Who can resist a home-cooked healthy lunch with a free health check-up?
Walk into Fitzrovia Community Centre on a Friday lunchtime and, alongside the usual mix of classes and activities on the go, you'll find what's become a familiar sight since the summer: a blood pressure cuff, a friendly face with a clipboard, and a small queue of locals who've popped in for a free health check. This is Healthy Hearts – Westminster Public Health’s borough-wide campaign to help residents look after their heart health – and since July we’ve been proud to play our part, bringing free health checks and regular heart-healthy classes and activities to the centre.
Learn more about Westminster Healthy Hearts.
Why hearts, why now?
With heart health, a bit of early attention goes a long way, but it's often the first thing to slip down the to-do list. Life gets busy, the GP surgery has a three-week wait for an appointment, and “I'll get it checked eventually” turns into “never”. Heart disease doesn't affect everyone equally, either - Black African, Black Caribbean and South Asian communities, along with men over 40, face a higher risk - often due to things like housing, income and access to healthcare, not just personal choices. In our experience running services from Foley Street, the people who'd benefit most from a quick check-in are often less likely to go looking for one.
So we're doing it differently. Instead of waiting for people to come to a health check, we're bringing the health check to things people already want to do - a class, a good lunch - so that looking after your heart becomes just another nice part of the week, not an appointment you dread.
What's on
Here's what you'll find at the centre each week.
Monday is lunch club day: a proper home-cooked lunch that's good for your heart, for £5 or whatever you can afford. Lots of people stay on for Tai Chi afterwards, which is gentle on the joints and fine if you've never tried it.
On Tuesdays there's Mellow Movement, some easy exercise followed by a short talk on food and nutrition.
Fridays are for Men's Muscle Sculpt, a men-only class that's a bit more of a workout.
And on Mondays, Fridays and every other Tuesday, our team are around to do free blood pressure checks. It only takes a few minutes, and they'll help you set a goal or two if you'd like.
A delicious home-cooked Monday lunch and a health check-up. Just turn up!
Monday's lunches are cooked by Tauhida Said , who joined our Healthy Eating on a Budget course after her own father’s heart problems got her thinking seriously about food, and has gone on to run the kitchen herself - and honestly, she can cook! ‘It’s not about money,’ she says, ‘it’s about making a positive difference.’
(Pay £5 or whatever you can afford.)
Everyone's welcome, no registration needed - just turn up. Come for the lunch, stay for the check-up. Or the other way round.
Times and dates for everything are on our health and wellbeing calendar.
Ready for more?
If you've enjoyed the sessions and want to go further, we're also running a new seven-week ‘Healthy Eating for a Healthy Heart’ course. It grew out of our Healthy Eating on a Budget sessions and runs once a week. Our first intake got underway on 15 September, and the next one starts on 16 February 2027. Spaces are limited, so if you'd like a place on the February course, email or call us today to register.
Don't miss out!
This won’t be here forever - the Healthy Hearts programme runs until March 2027 - so it’s worth having a free health check and joining in with the classes and the lunch club while they’re available. If any of this sounds like it’s for you, don’t wait for a quieter week. Come and say hello at 2 Foley Street, or drop us a line at info@fitzroviacommunitycentre.org.
Fitzrovia Community Centre, 2 Foley Street, London W1W 6DL.