UKC

I went here the other day instead of the usual haunt of Redpoint and had a excellent time.

The staff are very friendly, the climbing was interesting (if a bit inconsistent with the grading, but where these days is consistent) and the wall angles were really cool giving varied climbing more akin to outdoors.

But my god is it steep compared to a modern centre. In the main room I failed to find any real vertical or slab and falling off meant landing in space a lot of the time. I'm not complaining as I thought it was great but I wondered if anyone else had noticed this?

Welcome to the 90s.. it’s the same steepness it was in 1998, and indeed 1798! I used to basically live there as a student when it was called Undercover Rock (or just Werburghs). It was always a bit of a sandbag tbh, but then so is Avon if you’re not used to it.. The flapjacks and later the bhajis were legendary. 

I first met my wife there.. as she just reminded me! (She didn’t take any notice of me for at least a year.. 😂)

Twenty years ago at 8pm on a Friday evening, it'd be rammed full of people.  On one such occaission, some dipstick decided not to clip a bolt, fell off and played skittles.  The HSE came in and and the crowds were turned away.  Those were the glory days.

I stopped going after it was taken over by TCA.  Too many routes jammed in together, route setting not to my taste.  Times change.  They've even removed the tribute to Rob Parker.

But the geometry of St. Werburgs was brilliant.  I loved the routes that went up corners, or across, or around aretes.

Dave

The setting went through a bit of a wobbly spell post takeover but is back up to scratch again now imho. They've also put some more circuit boards in upstairs, and started replacing the ply panels in the main room to refresh it but retaining the original geometry and layout. As you say the variety of angles, grooves, roofs, aretes to play with is the great strength of the place along with the accumulated history & atmosphere. I'm very fond of the old place.

Are capacity limits imposed on walls then? I didn't know that.

I was an early user of Werburghs in the early ish 90s just after it opened. The conception and build by Rob Parker was truly inspiring, I recall him gliding effortlessly up the overhanging wall opposite the balcony with the sofas where you sat for a cup of tea and a flapjack. It’s a real shame if the memorial to him has been removed as his life was truly full affecting a lot of people.

The memorial is still there - still in the place it was went I first went there over twenty years ago.

Great place, it's where I was introduced to climbing (bloody indoors bred climbers eh).

Is the grading better now? I last went a year or 2 ago and it was incredibly soft in comparison to the Quay in Exeter, the quay grades being a good representation of what I can do outside. I think I flashed a '7a' at the church last time, which is just silly!

A new Tribute to Rob is back up and included in a history piece about the venue, it's 4 times the size. Times changed, we have to try to stay with the times but some of the current staff knew Rob and he was much loved. 

It seemed about right tbh. I flashed two routes of my normal consistent outdoor flash grade then failed on the third of the same grade due to a huge wild Dyno final move to a jug. The less steep stuff seems a bit softer than the steeper routes there I found on my single visit. 

After that particular incident, if you rolled up and it was too busy, you'd be asked to wait or come another time.  It lasted 6 months or so.  Don't think it happened before or since.

So yes, there CAN be too many people at the wall.  But now we've got five walls in town.

Maybe its time to give St Werburgs another whirl.