LONDON, UK. October 8th, 2026 – MGM Gym, the South London fitness and community organisation founded by siblings Jonathan Moore and Hannah Ruth-Moore, is targeting significant growth as it builds on its work across fitness, martial arts, dance and youth development.
Named in honour of their father, Milton George Moore, MGM Gym launched in Deptford in 2023 and has since built a membership of around 80 people. The founders are now aiming to more than double that figure over the next 12 months while developing new opportunities across both its gym and school operations.
Jonathan leads the gym’s Muay Thai programme, using the discipline to support physical fitness alongside mental wellbeing. Sessions combine conditioning, and Muay Thai techniques, with participants encouraged to develop confidence, discipline and resilience.
The gym also offers functional fitness, focused on everyday fitness and movement, while Hannah Ruth-Moore, a professional dancer with over 30 years experince, leads the dedicated dance studio, Sayaw Studios.
Sayaw’s programme is designed for children, young people and adults, allowing participants to train in dance while developing movement, strength and fitness. The programme sits alongside MGM’s wider fitness provision and reflects the siblings’ combined experience in their respective fields.
Between them, Jonathan and Hannah have more than 50 years of experience, which has been central to their ability to establish and develop MGM Gym. Their work with young people and schools, however, predates the gym by more than a decade.
Since 2012, the siblings have delivered tailored Muay Thai and dance programmes in schools across London, working with around 20 schools and approximately 3,000 pupils each week.
The programmes are aimed at 11 to 18-year-olds and combine physical activity with wider life-skill development, with young people able to progress into Muay Thai, dance or both.
“We have been supporting schools and providing dance and Muay Thai programmes since 2012, operating within 20 schools in London and working with around 3,000 pupils a week,” Jonathan said. “For us, it is about life-skill development. Hard work, discipline, honesty and fun are the messages we like to put across.”
That established mentoring work remains an important part of the organisation, operating alongside the gym and helping to maintain its links with the wider South London community.
The siblings also have experience of delivering their programmes online, having successfully operated digitally during the Covid-19 pandemic. They are now looking at expanding back into that sector, with the MGM Gym website due to be relaunched later this year.
The planned website relaunch will provide an opportunity to develop the online side of the business alongside the existing gym, school and mentoring programmes, giving MGM another route through which to reach people beyond its South London base.
Since opening in Deptford, MGM Gym has continued to develop its membership and wider community activities, including the launch of its own running club.
The founders now see the next stage as one of measured expansion, building on the experience they have gained through their work with schools, young people and gym members while retaining the principles that have underpinned the organisation.
Jonathan said the long-term ambition extends well beyond South London. “I see MGM Gyms in every city and town in the country, I really do think that could happen,” he said. “We have come so far since opening in Deptford.”
The immediate focus will be on growing the existing gym, increasing its membership, developing its online provision following the website relaunch and continuing the school and mentoring work that has formed the foundation of the siblings’ work for more than a decade.
Together, those strands provide the platform for Jonathan and Hannah’s longer-term ambition to develop MGM Gym into a wider UK operation while maintaining its community-focused roots.
