Thursday late clinic now running to 7.30pm — assessment slots are open this fortnight. Request a time
North RoomPhysiotherapy

Musculoskeletal physiotherapy

Treat the pain, rebuild the capacity

A one-room clinic for backs, necks, knees, shoulders and running injuries. Every appointment is a full forty-five minutes with the same physiotherapist: assessment, hands-on treatment, and a written plan you take away with you.

A physiotherapist guiding a client through a supervised rehabilitation exercise on a mat
  • Appointment lengthA full 45 minutes
  • ContinuityThe same clinician each visit
  • You leave withA written, dated plan
  • AccessNo referral needed

What we treat

Six lanes of work, and the problems that sit in each

If what you are dealing with is not listed, write it in the request form. We will tell you honestly whether physiotherapy is the right first step.

01

Low back & neck

  • Disc irritation
  • Facet pain
  • Sciatic referral
  • Desk neck

Episodes that lock you up on waking, pain that travels into a leg or forearm, and the stiff middle ground after an acute flare has settled but normal movement has not returned.

02

Knees & hips

  • Patellar pain
  • Meniscal irritation
  • Gluteal tendon
  • Early arthritis

Stairs, squatting and sleeping on one side. We test load tolerance rather than guessing from the scan, then work out how much the joint will accept this month.

03

Shoulders

  • Rotator cuff
  • Impingement
  • Frozen shoulder
  • Overhead work

Reaching behind you, overhead lifting at work, and night pain. Shoulders usually need a longer runway, so we set the review points before you start.

04

Running & load injuries

  • Achilles
  • Shin pain
  • Hamstring
  • Plantar heel

Brought on by a change in mileage, surface or shoes. We rebuild tissue tolerance and rewrite the week's training rather than telling you to stop entirely.

05

Post-operative rehab

  • Knee reconstruction
  • Shoulder repair
  • Joint replacement

Staged work that respects the surgeon's protocol, from early range and swelling control through to the strength and confidence needed to get back to your sport or trade.

06

Persistent pain

  • Over 3 months
  • Flare management
  • Graded return

Pain that has outlasted the original injury. Longer conversations, gentler starting doses, and a plan built around the activities you have stopped doing.

Appointments

Four formats, so you can ask for the right slot

Choose the nearest match in the request form. If it turns out to be the wrong one, we change it before your visit rather than cutting the appointment short.

All appointments are one to one. Nothing is shared with another patient.
AppointmentLengthWhat it includes
Initial assessment 45 min Full history, physical testing, hands-on treatment on the day, and a written plan with three or four exercises and a review date.
Follow-up treatment 30 min Retesting what changed, manual therapy or dry needling where it helps, and the next progression of your plan.
Extended rehab review 45 min For post-operative and later-stage work. Strength testing on the movement floor and a rewritten programme for the next block.
Movement screening 60 min No current injury. Load and range testing before a season, an event build-up or a return to lifting, with a written summary.

Inside the north room

One treatment plinth, one movement floor, north light

The clinic is a single quiet room rather than a corridor of cubicles. Half of it is set up for hands-on work, the other half has enough space and load to test what you can do.

Hands-on physiotherapy treatment being delivered on a padded treatment plinth
Hands-on half — plinth, adjustable height, screened from the door
A person performing loaded strength work with dumbbells on an open gym floor
Movement floor — loaded testing and rehab progressions
  • Hands-on kitTreatment plinth, mobilisation belts, sterile single-use needles for dry needling, and taping stock for the walk home.
  • Testing kitHandheld dynamometer, calibrated step and box, timing gates for return-to-run work, and a plate-loaded rack.
  • PracticalitiesStep-free entrance, a changing screen, somewhere to leave a bike, and a kettle that is always on.

Your first visit

What the forty-five minutes actually look like

Nobody enjoys arriving somewhere new in pain and not knowing the shape of the appointment. Here it is, in order.

  1. Step 01

    Before you arrive

    Wear shorts or loose trousers and bring the shoes you train or work in. If you have had a scan or an operation, send the report with your request so we read it beforehand.

  2. Step 02

    Assessment

    Around twenty minutes of history and physical testing: what aggravates it, what settles it, what the joint and the tissue will take today. You hear the reasoning as we go.

  3. Step 03

    Treatment on the day

    Manual therapy, mobilisation, dry needling or taping where it earns its place, then the first exercises practised with you until they feel repeatable.

  4. Step 04

    The plan

    You leave with three or four exercises written down, the loads and frequency, what to expect over the next fortnight, and a dated point at which we review honestly.

Who you'll see

Two clinicians, and you stay with the one who assessed you

Continuity is the point of a small clinic. Whoever carries out your initial assessment keeps your case through to discharge unless you ask otherwise.

Portrait of Elin Marsh, lead musculoskeletal physiotherapist at North Room

Lead musculoskeletal physiotherapist

Elin Marsh

Elin opened the north room after a decade in outpatient musculoskeletal clinics. She takes most of the spinal and shoulder caseload and runs the Thursday late clinic.

  • Low back, neck and thoracic pain
  • Shoulder assessment and staged loading
  • Persistent pain and flare planning
  • Dry needling and manual therapy
Portrait of Theo Baptiste, physiotherapist specialising in rehabilitation and strength

Physiotherapist — rehab & strength

Theo Baptiste

Theo came from club-level sport and handles the later stages: knees, tendons and the long road back from surgery. He writes the programmes that run alongside your own training.

  • Knee and hip loading, post-operative stages
  • Achilles, hamstring and plantar heel pain
  • Return-to-run and return-to-lift testing
  • Movement screening before a season

Questions

The things people ask before booking

Straight answers, including the ones that might send you somewhere else.

Do I need a referral from a doctor?

No. You can request an appointment directly. If your insurer requires a referral before they will reimburse, check their policy first, and if we think you need a medical opinion before physiotherapy we will say so at the assessment.

What should I wear and bring?

Shorts or loose trousers, plus a vest or t-shirt you can move your arms in freely. Bring the footwear you run, lift or work in — worn soles tell us more than a description does. There is a changing screen if you would rather change here.

How many appointments will I need?

We cannot know that at the request stage, and anyone who promises a number before assessing you is guessing. What we will do is give you an expected range and a dated review point at the end of the first visit, then revise it out loud if progress differs.

Will the treatment hurt?

Some testing reproduces your symptoms briefly — that is how we identify the structure involved. Hands-on work should sit at a level you can breathe through, and you can stop anything at any point. Mild soreness for a day afterwards is common and settles.

Can I claim through private health insurance?

We issue an itemised receipt after each appointment with the information most insurers ask for. Policies differ, so confirm your cover and any pre-authorisation requirement with your provider before the first visit.

I already train — will you just tell me to stop?

Rarely. Complete rest is usually the slowest route back. Bring your current programme or training week and we will adjust volume, range and exercise selection around the injury so you keep as much of it as the tissue will tolerate.

What if I need to move or cancel an appointment?

Reply to your confirmation email as early as you can and we will move you to the next suitable slot. Because the diary is one room and one clinician, late changes usually mean a longer wait for the replacement time, so earlier notice genuinely helps.

Request an appointment

Tell us what is going on and when you can get here

We read every request ourselves and reply by email, normally within one working day, with the times that fit and the format we think you need. Nothing is charged or confirmed until you agree the slot.

  • Monday & Tuesday7.30 – 17.00
  • Wednesday9.00 – 17.00
  • Thursday late clinic10.00 – 19.30
  • Friday7.30 – 14.00
  • WeekendClosed

We use what you write here only to arrange and prepare for your appointment.