Best Climbing Wall In London?

Well it’s official and It’s The Arch , hurrah!

In a survey of over 250 London climbers conducted by the London Climbing Guides Facebook Page, we can officially say we have an answer to the question “What is the best climbing wall in London”?

Topping the poll was the superb Arch 2 (A.k.a. The Biscuit Factory), A great triumph given the fact that the Centre only opened in March 2012 and whilst being a vast and comprehensive Centre only caters for bouldering, whereas other Center’s have roped and lead climbing in their arsenal. We wonder whether the legacy at The Arch at London Bridge has helped out here? 

2nd place went to the ever-popular Castle Climbing Centre (gaining 23% of the votes) beating its closest rivals to the 2nd place. No surprise given the climbing legacy the Castle has but we wonder how much they would have liked to take the top spot!

3rd place went to the Westway narrowly beating 4th placed Mile End by 1 vote. A great show from these 2 centres, who received some great praise from one of the respondents with “Mile End.....synthetic wall.....real people.”

Credit to the White Spider (10% of the votes),The Reach (8%) and Craggy Island 2 (6%) still showing a good number of response and votes overall but losing out to their more established rivals

May be the biggest surprise was the fact that Urban Ascent received no votes, hopefully not a reflection of the overall attitude of the London Climbing Community.

That’s it then, a massive round of applause to the team at The Arch, for building and running an absolutley sterling centre, you thoroughly deserve the top spot!

The London Climbing Guide Visits Swanage

 It goes without saying that London isn’t blessed with mountains and rocky-crags. But that doesn’t mean we had to travel for days to get our outdoor climbing fix, as the beautiful sea cliffs of Swanage, in Dorset, were only 2 hours away on the train.

Last week the London Climbing Guide did just this with a sunny and adventurous trip to the noteworthy climbing areas along the Swanage coast – Including Guillemot Ledge, Dancing Ledge and the secluded quarry area of Winspit. The weather was fantastic and the seas calm, giving us the opportunity to visit some areas only accessible on good days.

Our first visit was to the picturesque Guillemot Ledge just south of Langton Matravers. Access to the base of the cliffs meant a blind abseil down to the boulder fields at sea-level.  After attempting a multi-pitch route, which the guidebook labelled a HVS trad route (although as with all subjective grading its hard to know). After failing both lead attempts we reconvened and moved down the "beach" and managed to successfully climb another multi-pitched route out.

With having spent a few hours trad climbing, and with the day progressing, we decided to head over to the abandoned quarry area of Winspit and finish the day off. The disused quarry is set back from the sea and offers some varied and challenging bolted sport climbing. After tackling several different routes on either side of the quarry, we headed for home.

As a realistically accessible location from London in a day, the wonderful Swanage coast is a must and we heartily recommend an excursion to any and all climbers.