The UK’s retail landscape is being reshaped by an unlikely force: wellness. But not the community leisure centres of old – today’s fitness spaces are blurring the line between workout and night out. With reformer Pilates, boutique bootcamps and yoga clubs filling social feeds, wellness has become both a lifestyle and a status symbol.

For landlords, this is more than a passing trend. Fitness is now a reliable anchor, driving regular footfall.

While some of the old guard has struggled, Virgin Active and Fitness First have both undergone restructuring in recent years, the new wave of boutique and wellness-led operators is thriving. Their community-first approach speaks to consumers who see fitness not as a chore but as a way to socialise, shop and show up online. Take UNTIL, for example: a platform curating hundreds of vetted wellness practitioners under beautifully designed facilities in central London, enabling personalised health, recovery, coaching and more. It reflects the shift towards holistic, lifestyle-driven wellness.

From Socialising to Sweat Sessions

For Gen Z and younger Millennials, wellness has replaced alcohol as the new social currency. Booking into a Saturday morning class with friends now carries the same weight as a Friday night at the pub. Brands like Barry’s and Hyrox have built entire communities around this shift, mixing high-intensity workouts with post-class smoothies and Instagram-friendly interiors.

For landlords, that cultural change translates into reliable, regular visits – the kind of consistency that retail alone struggles to deliver.

Gyms as Anchors in Mixed-Use Developments

Developers are catching on. Residential-led mixed-use schemes are increasingly incorporating operators like The Font, a boutique bouldering club that blends climbing walls with social spaces, a bar and café. These aren’t just tenants, they’re magnets, drawing a steady flow of affluent, health-conscious consumers into surrounding shops and cafés.

Triptych Bankside has also welcomed Solo60 with their on-demand fitness studio open 24-hours daily. Together, they show how wellness operators can support developments in ways that go beyond fitness – creating destinations where people come to train, connect and spend time.

At scale, the trend is reshaping shopping centres. At the Metrocentre, part of a former Debenhams has been converted into an Everlast Gym, the largest hybrid gym in the UK. Thousands of members now cross the retail space multiple times a week, turning a once-vacant department store into a powerhouse of footfall. Wimbledon Quarter had also seen the benefits of such uses with the opening of Third Space and more recently with the announcement of Fortius Clinic – showing how wellness can breathe life into shopping centres.

Beyond the Gym: Retailers Cash In

The halo effect extends far beyond the gym floor. Grab-and-go food outlets, coffee shops and athleisure brands thrive on the back of wellness-driven traffic. The rise of labels like Lululemon and Alo Yoga, which recently announced its first store outside London in Leeds, shows how fashion has fused with fitness.

Wearables are joining in too. Garmin opened its first UK physical store at Westquay in Southampton, giving consumers a hands-on space to explore smartwatches and health-tracking tech. It highlights how wellness now spans fashion, tech and lifestyle, with physical retail providing a platform for education, personalisation and community.

Saucony with their Run Club and 10k events along with Rapha with their Cycle Clubhouse have been using the rise of social fitness to further engage with their customers and build loyalty. Retailers with no direct link to fitness are also capitalising. Missoma and Arc’teryx host runs, creating opportunities for product promotion while strengthening their brand.

Beauty is part of the crossover too. KXU London recently collaborated with Charlotte Tilbury on a series of in-house masterclasses. These experiential events are social, educational and highly shareable, drawing new demographics into wellness spaces while extending dwell time and brand engagement.

Collaborations such as a pop-up yoga class in a fashion store or a beauty brand hosting a Pilates session blur the line between retail and experience. They bring people back into brick-and-mortar spaces in an age of convenience while generating shareable content that fuels engagement.

Even restaurants are getting in on the action. BabaBoom’s monthly “Kebab Chase” rewards runners with a free kebab for logging miles between its Islington and Battersea branches. It’s quirky, it’s shareable and it turns exercise into marketing.

Competitive socialising is another frontier. Concepts like darts, bowling and arcade gaming are being reimagined as immersive, active alternatives to traditional nights out. LM recently acted on behalf of the landlord to secure Activate at The O2, which launched in 2024 as the world’s first active gaming facility. Offering nine interactive games rooms, it challenges consumers of all levels while creating another powerful reason to visit physical destinations.

What This Means for Landlords and Brands

Wellness is no longer about filling vacant space. It’s the new engine of footfall, loyalty and cultural relevance.

For landlords, gyms & healthcare have proven themselves not as fallback tenants but as the heartbeat of a new retail model. For brands, tapping into wellness – whether through partnerships, activations or product mix – means plugging directly into community, consistency and culture.

Ignore it, and you risk being left behind while the retail revival is powered by people in leggings, not shoppers with bags.

Seven Standouts

1. Solo60 & The Font at Triptych Bankside
   Two operators in the same development: Solo60’s on-demand fitness pods and The Font’s bouldering club with café and bar. Together, they show how developments can blend fitness, socialising and lifestyle under one roof.
2. UNTIL in London
   Curating wellness practitioners under one roof, from physios to performance coaches, offering holistic health in premium spaces.
3. Everlast Gym at Metrocentre
   Occupying part of a former Debenhams, this is the largest hybrid gym in the UK, transforming an empty department store into a fitness powerhouse.
4. Third Space & Fortius Clinic at Wimbledon Quarter
   Premium fitness and healthcare operator anchoring the scheme’s revival, showing how wellness can revitalise shopping centres.
5. Garmin at Westquay
   The brand’s first UK physical store, giving consumers direct access to wearable fitness tech and showing how performance tracking is becoming part of the wellness-retail mix.
6. BabaBoom Kebab Chase
   A run between Islington and Battersea rewarded with free kebabs – quirky, social and highly shareable retail-as-experience.
7. 7. Activate at The O2
   London’s first active gaming facility, offering nine interactive games rooms and reframing ‘competitive socialising’ as active, immersive entertainment.