Reading Borough Council has spent £250,000 on new Technogym kit at both gyms. Drop-in gym is £10 at South Reading, £9.75 at Meadway, or £7.90 for residents.
The gyms at South Reading and Meadway leisure centres have been fully refitted, and the work is already finished. Reading Borough Council put £250,000 into the two rooms (Reading Borough Council, 1 September 2026).
Both centres are run by GLL, the charitable social enterprise that trades as Better, on the council’s behalf. It also runs Rivermead and Palmer Park, which were rebuilt outright and opened in 2023 and 2022. South Reading and Meadway are the older pair, and this is the first thing the council has spent on them at that scale since.
What has gone in
The council says both gyms now carry Technogym equipment:
- strength machines
- plate-loaded kit
- treadmills, cross trainers, cycles and stair machines
Cllr Jacopo Lanzoni, lead councillor for leisure and culture, tried the equipment at South Reading. He said the kit is “great quality and ideal for customers who want to build strength, improve their cardio performance or just work on their general fitness”, and that having the two smaller centres matters “as well as at our larger Rivermead and Palmer Park leisure centres”.
The two centres
South Reading Leisure Centre, Northumberland Avenue, Whitley, RG2 8DF:
- 25-metre swimming pool
- sports hall for badminton, basketball and five-a-side football
- 3G football pitch and floodlit tennis courts outside
- classes including HIIT, yoga, Pilates and boxfit
Meadway Sports Centre, Conwy Close, Tilehurst, RG30 4BZ:
- 20-metre swimming pool
- sports hall for badminton and basketball
- squash courts and a cycle studio
- classes including HIIT, yoga, Pilates, junior fitness, over-50s sessions and pickleball
What it costs to use them
These are the drop-in prices GLL publishes for each centre. Members pay nothing extra for gym or swimming.
| Activity | South Reading | Meadway |
|---|---|---|
| Gym, adult | £10.00 | £9.75 |
| Gym, adult resident rate | £7.90 | Not listed |
| Gym, concessionary | £6.20 | Not listed |
| Gym, junior | £5.00 | £4.85 |
| Gym, student with NUS card | Not listed | £4.50 |
| Swim, adult | £6.50 | £6.20 |
| Swim, adult resident rate | £5.70 | Not listed |
| Swim, junior | £3.90 | £3.70 |
Sources: South Reading prices and Meadway prices.
The resident’s card, and what it actually saves
The council says the free GLL Reading Resident’s Card “offers up to 30% discount on activity charges and up to 50% discount for concessions”.
Against the prices GLL publishes for South Reading, the resident gym rate of £7.90 is 21% below the standard £10.00, and the resident swim rate of £5.70 is 12% below £6.50. The concessionary rates come closer to the second figure: £6.20 for the gym is 38% off, and £3.60 for a swim is 45% off.
Those are the only two activities we could check, because Meadway’s published price table does not list a resident or concessionary rate at all. “Up to” is doing real work in the council’s wording, and it is worth asking at reception what your own card gets you rather than assuming 30%.
Opening hours
For the week beginning 31 August, GLL listed:
- South Reading: Monday 08:00 to 18:00; Tuesday to Thursday 06:30 to 22:00; Friday 06:30 to 21:00; Saturday and Sunday 08:00 to 18:00.
- Meadway: Monday 08:00 to 19:00; Tuesday to Friday 06:15 to 22:00; Saturday and Sunday 08:15 to 18:00.
Hours change week to week, so check the centre’s own page before travelling.
What it means for you
If you stopped using either gym because the kit was tired, that reason has gone. The rooms have been redone, and the cheapest way in is a resident’s card, which is free to Reading residents and applied at the point of booking.
Two things worth doing before you go:
- Get the card first. The resident rate is not applied automatically to a walk-in.
- Check the day’s timetable. Junior gym at South Reading is priced “as timetabled” rather than anytime, so the £5.00 rate only applies in set sessions.
More on getting around town and paying for it: parking in Reading, Reading council tax bands and Reading bin collection days.
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