Alan Herdman is a pilates pioneer who was invited to New York in the '60s to learn about the Joseph Pilates Method and returned in 1970 to set up the first UK studio. His first clients were exclusively dancers but the word soon spread as doctors and physiotherapists began to recommend pilates for chronic injury sufferers. Nowadays the benefit of pilates are recognised throughout the world, and Herdman has written a number of books on the subject.

Classes at Alan Herdman are by appointment only and cost £35 for 90 minutes. (Or £275 for ten sessions.) For this you can expect to be working with an instructor and a maximum of five other people at all different levels. The instructors are superb and Herdman often takes sessions himself.