A New State of the Art Gym replaces the Room of (Erg) Doom 

The building that houses the new gym was originally built as a milking shed – and most recently housed a dental surgery. Fortunately, the College has extensively renovated the property in Newnham Road and any reminders of the previous tenants have thankfully gone!  

The gym itself is equipped with an array of high-quality exercise equipment and has showers and changing rooms. It is also broadly energy efficient with solar panels and an air source heat pump providing hot water and heating, as well as powering the exercise machines. What is more, the gym is open 24 hours a day – being held up in the lab is no longer an excuse not to exercise! 

Kamilė Stankevičiūtė, an enthusiastic gym goer and runner is studying for a PhD in Machine Learning. She is one of the DCSA Sports Officers, and it is her role to be responsible for the maintaining and the effective running the gym. She and her Fellow Sports Officer Henry Daramola-Martin also oversee Darwin’s sports and societies and organise the annual Darwin-Wolfson Sports Day. 

Kamilė is passionate when talking about the benefits the new gym has over the previous one (now transformed into a valuable space for music practice). Although the old gym was well used, the equipment was shoe-horned into a room not really adequate for purpose, with space for just four rowing machines and some weights. The ventilation was poor and there were no shower facilities. In fact, during the pandemic only four students could use the gym at once because of the rules in place at the time.  

So, there was great excitement when the Newnham Road facility opened, especially as it is four times larger and houses over two floors with not only weights and eight ergs, but also cardio equipment, treadmills, exercise bikes and cross trainers. 

Jose Franco Alvarez is the Men’s Captain of the Darwin College Boat Club and is studying for a PhD in Medical Sciences. He is overjoyed with the number of ergs that can be accommodated on the second floor of the gym. There is enough space to lay out eight rowing machines and still not interrupt those using the nearby cross-trainers or running machines. The fact that eight DCBC members can train at the same time is important – it builds team morale and means that the club is not so reliant on the beneficence of using other colleges’ facilities. The Club can now train with either four, six or eight ergs most days. 

The college had been looking for a good location to house a state-of-the-art gym for many years. This site is just right – it is within a few minutes walk of the College and is close to student accommodation. The gym is of great benefit to Darwin members, for both their physical and mental health, and will be a valuable college resource for years to come.