The York Hall, officially known as York Hall Leisure Centre, is a multi-purpose indoor arena and leisure centre in Bethnal Green, London. The building opened in 1929 and it is most famous as an international boxing venue with the first nights of professional boxing at the hall taking place in the late 1940s. The main hall also hosts concerts and other live events and other facilities also include a local gymnasium and a swimming pool.
History
The building, which was designed by the borough engineer and architect A.E. Darby, was officially opened by the Duke and Duchess of York in 1929. It started hosting boxing events in the late 1940s.
The historic Victorian-style Turkish Bath in the basement was one of the last publicly run examples in the East End of London. In 1972 there were still six Turkish baths, a legacy of the high Jewish population of Russian and Polish origin. This included the traditional suites of Russian and Turkish steam rooms, sauna, relaxation lounge. However, the facility, which is owned by Tower Hamlets Council, was threatened with closure in 2004.
York Hall entrance
After a major refurbishment in a joint project between the local Tower Hamlets council and Greenwich Leisure, the facility was re-branded as an upmarket Spa Londonday spa by the council in July 2007. Treatment rooms were added to provide a range of upmarket beauty treatments and other facilities now include a hammam, large sauna, two 'aroma' steam rooms, several hot rooms, a bucket shower, ice fountain and plunge pool.
The facelift included a state-of-the-art gymnasium that doubled the size of the previous gym area, a refurbished reception area and pool, and new changing rooms. The gym features a newly installed functional area including TRX and Technogym's latest functional frame.
Most British sports have a particular venue synonymous with their global reputation — Wembley for football, Lord's for cricket, Wimbledon's All England Club for tennis. Grand stadiums for big events. What does it say about boxing that its most iconic UK venue is so different? York Hall offers something else. It provides the chance to watch and experience boxing in the same way as people would have done in the first part of the last century, raw, immediate and unaltered by the passage of time.
The press conference for the first boxing match between KSI and Logan Paul took place at the hall in July 2018. On 29 September 2019, Adam Saleh had a boxing match in that same venue against Marcus Stephenson with FouseyTube vs Slim Albaher as the co-main event.
Bethnal Green