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Harlow climbing wall is a recently built wall on the North side of Harlow. A few of us went to try it out on a very chilly Sunday in February...
Harlow is around 60 miles from Ipswich down the A12 and A120 and takes about an hour and a 20 minutes to reach - a bit quicker than places like The Castle in North London. The (free) parking is just beyond the wall building in a car park handily shared with a big pub which would be a lovely spot for a beer next to the canal in the summer.
Entry is £8 for non-members and although the website claims you need a qualification or to have been on one of their courses we had no problem getting in, with just the usual new-users questionnaire to fill in. There's a small but very pleasant cafe area next to reception which serves hearty toasted sandwiches alongside the usual tea and cake options. The reception sells a few climbing bits and bobs but nothing very interesting.
The wall itself claims 1000 square m of climbs, 50 fixed top-ropes and 20 lower-offs for leading. Maximum height is around 12m although the majority of the routes are a bit shorter. That's definitely not on the same scale as places like the Castle but it's more than enough for a day or two of climbing without repeating a route and it's several times the number of routes in Stowmarket and Copleston, of course.
On the downside, there doesn't seem to be any heating in the main hall, and on the day we went it was absolutely flipping freezing - a decent fleece and a woolly hat were definitely called for. In fact one of the locals even had insulated slippers over his rock boots for belaying! The route-setting tended to be a bit on the reachy side and is mostly vertical walls with the odd overlap for entertainment. There's no slab climbing worth mentioning, so it's not the place to practise your delicate padding and even many of the easier routes are on the wrong side of vertical.
Is it worth a visit then? - I'd say yes, but a slightly soulless atmosphere and a lack of heating means I'll still be going to the Castle as well next year.
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