PRIVATE CLUB PUBLIC IMPACT

The River Bourne Club in Chertsey isn’t your average, privately owned health club. In addition to having a thriving, paying membership, it has also developed strong ties with the public sector and the NHS, providing a wide range of health services to the local population

WellNation’s Tom Walker spoke to Matt Russell, General Manager at The River Bourne Club, about the unique setup.

The River Bourne Club has been looking after the local community in Chertsey, Surrey for nearly 25 years. Built on council land, the privately owned facility first opened its doors in 2000, housing a large gym and a swimming pool. In 2013, it was acquired by two industry trailblazers – LA Fitness co-founder and former chair of Esporta, David Turner and his brother Aron. The 30,000sq ft facility now houses a large health club with an 80 station gym, a 12-station Milon Circuit and four dedicated group exercise studios – including a dedicated indoor cycling studio. In addition, there is a 25 x 12.5 metre swimming pool (which hosts a swim school with 600 students), a café, function space and nursery.

What makes the facility unique is the way it caters for people of all ages, abilities and backgrounds. In addition to its 2,900 private members and 1,100 pay-as-you-go members, its close partnerships with Runnymede Borough Council and the NHS means that it also has a huge number of people using facilities through publicly-funded rehabilitation and health programmes.

WellNation’s Tom Walker spoke to Matt Russell, General Manager at The River Bourne Club, about the unique setup.

How would you describe the River Bourne Club? We are a full service club and while I wouldn’t say our facilities differ too much from other clubs of our size, our mentality is slightly different to other private clubs. It would be easy for us to just focus on selling our services, retaining members and customer service. Instead, each day I think about what more we can do to make a difference to people’s wellness.

Our targets are not just financial. They include being able to answer questions such as ‘how are we impacting the community’s wellbeing’, ‘are we inclusive to everyone’ and ‘how can we support the local Runnymede Council’s wellbeing strategy’. I have been given the freedom to create a unique club that shows how a private club can support the local NHS and council in a way that would normally be associated with a local leisure centre and still create shareholder value.

My team and I make that happen. It creates more work, more stress and pressure – but the rewards are worth it. I know publicly-owned leisure centres do this too, but it is unusual for a private operator to have this as a key focus of its strategy.

Could you describe the River Bourne Club “journey” so far? The brainchild behind the River Bourne Club was former Director, Heidi Blackburn, who is now COO at Leisure DB. She spotted the potential in the club and we took over the ownership of the facility in 2013.

With the support of her team, Heidi helped to shape a kaleidoscope of inclusive initiatives to ensure that the club could support a community throughout one’s life. Heidi then handed the baton to me to continue this great work so as to keep the innovation going.

We are lucky that the club’s owners feel that a club should refl ect the area and community that it is in. They give me and my team the freedom to create a facility that benefits the community.

What’s the ownership structure of River Bourne at the moment? The owners are brothers Aron and David Turner. Both have a long history in the industry, with Aron – who has a background in town planning – operating a portfolio of health Clubs in the City of London for many years. David was one of the co-founders of LA Fitness and is now the chair of Leisure DB. The brothers have a sincere belief that fitness should be for everyone.

River Bourne Club works closely with the local NHS on a number of initiatives – could you tell us more about those? We run a GP referral programme and take referrals from local GPs, social prescribers and NHS referrals. We currently have 187 members on our GP referral programme and the number continues to grow each year. We are currently exploring the opportunity of self referrals.

Lots of people will receive a GP referral but many won’t take it up and one of the main barriers in Chertsey is cost of membership. Recognising this, we offer a staggered membership structure that sees the price increase over a six month period. It starts at £25 for three months, then £33 for three months and then £40 from month seven – a significant concession on our normal membership rates.

"Our targets are not just financial; they include impacting community wellbeing and supporting local health strategies"

But we have a unique partnership with St Peter’s NHS Trust that has grown exponentially since 2018 and is far greater than just a GP referral programme. The St Peter’s MSK and Pelvic Health team now operates at the club fi ve days a week, utilising our pool, studios, gym, function space, and the five clinic rooms with a waiting area that was once our beauty space.

