Wood Work

Fitness was an ever-present subject in the public discourse surrounding the 2020 lockdown. Given the sudden emphasis on wellness and illness, and with exercise the only legitimate excuse to leave the house, British people suddenly seemed more concerned with getting in shape than ever before.

Rumour has it that a tradesman from Belarus – some say a carpenter, others a welder – took it on himself to build an outdoor gym from things he found in the woodlands of Hackney Marshes, including logs repurposed as weights and scraps of discarded material to shape them into barbells and dumbbells. With other public fitness apparatus in the park cordoned off, his gym quickly became a popular communal space.

With gyms set to re-open, the future of this makeshift weight room became uncertain. Perhaps next time someone breaks a weight it won’t get repaired, and eventually this place will go back to being a quiet woodland glade. But it’s also easy to imagine what has happened here in recent weeks creating ripples that will echo long after this woodsman’s work has been reclaimed by the forest.