Padium, the breath-taking new club in the centre of London’s vibrant Canary Wharf, has been hailed as a standard bearer for padel facilities in the UK and a game-changer for the sport’s profile.
The visually arresting 30,000 sq ft, three-domed structure on Bank Street in the shadow of Canary Wharf’s towering skyscrapers features seven indoor and one outdoor court, lounge area, smoothie bar, shop, changing rooms and conference facilities.
The facility was installed by leading UK operators Padel Tech, who are UK distributors for AFP courts. Speaking to The Padel Paper whilst en route to last Thursday’s (7 September) official Padium launch event, director Andy Ponton called the project “the biggest, most complex and technically challenging padel club build ever completed in the UK.”
He tells us: “It has been a massive feat of structural engineering. The finished product is phenomenal. It’s a world-class facility and sets the standard in terms of what can be achieved in building a padel centre from the ground up. There are other impressive clubs, but this is taking padel in London and the UK to the next level.”
Padium is the brainchild of Swedish CEO Houman Ashrafzadeh (pictured above with Padium COO Sara Kroik), co-founder of Urban Greens and Coffydoor. The Padium project is backed by investment from Spotify co-founder Martin Lorentzon. Canary Wharf Group CEO Shobi Khan (a keen padel player) was also a key figure in kickstarting the project.
“We put a big emphasis on getting the small details right, to ensure the experience and impression for every player is perfect, not just while they are playing but before and afterwards too,” Houman told us back in May, as the club was taking shape.
Having headed a network of partners in completing the project build, Andy is now in awe of the club’s potential to turbo-boost padel participation and profile in London and beyond the capital.
“The world’s their oyster now in terms of staging tournaments and bringing in top class players,” he said. “That’s the position they want to get into and that’s now very realistic. They can help push the UK internationally as a serious player in padel.”
Having been operating since 2016, Andy estimates Padel Tech have installed 60% of the UK’s 400+ courts. They worked on the 14-court Rocket Padel club, which opened in April in Bristol. Andy says business is booming.
“The whole industry and the sport are taking off,” he says. “We’re looking at 10, 12 or 15,000 courts in the UK in the near future, from the current position of around 300. It’s just non-stop and it’s not going to get slower any time soon.”
