✨ alchemy_space London

— our story

alchemy_space has been over a decade in the making…though at the time, it definitely didn’t feel that linear.

Back in 2010, I (hello, it’s Katy, founder of alchemy_space) started out teaching children’s yoga across East London for a franchise called YogaBugs — in nurseries, schools, anywhere that would let me roll out a mat and get kids moving (and occasionally pretending to be animals).

A year later, I completed my 200-hour training with Bridget Woods Kramer, and from there, things grew — teaching across London studios, retreats around the UK and beyond, festivals, community classes… a bit of everything, everywhere.

Alongside this, I found herself in the early London days of Lululemon — back when it was all small showrooms, grassroots events, and building community from the ground up. I was lucky enough to be part of the leadership team that opened their first European store in Covent Garden. Ot’s there that I met my friend Paula La Dao, who in 2015 asked me to help open and run Union Station Yoga — a small, special studio in Clapham Common. It became one of those places people didn’t just go to, but belonged to. After a few years, I sidestepped from managing to focus on developing my teaching, so spent a lot of time dashing about London from studio to studio, client to client and spent weekends and weeks offering European and international retreats.

In 2019 Katy’s husband, Rex, opened Element Fitness — built around the elements: (Earth) strength, (Air) cardio, (Water) endurance, (Fire) HIIT. A space full of energy, sweat, and an incredible community.

Then… the pandemic. Say no more.

Sadly, Union Station closed, but Element Fitness managed to box-jump back to its feet.

In 2022 baby Roxy arrived. (tiny, perfect, and completely life-changing.) everything seemed to be slowly setting into place… when rising rents nearly pulled the rug from under Element too.

So — slightly sleep-deprived, definitely a bit panicked, but backed by community (and some very patient investors!) — we took a leap.

A new site in Streatham Common. A rebuild. A fresh start. A cheeky Monzo loan to put down a deposit.

Now officially part of the Element fitness team, we introduced a fifth element - aether: (yoga + pilates) and Gaia (parent + baby).

Somewhere in the middle of all of this — motherhood, business, burnout, and a few unexpected health challenges — came a realisation that I couldn’t go back to the life I had pre baby and pre pandemic. I didn’t have the energy to run around from one side of London to the other and teach back to back classes, the pace had to change; not the passion, not the purpose, just the way it was being offered.

SO, using the money she’d originally invested into the gym, and dragging one of our investors, Iona, along for the ride (!) we took on a small unit (once home to Funky Medusa), just around the corner from Element, aether_space was born — a place for movement, but also for creativity, therapies, rest, and community.

And then… plot twist…

Six months in, someone trademarked the word “aether.” (we’ll let you decide how we feel about that 😅)

So once again, the space evolved. Not scrapped. Not lost. Just… transformed.. into something a little more golden (and a hella lot easier for the majority of people to pronounce.) ✨ alchemy_space