History of Ability Bow

In 1998, 1,200 people signed a petition calling for a disused church, St. Paul's in Bow, to become a Community Centre. In a subsequent survey a majority indicated that they would like to see a gym in the Centre, and Ability Bow Gym was created around that.

When the gym opened in 2005, it was a project of the charity, Ability UK. In 2006 a new organisation and registered charity called Ability Bow was formed by Victoria Kent and board of Trustees. With the support of Ability UK, Ability Bow took over the contract in April 2006 to run the gym independently and won funding from Sport England.

GPs, physiotherapists and other local health professionals began to regularly refer patients to us to join our Exercise Referral Scheme and now indicate that they would like to refer a lot more people as Ability Bow grows as a resource. There is currently tremendous demand for the gym from local people who want to use the gym. The gym tends to attract people who either haven't exercised in a long while, or people who have never exercised before.