In a former stocking factory on 11 Iunie Street, people climb walls instead of walking through a bar's front door. A few kilometers away, on the site of an abandoned sports base in Aviației, kids chase a ball across FIFA-standard artificial turf. And once a year, in Sector 6, an entire lake gets drained to make room for five basketball courts.

Fabrica de Cățărat, inside the former Apollo factory

The building at 11 Iunie Street no. 50 went up at the end of the nineteenth century, between 1898 and 1899, for the Apollo hosiery and knitwear factory, and it operated until the company went bankrupt in 2004. It sat empty for a few years, then the brick building became Club Fabrica, and since 2020 it's been in the process of being classified as a historic monument, after the City Hall had initially planned to demolish it for eight-story apartment blocks.

Inside, Fabrica de Cățărat has operated since 2013, a bouldering gym with 550 square meters of climbable surface, with panels ranging from vertical walls to overhangs. The brick walls stay exposed, and the high ceiling, originally built for the factory's machinery, leaves room for the most advanced routes.

Năstase & Marica, on the site of the old Voința base

In Aviației, near Promenada Mall, a sports base that had fallen, in Ciprian Marica's words, "into a deplorable state," was brought back to life through an investment of 20 million lei. Ilie Năstase and Ciprian Marica opened a club here in 2023, with 14 tennis courts and 4 football pitches, covered and heated in winter, plus padel courts built to international standards.

The old Voința base carried the name of a club with real history, one most Bucharest residents have nearly forgotten by now. What hasn't changed is the location, right in the center of the city, three minutes from Aurel Vlaicu metro station.

PadelMania, in a mall's courtyard

In ParkLake's interior courtyard, the largest mall in western Bucharest, three glass padel courts sit right among the shop windows and restaurants. The courts are outdoor only and run daily from 8 a.m. to midnight, with an hour costing between 80 and 120 lei. After a match, you can head straight to the food court without leaving the area, which says something about how padel has settled into the city's weekend routine.

The drained lake in Drumul Taberei Park

Once a year, in May, Sector 6's City Hall drains the lake in Drumul Taberei Park, cleans out the basin, and sets up five 3×3 basketball courts, a volleyball court, a pickleball court, and a mini-football court, across nearly 3,000 square meters. It's the setting for the BCR Sport Arena Streetball festival, which reached its twentieth edition in 2026. The courts stay open to the public for free for a few days before the competition, then the lake fills back up and the boats return. 

Each of these four places started out with a different purpose in mind: a knitwear factory, a sports base left to decay, a mall's courtyard, a recreational lake. Sport came later, as a solution found for a space that needed a new use. The result is a city that, while it doesn't necessarily build new gyms, finds room to move wherever buildings and grounds change what they're for. 

Read also Padel is taking over Bucharest. The urban sport that turned the court into a place for socialising