Any adult can come and give bouldering a try, regardless of starting fitness level or whether they have any previous experience.
All you have to do is turn up, register and watch a short safety video. You can hire shoes from reception and get started by yourselves, you don’t need to book a taster or induction but you can if you’d prefer some help to get going.
At Chimera, our centre has a range of different routes (known as problems or blocs in Bouldering) to climb, from beginner through to advanced. These are colour coded to make it easy to spot the right blocs for you. So, there is something for everyone, including some lower walls for anyone who is worried about heights.
Climbing is great for strength building, improving balance, flexibility and co-ordination. But the best part is you are doing all that in a fun, social environment, whilst having a laugh with like-minded people.
No expensive gear is needed! You can wear any loose, comfy climbing and rent shoes and chalk if you don’t have your own. That’s all the equipment you need.
Open 10am - 10pm in the week, and 9am - 6pm at the weekends.
At the weekends, while adults are welcome at any point, the quieter times are once the kids' clubs have ended just after 2pm, so if you are looking for a bit of peace and quiet, try and arrange your visit for the afternoon.
If you want to save time at the centre, pre-register online here.
All three walls are open seven days a week. Monday to Friday, they all open at 10am and shut at 10pm. At the weekend, Canterbury opens at 8am until 6pm, while Chatham and Tunbridge Wells open at 9am until 6pm.
There are restricted opening hours for under 12’s - they can climb until 6pm in the week and 2pm at weekends.
Bouldering is a type of rock climbing. It is where you climb smaller walls or rocks without a rope. Instead, there are big crash pads under you in case you fall.
Yes, absolutely. Everyone over the age of five can come and climb. We do have strict supervision ratios though. One adult can supervise two kids, but if the adult wants to climb they can only supervise one child. Everyone under the age of 16 needs to be supervised, and everyone under the age of 18 needs their waiver signed off by an adult.
You don’t need any previous climbing experience to supervise kids.
Loose, comfy clothing is best - any sports clothes or baggy jeans or leggings.
Yes absolutely, the more the merrier. To save time we suggest you pre-register if you haven’t been before which you can do by clicking here. Other than that, turn up and have fun!
Yes! You can traverse to get started (climbing along rather than up) and when you feel more confident you can start to climb a little higher each go. You don’t have to get to the top, you can just practice one move at the bottom until you feel comfortable.
Primarily, routes are categorised by colour so stick to the easier colours (yellow, orange, purple) to get you going. Once you are a pro, you can look at the grading chart for each wall via the TopLogger app - we use the Fontainebleau grading system at Chimera.
Yes we do. Please click here for the Ukrainian and Russian translations of our rules.
“A very high standard climbing gym. Spacious luminous and very nicely designed. Setting is great and creative. Caters to all skills and abilities. The best thing is that “easy” routes incorporate holds one would usually find in more advanced routes. A very good variety of problems. The cave is super, it can be used as a traverse wall. Genius! Staff is very friendly and welcoming. Will definitely make it my habitual climbing gym.”
Chatham Centre
