A vegan entrepreneur wants a posh gym to have more padel courts as he’s fed up of setting his alarm to try to book one during the morning rush.
Andy Shovel, who co-founded plant-based meat firm THIS, has had enough of the ‘miserable’ ‘day to day experience’ of trying to book a court at the Chelsea Harbour Club in west London.
The vegan campaigner says he is missing out on playing his hobby ‘for days’ despite setting his alarm at 7.59am as a reminder to attempt to book a court when they are released at 8am.
The club was a regular haunt for Princess Diana in the 1990s and currently has three indoor padel courts, as well as 12 indoor tennis courts.
Former British tennis number one Laura Robson has previously been spotted playing at the luxury fitness club, where the joining fee is believed to be £2,000 with prices ranging from £319 to £439 a month.
Mr Shovel, who last year started non-profit charity A Bit Weird to shine a light on animal welfare, has launched a petition calling on the club’s owners, the David Lloyd Group, to build more courts as ‘demand… has outgrown the current facilities’.
Speaking to the Daily Mail, he said he pays £400 a month for his membership. He started playing at the club 18 months ago because it is the only place near his home that has indoor heated courts that he can use during the winter.
Mr Shovel, who had competed in national ranking tournaments and was once placed just outside the top 100, said: ‘Playing padel is my passion outside of work. Everyone there [at the club] who plays padel is getting a bit bored with it because they can’t get a court.’
Andy Shovel, who co-founded plant-based sausage firm THIS, has had enough of the ‘miserable’ ‘day to day experience’ of trying to book a court at the luxury gym
A vegan entrepreneur wants Chelsea Harbour Club in west London (pictured) to have more padel courts as he’s fed up of setting his alarm to try to book one during the morning rush
The club was a regular haunt for Princess Diana in the 1990s and currently has three indoor padel courts, as well as 12 indoor tennis courts
He sometimes has to wait two weeks to get a court and has to join other people’s games in order to play. He is now considering cancelling his membership.
‘It will be great to see if management wants to build more padel courts, but [the membership] is quite expensive,’ he said.
‘There is no point paying for it if I can’t do the thing that I want to do.’
Explaining that he had started the campaign ‘to help share the strength of feeling amongst the padel playing members’, he said in his petition: ‘The day to day experience of booking courts has become quite a miserable one, consisting of setting alarms at 07:59, and still somehow missing out on booking a court for days of trying.
‘For those of us who solely play padel at the club (anecdotally, that seems like a high % of padel playing members), the equation is no longer adding up.
‘Our ambition is to encourage management to consider adding more courts. We’re mindful that demand for tennis courts is also high, but there is no chance of it being as high as demand for padel courts – that appears clear from the booking app.’
The Daily Mail has contacted David Lloyd Clubs for comment.
The Harbour Club is one of London’s most prestigious gyms, which once boasted Prince William and Princess Kate as members.
It underwent a refurbishment in 2020 that included updating the changing rooms to have marble-finished shower cubicles and gold-effect mirrors.
The club was bought in 2005 by Next Generation – a firm founded by former tennis star David Lloyd – in a £16million deal. Next Generation merged with David Lloyd Clubs in 2009.
Padel has seen a surge in popularity in recent years with celebrities such as David Beckham, Cristiano Ronaldo, Shakira, and Eva Longoria spotted on the court.
Rapper Stormzy has also giving the sport his backing and in December 2024 invested in Padel Social Club saying he had become ‘hooked’.
According to LTA Padel, there are 1,000 courts in the UK as of July 2025 across 325 venues, compared to just 68 in 2019.
But padel – the racquet sport which was founded in Mexico in 1969 – is causing quite the nuisance in some of Britain’s affluent towns and suburbs.
From Hampshire to Bath and Weybridge to Harrogate, residents have compared the sound of padel to ‘gunshots’, with some saying they can no longer sit in their gardens due to the ‘appalling’ noise and ‘foul language’.
At one trendy padel club, plans for a four-metre-high acoustic barrier have been proposed to appease neighbours, but this has only led to comparisons to constructing a ‘Great Wall of China’.
There are more than 400,000 padel players in Britain, rapidly rising from 15,000 in 2019, according to the Lawn Tennis Association (LTA).
And while its basic skill level and social nature is attracting players far and wide, critics argue the cost of the sport is pricing people out. Research by Ray Algar in June 2025 showed the average off-peak court hire is about £30, but peak time prices can reach £80.
The growth of the sport has also left communities divided, with neighbours complaining about their lives being ruined by noisy players.
Wealthy homeowners living by one club in the cathedral city of Winchester, Hampshire, told the Mail last October they have to put up with loud bangs from padel courts at all hours of the day.
The popularity of padel has ‘boomed’ over the last couple of years, but people living near the courts have said the noise would be classed as ‘antisocial behaviour’ in any other setting.
The residents next to Winchester Racquets and Fitness said the ‘thwack’ of the ball being struck is so loud it is like a gunshot.
They said the noise starts just after breakfast and leaves them cowering inside for the entirety of the day.
Jenni Chilvers, who has a garden that backs onto the padel courts, said that she has not sat in her garden for the last two years because the noise is so loud.
Padel has seen a surge in popularity in recent years with celebrities such as David Beckham, Cristiano Ronaldo, Shakira spotted on courts
Actor Eva Longoria is an avid player and is pictured here taking part in The Star Padel Slam in Marabella, Trinidad and Tobago, in July 2024
The 76-year-old said the noise happens from 7am and continues on until 9pm.
She said this had ‘significantly impacted’ her and her husband, Peter, 83, and said that she keeps the windows shut even in summer.
The couple have lived in the house for the last 34 years and said the tennis club has previously been ‘good neighbours’ and has been considerate of the surrounding houses.
But Mrs Chilvers said the padel courts were ‘imposed’ upon them without any consultation about the noise.
She said that the noise of the ball hitting the bat created a loud ‘cracking’ sound that was similar to ‘gunshots’.
To make matters worse, she also heard ‘foul language’ coming from the courts. She said people would be ‘shrieking’ and ‘shouting’ while playing padel.
Mr Chilvers said the worst time was on a Saturday morning, when the good players would hit the ball very hard.
Mrs Chilvers said: ‘It has impacted on us quite seriously over the past three years. The noise is appalling.
‘It is from seven in the morning until nine at night. When the windows are open, it is all day. It has significantly impacted on us.
‘We have lived in this house for 34 years. We bought it knowing there was a tennis club, and it is quite nice to hear it in the summer.
‘But now they have imposed this on us. This should not be happening.’
When describing the noise, she said: ‘It does sound like gunshots because it is a thwack. It is the impact of the ball on the bat.
‘It is like a crack. Even sitting in here [the living room] in the afternoon, reading, you can hear it with the windows closed.
‘It is not just the noise of the padel itself, but they shout. They shriek. We have had foul language.’
