Pole fitness studio in Northumberland finds new home at former fire station

Northumbria Pole Fitness Studio, in Ashington, has been at its current premises since 2019, but its lease will not be renewed as the building is being converted into offices.

Owner Gemma Fielding saw multiple deals to rent a new studio fall through, possibly due to the stigma surrounding the sport, but eventually managed to find a new home that was a fire station in its previous life.

The 43-year-old said: “We have viewed so many places and they have been great. We got to the point of being ready to sign paperwork and then all of a sudden they were not going to work.

“We think obviously with what [the business] is, we do not know if it has been businesses round about or the landlords themselves, but they have just said ‘no, we do not want to rent to you.’”

Gemma added: “It is an absolute mess, it is literally falling apart at the minute, but it looks like it is going to be amazing once we get all the work done. It is just a bit of a project.

“It has still got the original fireman's pole in it as well, which has entertained everybody who I have spoken to so far.”

Gemma, from Stakeford, and her instructors, run some classes focused on strength and conditioning and others more focused on the dance element of the sport.

She first got interested in the sport after attending a pole dancing class organised for a friend’s birthday party. Gemma enjoyed it so much she began to teach herself before eventually setting up the business.

The sport’s strip club connotations can create a stigma, but pole fitness is now building a diverse community of participants.

Gemma said: “We do not want to steer miles away from that because obviously that is where the sport’s routes come from. It does come from the strip clubs and we fully support that element of it.

“We are not going to make people take their clothes off or anything like that, we are asking people to come in and find themselves, find their confidence, and accept their body for what it can do, not what it looks like.”

Gemma is currently the over 40s British pole sports champion and hopes efforts to get the sport into the Olympics might eventually be successful, but insists it is a great sport for beginners to get involved in too.

She said: “It tends to get met with a lot of negativity because of the stigma attached to pole dancing.

“Most people who walk through the door initially are a bit scared because of that. Once they get into it they realise how much confidence it gives them, body confidence especially.

“There is no pressure to look a certain way or have a certain level of fitness when you begin or anything like that, but it does help you to become physically fit and mentally fit.”

Northumbria Pole Fitness Studio is hoping to move into its new studio before the end of the month, and people interested in getting involved can find them on Facebook and Instagram.