The station in Kentish Town Road

A 24/7 gym could be moving into the Kentish Town Station building that was formerly occupied by the Mexican restaurant Wahaca.

A planning application for the site has been submitted on behalf of Anytime Fitness, a gym chain that already has a branch in Chalk Farm and where membership starts at around £42 per month.

The gym would be open 24 hours a day, seven days a week and be accessible via a key fob, with massage chairs and “reformer” Pilates beds in the basement. There would be gym equipment and weights on the first floor where Wahaca used to be.

It was confirmed in 2021 that the Mexican-style restaurant – opened to fanfare in 2015 – would not be welcoming customers back after its temporary closure during the pandemic, and those parts of the station building have remained vacant ever since.

Planning permission is not required to turn the site into a gym, but is needed to permit its proposed 24/7 opening hours.

The application notes that a new gym above the station would contribute “to the character, vitality and viability of Kentish Town town centre”.

If approved, it would join a slate of new exercise spots along Kentish Town High Street, including several Pilates studios and the luxury Drop Gym, which opened last summer instead of the long-promised community cinema at the corner of Kentish Town Road.