INTRODUCTION
With a population of over 8.8 million people living in the UK’s capital city, along with millions of tourists and visitors, and measuring 36 miles from east to west and 25 miles from north to south, London is one of the world’s great cities. As you can imagine, a city of this size has plenty of places to train in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu (BJJ).
London can be broadly divided into two zones: Inner London (including all the touristy bits) and Outer London. London is also divided into 32 official boroughs – some so far away that I’m sure the folk there wouldn’t consider themselves Londoners. BTW the City of London, slap bang in the middle of London, isn’t technically a London borough.
THE BJJ IN LONDON MAP (Dec 2024)
In 2013, I was commissioned to write an article about BJJ clubs in London. To accompany the piece, I drew an infographic map, which you can see here. However, it quickly became outdated. Now that more than ten years have elapsed, it’s fascinating to see how much the map has changed, reflecting the worldwide growth of BJJ.
You can also view the entire list as a spreadsheet:
METHOD
I went onto Google and searched for all the clubs where you can train BJJ in London. Just typing ‘BJJ in London’ and its variants yielded only a handful of results. So then I had to search borough by borough and then town by town. I also asked on the UK BJJ Underground forum on Facebook for members to help.
Only clubs with a London postcode, or are located within an official London borough, (there are only 32) were eligible.
Clubs can be full-time or part-time, and they can even be part of another martial arts curriculum, but they are only eligible if taught by a recognised BJJ-graded instructor and where students can achieve a grade and/or compete in BJJ tournaments.
Since the internet can still show websites for defunct clubs, I have only included clubs that appear to be active on social media within the past six months.
Clubs that are under the same name, but operate from several different locations are listed individually by location.
I’ve omitted clubs that advertise BJJ or say they teach BJJ but show no evidence of an instructor graded in BJJ. This is less prevalent than it used to be, but I still spotted a few places that allude to BJJ without actually offering it as a dedicated program.
DISCUSSION
It’s clear that there are a lot more places to train BJJ than when I first compiled the list in 2013 (42 places). Currently, my list stands at 141 locations.
Many clubs that began in one place now have additional satellite locations. This is inevitable, as many students who had not even started training ten years ago will have reached brown or black belt by now and subsequently opened their own gyms.
The odd shape of London mean that some places within the London borough system can be much further from the city centre compared to towns that are geographically closer, but aren’t technically part of London. For example, Patello BJJ is 14.6 miles away from Charing Cross, while my hometown gym, RGA South Herts, is closer at 12.4 miles. Yet Patello is technically in London (Kingston upon Thames), while my club is in Hertfordshire and therefore isn’t included in the London map. Boo!
Why does this matter?
Well, it doesn’t, I suppose, apart from how you market and advertise your club. Checkmat Essex, for example, its very name, clearly markets to the Essex region for students, even though they are technically in the London borough of Havering, not Essex county.
The high density of many parts of London means that some clubs are very close to each other (e.g., two Kingston clubs are located within ten minutes’ walk of each other), and some even share the exact same location (for example, Submission Grappling and Los Banditos, or Origin BJJ and Battlezone BJJ).
But London has large parts, especially the outer areas, with blank areas on the map (unless a club exists but I haven’t spotted it). South Croydon, for instance, lacks any BJJ club, as do Plaistow in the east or the line extending from Brent Cross north to Stanmore. Perhaps they will be filled very soon?
The tiny area known as The City is only a square mile in size, and unsurprisingly, offers no clubs to train at. But workers there are spoiled for choice with plenty of nearby gyms in and around the Old Street area.
Ten years ago, the big affiliations dominated (Gracie Barra, Roger Gracie, Checkmat, Carlson Gracie, etc.), and they still have a strong presence in London. However, many BJJ clubs today are either independent or marketed without their affiliation name, even if they have one. Many clubs are named after the town or local landmark that they are in which makes sense locally. But most clubs seem to adopt more conceptual names such as Apex, Equilibrium, Elevate, Kinetic and so on. Some clubs rely on the name of their founder, while others opt for the Asian aesthetic; Kodokan, Jisso, Tokei being some examples.
The borough with the most clubs is Lambeth, with eight locations. The borough with the fewest club is Bexley, with just one. The City of London as we know, isn’t a borough, but in any case, no clubs are located here.
What I haven’t done, but was evident in my research, is note down the types of training available. Most clubs are dedicated BJJ only clubs and include both gi and nogi training. But increasingly, clubs are popping up that offer only nogi submission wrestling. I anticipate that these will grow in number over the next few years. Some clubs focus only on self defence ‘Gracie’ training but the bulk on this list are sport-based. Some clubs have a women only slot in their timetable, most offer a kids program.
Some clubs are long established while many others are relatively new. Regardless, it points to a very healthy picture for training in London.
If you spot any clubs that I have missed, or have since retired, send an email to me or comment below.
Thanks for reading!!
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