The York Hall, officially known as York Hall Leisure Centre is a multi-purpose indoor arena and leisure complex in Bethnal Green, London and is situated on Old Ford Road. The hall, opened in 1929 with a capacity of 1,200, and is an international boxing venue and holds concerts and other live events as well as providing a local gymnasium and swimming pool. The hall is owned by Tower Hamlets Council and in 2004 was threatened with closure. However, the hall was saved, and in 2005 it underwent a major multimillion-pound refurbishment in a joint project between the localTower Hamlets council and Greenwich Leisure. The site is split into three sections: a leisure centre with pool and gymnasium; a Spa and a multi-use events hall.
History
The historic Turkish Bath or banya in the basement was the last publicly run example in the East End of London. In 1972 there were still six Turkish baths, a legacy of the high Jewish population of Russian and Polish origin. This included the traditional suites of Russian and Turkish steam rooms, sauna, relaxation lounge. This popular and often full facility was closed and re-branded as an upmarket Spa London by the council in July 2007, amid vocal protests from its users. Treatment rooms were added to provide a range of upmarket beauty treatments and other facilities now include a hammam, large sauna, two 'aroma' steam rooms, several hot rooms, a bucket shower, ice fountain and plunge pool. Where customers used to give each other a massage with the traditional Yiddish schmeiss free of charge, they now have to pay £56 on top of the £21 admission, whilst treatments such as Hydrotherapy Hydration Purity Rituals have been introduced. Neal Hounsell, Head of Leisure Services at Tower Hamlets, justified the re-branding on the basis that the borough was one of the most deprived in London. The York Hall Leisure Centre's facelift included a state-of-the-art gymnasium that doubled the size of the previous gym area, a refurbished reception area and pool and new changing rooms. The gym is blessed with a newly installed functional area including TRX and Technogym's latest functional frame. The hall is also a popular venue for professional wrestling events, having hosted shows for major promotions such as TNA Wrestling, Ring of Honor, Revolution Pro Wrestling and Frontier Wrestling Alliance, among others. The hall hosted the UFC London open workouts in March 2019 featuring Darren Till, Dominick Reyes and others. The Hall is also where the press conference for the first boxing match between KSI and Logan Paul took place.
