alien bloc

“A great relaxed and friendly atmosphere! Alien Bloc is welcoming to people of all abilities and although it can get quite busy at nights sometimes the vibe is always casual and fun. The routes are changed often and its location is brilliant if you stay city centre as it's ready to walk to!”

“incredible place, one of the best places I have visited to climb, very complete, many routes of different levels very well explained with colors. The staff is very friendly and they explain everything to you with a smile. I will definitely be back every week. Thank you everyone.”

“Great place. Lots of walls to climb and stages to challenge yourself. Staff were lovely and very approachable. Great for kids but they have to be 8 or over.”

“For context of this review I've climbed at Alien Bloc for roughly 3 years now and have probably spent more time there than most in that time, so it feels rough giving it 3 stars but If I were being honest if it wasn't for the staff it could be lower right now. Also for context for setting comments I generally climb at around V5. It doesn't feel as great as it once did coming here, and perhaps that is to do with the fact that before there was nothing really to compare it to unless you were willing to go as far out as Eden Rock or Ratho. Reality now is though there is competition in the city that is easy to get to and some things aren't as acceptable as they once were. Staff: Excellent. Not a bad thing to say about any encounter I have had with staff over the years. Route Setting: It's very volatile. There are often great routes set but at the same time there are often ones that are just... perplexing these days. Often times I will go to attempt a route only to realise that there is one move in the whole route that is randomly just easily a grade or two harder than the rest of the route and makes it impossible. I can not stress enough how horrible that feels and this has absolutely got more common over the last 8 or so months. It feels like if you are an excellent climber then you have a lot to do here at all times, likewise if you are a beginner. However, if you are firmly intermediate like myself it often feels like you are stuck with 3 or 4 climbs that are at your limit, and dozens that are too easy for you are too hard for you because for whatever reason many of the higher grades routes have starts that are a grade or too harder than the rest of the route as mentioned above. The Gym Itself: It's okay. Location is it's biggest draw especially if you live in the surrounding area. The holds are never really cleaned as far as I can tell and it's not uncommon to attempt a route and get a fist full of old chalk in your face which is annoying and also indicates that it hasn't been cleaned recently, again the TCH competition where I have never had this happen to me makes this not as acceptable as it once would have been. The Price: Infuriating. For context when it first joined it was £60 a month. This was a lot, however decent value if you climbed at Alien Rock too (lead climbing). Personally though, I've never even been there nor do I have any interest in going. Once TCH opened the prices still remained at £60 despite the competition being less than half that at the time. Eventually the prices finally dropped to a more reasonable £42 which compared to TCH's settled £35 a month was acceptable. This price lasted less than 6 months before it was raised to £45 citing increase to staff wages (good, they deserve it). We are now less than 10 months after that increase and the price is being raised again to £48 and I don't really understand why as personally I have seen nothing change in the last year that justifies increasing member prices by almost 15%. There are no new holds, There are no difference to opening hours, no changes to the facilities in anyway. It just feels like this increase is to see if they can getaway with it. Increases are tolerable when there is something to show for it that benefits members. Reality is I have never seen anything actually change in all my time here except new green holds about a year and a half a go and new black holds which if memory serves are actually refurbished old black holds. Quick version of this review is it's not fair to raise prices for your members TWICE in a year when you are simply not as good as the competition right now, especially when I have personally never seen any reason to believe that will be changed.”