麻豆社

One random postcode and a story you probably haven't heard before.

Today, the random postcode generator lands producer Polly Weston in an industrial estate in Gendros, Swansea. Gendros sits outside the centre of Swansea, on the main road out to the M4. The industrial estate looks just like any other. McDonalds, Home Bargains, Costa and Matalan. But just behind there, are a whole row of independent businesses, with pounding house music drifting out of one of the units, from 5am until 10pm every day.

It's called The Ware-House gym. Opened in 2021, inspired by the clubs of Ibiza, its Instagram feed looks a little... intimidating. But on Polly's first visit, the manager Hayley - "I'm a hugger, I don't do shaking hands" - is insistent there's more to it than its image. Astonishingly, she says members are in here 80 times a month, nearly three times a day, "and it's very unusual for people to be in here less than twice a day".

How is that possible? And who is here? Polly arrives at 5am, to bear witness to a day in the life of the gym.

Inside are parallel stories of the struggles of modern life, of ritual, and of how this city's culture has radically changed. Owner Chris Ware was a professional boxer and doorman in the heyday of Swansea's most famous nightclub, Escape. Eighteen years ago he realised the club was empty during the daytime, and so he started fitness classes in there, using the sound system. "It's dark so no one can see you, loud so no one can hear you." All those big clubs have gone now. The world famous Kingsway where they all sat is set to be developed into offices. But the embers of those old days can be found here, at 5.30am on a Monday, in an industrial unit behind Home Bargains.

"For a lot of people here, this is our church now" - but what does that really mean?

Produced and presented in Bristol by Polly Weston
Editor: Chris Ledgard
A 麻豆社 Audio Bristol production