Getting fit in and around East Village

Swimming in Olympic pools, riding the velodrome and training on free outdoor kit are all within a twenty-minute walk of East Village. Here is what is actually there, with addresses, so you can pick something and go.

Free and on your doorstep

Start with what costs nothing. Victory Park, in the middle of East Village, has outdoor gym equipment, and there is more free outdoor kit near Lee Valley VeloPark, including a spin bike and a hand crank. Our Parks runs free exercise classes in Victory Park, funded by Get Living, and its East Village group has a Saturday morning bootcamp. You book through the Our Parks site.

For running, Hackney Marshes parkrun is a free timed 5k every Saturday at 9am. It is flat, friendly and a short ride north of the Lea. Closer to home, the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park covers 560 acres and is free to visit every day, with the Greenway past the London Stadium as a ready-made route. The Hub keeps its own list of run clubs and sessions too, from track nights to couch-to-5k groups.

Pools

The big one is the London Aquatics Centre, Aquatics Walk, E20 2ZQ. It has two 50-metre pools and a diving pool, plus a gym and fitness classes. Everyone Active runs it. A pay-as-you-go swim started around £3.50 off-peak and £4.50 at peak when last published, so swimming here costs less than most people expect. Timetables are busy at weekends, so book ahead.

The Olympic Park venues

Three world-class venues take casual bookings:

• Copper Box Arena, Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park, E20 3HB. A public gym with cardio, resistance and free weights, plus fitness classes. Hackney Wick tube is about five minutes away.
• Lee Valley VeloPark, Abercrombie Road, E20 3AB. Track, road, mountain biking and BMX in one place, with a gym as well. This is where the 2012 track cycling happened.
• Lee Valley Hockey and Tennis Centre, Leadmill Lane, E20 3AD. Six outdoor and four indoor tennis courts and two hockey pitches, with pay-as-you-go tennis bookable through Better.

Gyms in and around East Village

• The Gym Group East Village, Victory Plaza, Fortunes Walk, E20 1JF. The closest thing to a village gym, open 24/7, with free classes in the membership. Off-peak started at £27.99 a month and a day pass was £12.99 when I checked on 5 November 2026.
• Anytime Fitness Stratford East, Prospects East, 158 Leyton Road, E15 1DR. Open 24/7, a few minutes from East Village across the park.
• PureGym London Stratford, in the Stratford Centre on The Mall, E15 1XQ. Open 24/7, from £24.99 a month plus a joining fee when I checked.
• Gymbox Westfield Stratford, 6A Chestnut Place, Westfield Stratford City, E20 1GL. The expensive one. More than 80 classes a week, a sauna, and aerial and pole classes.

Classes and studios

LevelOut, 2 Victory Parade, E20 1GF, is a small reformer Pilates studio in East Village, with classes capped at twelve people. MoreYoga Stratford International, 47 Liberty Bridge Road, E15 1FT, runs yoga and Pilates a few steps from the station. Both take bookings online.

Clubs

If you would rather train with people, the Hub's fitness listings cover the lot, each linking to its own listing page: East Village Basketball Club at Chobham Academy on Sundays, the ESBI London run and brunch from Bobo & Wild in East Village every Saturday, and track sessions on the London Marathon Community Track with Victoria Park Harriers and Your Friendly Runners.

Prices and timetables change without notice, so check with the operator before you set off. And if somewhere is missing from this guide, a name and a link is all it takes to add it to the directory.

Photo: Sumit Surai, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0.