My local and a nice little wall for having a play. We are lucky to have a very good route setter who tries to make the most of the space. As i said the problems are all quite short so not great for endurance training but if youy want to up your short one pitch and bouldering performance its great. The southampton rats climbing club meet there on a tuesday at 7 onwards come on down and say hi.
Very good use of limited space. There's a roof, an overhang, a slab, some corners, a couple of aretes and some straight up wall climbs all in the space of a squash court. There's also a small bouldering area for traversing. The main wall makes use of intricate feature panels which are great fun! The climbs are very short but challenging.
I am sure that the bouldering there is not 200 sq metres.. It's not bad though, although the wall is a bit thin and unnerving in places.
Currently St Mary's is closed for refurbishment until 8th January 2007.
Some interesting (though very short) roped up routes and dissapointingly small bouldering section made for a farily underwhelming visit.
One of the saving graces for this wall was the friendly and helpful staff and the easy going clientele. The bouldering section is very short and so can only fit a limited set of traverses with one or two short and powerful 'up' problems through the roof. Having to climb up into the bouldering wall from the main wall below is a touch of class :-)
Compact and bijou.
A bit the small side, but a enough of a selection of bolt-ons, features, bulges and overhangs to keep most people happy.