I can’t tell you how fantastic it is to walk around the club and see NHS staff working with patients, having lunch in our café and working in partnership with my team. Patients coming for treatment find it much more relaxing in our club than a clinical hospital environment; it also gets them comfortable with the club. When they fi nish their four to six weeks of treatment with the NHS, they already have familiarity with the club, and are likely to join to continue their rehabilitation or get referred onto our GP referral programme.

Could you give us a flavour of the initiatives you work on with the NHS and Runnymede Borough Council? As with many areas around the country, a significant focus – and part of the council’s leisure strategy – is keeping the 65+ age group active. We have 464 members on our Prime Time membership that specifically supports this group with our prime time programme. Prime Time members receive a discounted membership and we run a specific class timetable for them that focuses on balance, strength and flexibility. This is all supported by our Prime Time coordinator Avril.

We also run OTAGO fall prevention classes twice a week, which focus on supporting people with poor balance and coordination and at risk of falls. You don’t need to be a member to access the class. The aim is to improve the quality of their life and keep their independence. After the classes the participants all come to the café and receive a discounted hot drink as the social element is extremely important for this age group.

In addition, Avril, our Prime Time coordinator, has been carrying out visits to local care homes – in partnership with Runnymede Council – to run chair and fall prevention classes. This was only a short term project but it would be great to be able to continue this as the benefit to the residents would be huge.

Then there is our Milon circuit, which we use as a pathway for those on GP referrals, Prime Time and OTAGO members, to use the club. The circuit is on the main gym floor and not tucked away in another room, as we want the users to get comfortable with the gym environment to make the progression into other areas less intimidating.

As a result of your wide range of services, you must have a really diverse customer base? Yes, our facilities and services mean we do attract a wide range of customers. The mornings and up to 1pm is the main usage time for our Prime Time/ GP Referral members and our new mums and baby swim lessons. The afternoons attract junior members and children for swimming lessons and dance clubs. From 5pm all the people who have been working start coming in. So, throughout the day, you will see a variety of ages from babies to 90-year-olds.

In addition to those with the NHS and the council, what other partnerships does River Bourne Club utilise in its programming and operations? We partner with Hussle and Class Pass, which help us extend our reach to people we may not normally reach with our marketing, driving in income and new sales. We also offer Myzone tech, which is part of our member engagement strategy to help keep members focused and motivated Hydrohex has been a partner of ours for over a year and our most successful venture with virtual classes. The aqua crowd are a tough group to please – but the feedback from members on the quality of the classes has been very positive. Meanwhile, Proinsight is our mystery shopping partner and helps us make sure our customer experience and new member services are on point, and helps direct areas training or development may be needed.

On the equipment side of things, we work with a number of suppliers – such as PSLT, Inspace, Watt Bike, Milon and Matrix. When it comes to equipment we want it to be easy to use and effective. We also want to work with suppliers who can minimise downtime, so service is critical when picking our suppliers.

What are your main focus areas at the moment? We’ve been thinking about what our members need and, although we’re experts in fitness and motivation, we’re not necessarily experts in nutrition, medical advice or mental health. We reviewed our memberships and in March 2025 we relaunched our new membership offerings with a new headline Wellness membership. Through a partnership with Health Hero, the Wellness membership will include access to GPs, dietitians and mental health coaches, as well as a wellness app for further support.

"We partner with the NHS to create a welcoming environment where patients can transition into long-term wellness."

I want to double down on our programming that can better support elements of our community that may not necessarily be able to access our facilities – or lack the confidence to do so. For various reasons elements of the community struggle to access leisure facilities due to financial, physical mobility issues or because of public transport restrictions.

We also have big ambitions to grow our swim school to 800 students this year and my swim manager has spent the last 12 months putting the foundations in place to support that growth.

And what about your future plans – any plans to expand services or add to the facilities? One of our sayings is that we are a “club without walls”. What that means is that we won’t limit ourselves to only what we can do within the physical confines of the club. For example, over the last couple of years, we’ve run holiday activities and food (HAF) programmes at a local school and recently considered taking over the tennis coaching on the courts in local parks.

We also have a number of ideas on how we can better support the 65+ market at home and in local community halls through virtual and instructor-led classes. The idea is to help people who may struggle to leave their homes to build a level of ability to be more active and mobile. If we can help them leave their homes, they can then be involved in more activities to gain further improvement and avoid being socially isolated.