Nestling at the foot of Pancras Square, between King’s Cross and St Pancras stations, sits a brick building proclaiming itself to be the German Gymnasium. Despite its name, the activities within it today are probably the antithesis of ‘fitness for all’, its mission statement on opening in 1865. The building now provides a menu of European brasserie-style meals throughout the day, from brunch to dinner. The German items today include sauerkraut and Bavarian sausage salad rather than broadsword practice and club-swinging.
Known as ‘Die Turnhalle’ when it first opened, the building was designed by Edward Gruning and was possibly the first purpose-built public gymnasium in this country. It was built for the German Gymnastic Society , which had been established in London in 1861 by Ernst Ravenstein. The Society and the Gymnasium can be seen as part of the Physical Culture Movement which began in mainland Europe during the nineteenth century and subsequently spread to Britain and the United States.
The Physical Culture Movement was a health and fitness movement emerging in part because of the Industrial Revolution and the impact on public health of the transition from outdoor rural work to factory labour. There was also a market amongst the emerging affluent middle classes for exercise and fitness regimes. A subtext was a reaction to the Napoleonic wars of the early nineteenth century, when those nations which had been subject to French expansionism identified the need to have a fit and strong population that could be called on for military service. Johann Christoph Friedrich Guts Muths has been identified as one of the founders of the movement – known as the ‘grandfather of modern gymnastics’, he was a Prussian educator who published a book in 1793 called ‘Gymnastik fur die Jugend’ (Gymnastics for Youth). The book contained 29 sequences drawing on the ancient Greek Pentathlon, traditional dancing and military exercises. The Physical Culture Movement began with gymnasts using these exercises and exploring the concept of exercise as medicine for good health. It later expanded to include competitive gymnastics and strongman activities such shotput and weightlifting using barbells.
The original name of the German Gymnasium, the ‘Turnhalle’ derives from German Turnen Gymnastics, a style developed by another Prussian educator, Friedrich Ludwig Jahn, in the early 1800s, as part of the Physical Culture Movement. He led classes for pupils at a Berlin grammar school which combined gymnastics with activities such as running, swimming, wrestling, climbing, lifting, jumping and fencing. Over time Jahn created gymnastics apparatus for his students such as the ‘Turnplatz’, a scaffold structure fitted with ladders, poles and ropes. Eventually ‘Turnverein’ clubs were established in the wider community and Jahn has come to be considered the ‘father of modern gymnastics’.
By the mid-1800s, there was a sizable German émigré community in London. Among their number was Ernst Ravenstein, who was born in Germany in 1834 but became a naturalised British subject after moving here in 1852. He worked for the War Office as a geographer and cartographer, and was appointed Professor of Geography at Bedford College in the 1880s. He also had a keen interest in gymnastics, so created the German Gymnastic Society in London and published a handbook on gymnastics in 1867. The German community here contributed to the cost of building a dedicated gymnastics hall, at a cost of £6000. Commemorative medals, as shown below, were created for the opening of the ‘Turnhalle’ on 28th January 1865.
By Berlin-George – Own work, Public Domain (CC BY – SA 4.0)
Newspaper illustrations of the opening event in the main exercise hall show a densely attended ceremony replete with national flags. In fact, by 1866 the 1,100-strong membership of the Society was drawn from 30 nationalities with 650 members being British, mostly tradesmen. Eventually it was also notable for holding exercise classes for women, as shown in this engraving from 1870.
The main exercise hall was a large space with a floor to ceiling height of 57 feet. It was installed with laminated timber roof trusses, similar to the original wooden roof trusses used in the King’s Cross train sheds before their replacement with wrought iron.
The building also played a major part in the games set up by the National Olympian Association in London in 1866. Ernst Ravenstein had again been instrumental in the creation of this sports association, which was effectively a precursor of the International Olympic Games we enjoy today. Indoor events were held at the German Gymnasium while outdoor events took place on the river Thames and at Crystal palace in South London. The Games were a great success, attracting over 10,000 spectators. Indoor events continued annually at the Gymnasium until the White City Olympic Games in 1908.
From this date the Gymnasium was leased to the Great Northern Railway Company, then purchased by them and converted into offices in 1916. By then, the outbreak of the Great War meant that anything associated with Germany was highly suspect. Ironically, the building was badly damaged by a Zeppelin air raid carried out by the German air force in 1917. Over the next hundred years it was used variously as a post sorting office and a newspaper distribution depot, as well as a studio where the plans for the 21st century King’s Cross development could be viewed. The building acquired Grade II historic listing status in 1976. When redevelopment came, it lost part of the western end of the building to the expansion of St Pancras station for Eurostar, but this has been reconstructed in keeping with the rest of the structure. The Gymnasium reopened as a restaurant in 2019. Inside the many of the original features have been retained, including the laminated timber roof trusses and the cast iron hooks from which budding Olympians swung from ropes – not just a reminder of past fitness classes, but maybe an opportunity for the clientele to work off those sausage salads?!