Rise Climbing

Aim

Rise is expanding! We are funding this ourselves, but we need your support!

As you may know, we’re expanding DIY-style into our next door unit to grow grow grow the centre - adding more climbing, more boards, more gym space - but we need your help!

It’s a tough time being an indie in London at the moment. Everyone is a bit more squeezed for cash, climbing doesn’t feel ‘cool’ anymore, and to stay alive we’re competing in a very saturated space (not least with closures, acquisitions, and chain gyms all around us). 

We’ve explained a bit about why we’re expanding in the video, but basically it boils down to, we need to. The gym is just about getting by, but to stick around in the London market, we need to evolve and get better. We don't want to pull the old 'we're putting our prices up so we can keep growing' move, though - in fact, our prices haven’t gone up since 2024!

The expansion will increase our beginner-friendly climbing, hard climbing, board, and gym offerings. This will allow us to be more flexible with the space, and maintain a better overall product. New additions will be: 

• A board room on the ground floor with Rise Spray Board, Moon Board, and NEW TENSION BOARD 2 
• A new slab wall on the first floor so we can have MORE CLIMBING ROUTES
• An extension to the existing gym with some more space and more equipment, including another rack and a cable machine

We’ve taken on the task of doing the building ourselves. Conor’s been working on the site day-in day-out, with Chi, Basia and a good number of volunteers dropping in as they can. As of 8th January, we have been on-site for more than 166 days. Since then, we’ve lost count. It's also cost us upwards of £80,000... and counting! We’re incredibly grateful for everyone who’s given their time to this so far, and we’re thankful for everyone being so patient with us as we work to complete this. It’s hard work running a gym and building a new one at the same time.

In the meantime, we’ve been trying to keep the centre accessible and fun for everyone coming to climb;

• We’ve restarted our monthly improvers sessions, staff and member-led classes to help with your climbing at every level, but also with other fun things too. They’re free with any entry to Rise, and sessions vary from handstands, to life drawing, to language exchange. 
• We’ve formalised our Pay What You Can scheme, which helps people who might feel unable to afford a full price entry / membership, but also lets people contribute more towards the gym to help support independent climbing.
• We’ve kept up the events and socials, hosting Barrio Fiesta, Lunar New Year, New Year’s Eve, monthly karaoke sessions and community climbing with some amazing groups and organisations.
• Did we mention prices haven’t gone up since 2024?!

Lots of people have asked us about supporting the gym through a Crowdfunder, so here it is. We have loads of contribution options - all of which are received ever so gratefully and graciously, and to show you, we have some fun outcomes, prizes and activities for you to get involved with - like knocking down that wall!

To get the expansion started, we invested some of our own cash into the gym, but there is only so much we can put in. We need community help to get it over the line. Every contribution to the Crowdfunder will go towards supporting the gym during the build, and allowing us to continue offering accessible, affordable and fun climbing for all the communities who choose to climb with us.

Here's an example of one of the rewards :)

Funding method

Keep what you raise – this project will receive all pledges made