Riley's Gym Upwell Street Page Hall: Popular Sheffield boxing and fitness gym facing eviction

Robert Riley, who runs Riley’s Boxing and Fitness Centre, has been told that he must leave his present site after his lease on the building comes to an end later this year.

The landlord had recently sold the building, on Upwell Street, Page Hall, and it means that the gym now has to find a new site, with concerns over whether anything can be found to keep it in a community where members say the facility has helped them cope in recent years.

Robert and his team set up the gym five years ago, with a fitness gym downstairs, and a boxing facility complete with ring and punch bags on the upper floor.

He said: “We were served last week with an eviction letter from our old landlords because our tenancy was up, plus they’d sold the building, so it’s left us in a bit of turmoil. I’m looking for premises. I’ve contacted the local councillors, I’ve spoken to Sheffield Council, hoping they get back to me and see if there’s anything in the area. If not, I'm going to have to look elsewhere. I feel if I leave this area, the community is going to suffer drastically.”

He said he has had comments on social media saying that since the gym has been there, children have been better behaved and crime is coming down. He runs it as a non profit making operation.

He said people of all different backgrounds come to the site and get on well. He said pupils from Fir Vale School come in every week to use the gym. A group of Muslim women from Burngreave have also just started coming in for weekly sessions with his female coach.

He understands the owner has a right to use the building for something else, saying that at the end of the day, he has a business to run. But he feels that he is in a position where he has become so much part of the community that he would feel like he was letting people down if he moved his gym to another area.

“It’s about people coming in and making friends,” he said. “I feel as though we’ve made such an impact in the community, in what has really only been three years, when you factor in the lockdowns.”

Before moving to Page Hall, Robert had previously run a gym at Claywheels Lane, near Hillsborough.

Those using the gym told The Star how important it had been in their lives in recent years, and said they hoped a new venue could be found locally.

John Wood, aged 61, from Page Hall, said he has been coming to the gym since 2020, when it was first able to re-open after lockdown during the coronavirus pandemic.

He said: “I’ve always loved boxing, but I came down here for my own personal enjoyment. I started coming after asking one of the trainers, Pop Haywood, about it at a bus stop. I’m 61 now, and I love it.

“To me, it is my mental health – it stabilised my mental health. My wife has been quite ill this summer and I’ve had to take time away from work. I would have been in some dark places, but this place kept me going.”

Karlos Bethune, aged 33, agreed. He felt the gym helped him cope with a relationship break-up. He said: “They’ve done a lot for me at Rileys. I’ve been coming here for four years now, and they make me feel like part of the family – it’s like a family down there.” He said it was important to the local community that it stayed in Page Hall.

“If this gym goes, I don’t know what the local community would do,” he added. “There’s a lot of children come here, including my own children. Its helps me and it helps the community. If this gym goes, I don’t know what would happen to the area.”

Rukky Bashir, is also concerned about the possible loss of the gym to Page Hall. He said the gym meant everything. He said: “I’m a local lad, I’ve been coming here five years now. It’s not only for me, it’s for the local community, it’s for the local schools. It keeps them off the streets. People come in here and have a good banter. It’s like a family run business. It’s quite deprived (in the local area), but we support people.

“It’s everything, especially in this area. If we lose this it will be devastating.”

As well as people living locally, some people travel from areas as far away as Stocksbridge to attend the gym.

Riley's Boxing and Fitness Centre was set up by former fighter Robert, together with son Richard and police officer Gary Longmore.

The committed team spent three months, gutting the site behind The Ball Inn, on Upwell Street, before it opened its doors in June 2018. Later that year, they were named winners of The Moor Pride in Sheffield Community Champion Awards. At the time their work was described as uniting the community.

However, like every other gym in the country, they had to close for chunks of 2020 and 2021 because of the pandemic

Robert is appealing for anyone who thinks they may have a site where they could move the gym to, in the local area around Page Hall, to get in touch.