Friday evening on an industrial estate outside Brighton and I’m hanging on for dear life. And like 100,000 other people regularly hitting climbing walls all over the UK, I’m doing it for fun. Once the preserve of geography teachers looking to spice up their field trips, climbing centres are booming — and have even emerged as unlikely hipster hangouts. A fitness-savvy generation is swapping the pub for climbing gyms such as this one, Boulder Brighton.
In London, the Castle Climbing Centre, a grand converted Victorian pumping station near Finsbury Park, is the place to be for social — sorry, sociable — climbers, its brightly coloured bouldering wall, burgers and beers all making regular appearances on Instagram. There are plenty of celebrity hangers-on too, with the
