Jiu Jitsu Gym Near Me in Borough: STARTA London on Marshalsea Road

STARTA London trains out of Unit A, 16-18 Marshalsea Road, Borough SE1 1HL, two minutes on foot from Borough station, and a visitor's day of gi or no-gi costs £20 with an open mat at £10. Until recently the sign said Carpe Diem Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu London, and the old carpediembjj.co.uk address now forwards here. If your jiu jitsu gym near me search landed somewhere between London Bridge and Elephant and Castle, this is the small Southwark room that teaches through games instead of lineups.

Carpe Diem began in Tokyo in 2013 and, by its own count, now has more than 50 academies. In 2017 Tsuyoshi Tamaki, who had been head instructor at the Aoyama branch, opened what the gym calls the first Carpe Diem dojo outside Asia here in Borough. He ran it until August 2025 and then returned to Tokyo, and the London team has since rebranded as STARTA, although the footer and the membership terms still carry the Carpe Diem name and the Instagram handle is unchanged.

Ed, listed on the booking system as Edward Dingley, is now head coach and co-manager alongside Dan, Daniel Gharai. Aishah Morris, who has more than ten years in gi and no-gi, coaches the women-only class, with Liam, Nick, Will and Ryan covering the rest of the week.

The coaching method is the part that surprises people coming from traditional academies. STARTA uses a constraints-led approach built on task-based games, and the site says plainly that it skips bowing, belt-order lineups and strict dress codes. Fundamentals classes are aimed at white and blue belts and still include five-minute live rounds, while all-levels classes split the hour roughly evenly between teaching and sparring.

That makes the room friendlier for nervous first-timers, but it also means you will be problem-solving under resistance sooner than in a class built on repeated drilling. If you prefer step-by-step technique before anyone pushes back, book one of the two weekly intro classes first.

There are two routes in. The free trial is reserved for local residents and prospective members, while the six-week beginners course costs £199 and meets twice a week, Mondays and Thursdays. Recent intakes started on 5 October 2026, with the next ones listed for 26 October and 16 November. On the live timetable, Monday 18:00 is the Gi Intro Class and Thursday 18:00 is the NoGi Intro Class, each followed by a 19:00 sparring block that newcomers can watch or join.

For a gi trial the gym lends you a kimono. For no-gi it asks for athletic shorts with no zips or pockets and a fitted sports top or rash guard, plus water, which reception also sells.

The visitors page lists a £20 day drop-in, £80 for a week and £160 for a month, with students at £15 a day and members of other Carpe Diem affiliates at £12. Kimono rental is £10 and a towel is £2. Visitors register online, upload a photo and sign a waiver before they arrive, then turn up about ten minutes before class.

Local members choose between Unlimited at £140 a month, Standard at £110 for up to eight classes a month, Women's at £100, Student at £95 and Kids or Youth at £80. The membership page says cancel anytime, but the terms require a full calendar month's notice by email, with a £20 fee for rejoining and £20 per freeze.

Clause 5.1 of the terms lists the non-negotiables: clean kit, trimmed nails, no training while ill or with a contagious skin condition, and no training with open wounds, and staff can refuse entry if any of these fail. Members sign in on an iPad by the door before every class. Changing rooms and shelves for bags are available, and subscribed members can pay for a locker and laundry service, which explains the row of identical kit bags on the shelf.

Weekday mornings start at 07:00 with a rotating gi or no-gi class, and the 12:30 lunchtime slot draws the office crowd from around London Bridge who are back at their desks by 13:45. Evenings stack an 18:00 class, a 19:00 sparring block and a 19:30 class, which is the busiest stretch of the week. Friday has no morning class, so a visitor arriving on a Friday should aim for 12:30 or 18:00.

Saturday is the most varied day: kids at 08:45, youth at 09:30, the women's class from 10:30 to 11:30, Gi Fundamentals at 11:45 and an open mat at 12:45. Sunday finishes the week with NoGi Fundamentals at 11:00 and an open mat at noon.

Kids classes take children from six, and the timetable runs Kids at 15:45 and Youth at 16:45 on Mondays and Thursdays plus the Saturday morning sessions. The gym's own pages disagree on the age split, quoting 6 to 10 and 10 to 15 in one place and 6 to 11 and 11 to 15 elsewhere, so a ten- or eleven-year-old's parents should ask which group fits.

Borough Market at 8 Southwark Street is a ten-minute walk north and opens Tuesday to Friday 10am to 5pm, Saturday 9am to 5pm and Sunday 10am to 4pm, closing on Mondays, which makes the Saturday 11:45 class a good warm-up for a market lunch. Closer still, Red Cross Garden at 50 Redcross Way is a small, award-winning garden run by the Bankside Open Spaces Trust, tucked among the streets between the gym and Borough High Street.

STARTA London (formerly Carpe Diem BJJ London), Unit A, 16-18 Marshalsea Road, Borough, London SE1 1HL. Phone 07564 434982, email Info@starta-london.com. Published hours are 07:00 to 08:00, 12:30 to 13:30 and 15:45 to 20:30 on weekdays, 08:45 to 13:30 on Saturday and 10:00 to 13:00 on Sunday. Borough station on the Northern line is two minutes away, and London Bridge is about ten minutes on foot. If the evening class is full, the £10 Sunday open mat is the low-cost way to sample the room.