of us have been working from home a lot more now because of Covid.

"It’s a bit like tinnitus, it’s just there in the background constantly.”

A Greenwich Council spokesperson said it first became aware of the noise complaints made by residents living at Drummond House in December 2021.

“Following an investigation by Planning Enforcement, Berkeley Homes agreed to make structural changes to adapt the space from retail use to that of a gymnasium,” they said.

“Part of these changes included sound and vibration insulation to be made before opening to the public.

"Unfortunately, these were not met, therefore the council requested the unauthorised user to cease the use and permanently vacate, compliance was achieved by January 17, 2022.

“Around the same time, Berkeley Homes entered into a lease agreement with Pure Gym with a draft planning condition which they implemented at the end of September 2022.

"In the past week, we received a follow-up complaint, so a Planning Enforcement Officer from the Council will reattend to meet Pure Gym’s acoustic design managers to find out more.”

A spokesperson for Berkeley East Thames, who manages the ground unit in the building, said: “We are aware of the resident’s concerns about noise from the gym, which we are taking seriously. 

"We’re in close contact with the leaseholder, PureGym, to explore how this can be resolved. 

"We will liaise directly with the resident regarding her concerns.”

A PureGym spokesperson told the Local Democracy Service that they were “not made aware of any longstanding noise complaints” before they took over the site.

They said they conducted “full scientific acoustic testing” and made a significant investment to soundproof the gym and all tests were  “passed by independent acousticians.”

They said: “We take our responsibility to minimise disruption for residents living near to our gyms very seriously.

"Since PureGym Woolwich opened just over a week ago local residents have raised concerns about noise levels, an issue that appears to have also been raised with previous occupiers of the unit.”

They added: “It is clear that noise disruption has caused local residents grief for an extended period of time and this is an issue that we are now thoroughly investigating. We have conducted further acoustic testing, which is yet to identify the gym as the cause of excessive noise in residents’ communal corridors.

"However, we are now in regular dialogue with residents and have asked them to keep a noise diary, which will help us to understand whether gym usage is causing a noise problem and if so to pinpoint the exact source. We can then take steps to implement a solution.”

Have you got a story for us? You can contact us here.

Follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram to keep up with all the latest news.

Sign up to our newsletters to get updates sent straight to your inbox.