Meet Meredith Anderson from Movement Collective
30 May 2025
Meet the LocalsHow does your body move? Few of us think about how we move our bodies throughout the day. This lack of presence can lead to poor posture and even injury, warns Pilates expert Meredith Anderson.
Movement Collective, the studio she co-founded in 2024, teaches ‘body literacy’ through Pilates, stretch, breathwork and manual therapies, empowering students to understand and respond to the body's signals, leading to improved awareness and movement prowess.
The studio is witness to the fallout of a post-COVID shift to wellness that saw people hurling themselves into marathons or intense gym training while neglecting basic movement principles.
“We want to give people joy and satisfaction from moving,”MEREDITH ANDERSON, MOVEMENT COLLECTIVE
“We help people take a step back and ask themselves, ‘How am I moving? Am I using the right muscles? Do I know where my hamstrings are? Can I turn them on?’” she says.
Take the runner who was struggling to run further and faster. Through six sessions, Movement Collective helped him isolate the sticking points that were causing pain and stopping his legs from swinging freely.
The clientele is not just ultra-athletes. Desk workers with back pain, mid-lifers safely building muscle strength, and, recently, a group of women training to walk Spain’s Camino de Santiago trail are all heading to Movement Collective to build their body literacy. The approach is a hit with local residents and businesses – a weekly class held at the Shard is always booked out.
“We want to give people joy and satisfaction from moving,” Meredith says.
Their offering includes one-to-one assisted stretch therapy, massage, and group classes using Pilates equipment, such as chairs, barrels and reformer machines.
The founders’ passion for movement stems from their dance backgrounds. Meredith holds an honours degree in dance from Toronto’s York University, where she discovered the power of Pilates for strength and flexibility.
Co-founder Amy Laithwaite trained with the Canadian National Ballet. She is an expert in biomechanics, which focuses on repatterning movement to improve alignment, flexibility and movement efficiency. To give a simple example: what muscles should you be using while walking down the street, and how do you get them to turn on without having to think about it?
The two Canadians met while teaching at a London Pilates studio. COVID lockdowns hit, and their employer sadly closed. Meredith reverted to teaching from her spare bedroom, and Amy rented a space. Both felt hemmed in. Over a bottle of wine, the idea for Movement Collective was born – a space that could give people highly personalised attention through small class sizes and one-on-one teaching.
The biggest challenges were funding and premises. The first was partly solved by loyal group of 20 Founder Members who pre-purchased a year’s worth of services upfront, before they’d even broken ground.
“‘There is so much love and trust that got this idea off the ground – we couldn’t have done it without them,” says Meredith.
The second challenge was seeing the potential in a Shad Thames site that the estate agent described as ‘agricultural’.
“There were uneven concrete floors, it was dirty, and there were holes in the walls,” Meredith says, “It was scary but exciting. We had a vision.”
Today, the studio is a bright, airy space with soft acoustics, heated flooring, beechwood Pilates equipment and basket weave lampshades. Two dog beds are reserved for Mazie the dachshund and Dusty the schnauzer, “best friends” who snooze while their owners teach.
But the heart of the studio lies in the collective of 15 teachers who have created a welcoming community.
“We like to nerd out about the human body. If one of us has a student with a tricky problem, we’ll all be rolling around on the floor trying to come up with the perfect movement for them!”, says Meredith.
Explore the Neighbourhood – Meredith’s guide
Riverwalk to Rotherhithe, Thames Pathway, SE16
Turn right out of our studio and zigzag through the area’s eclectic streets and alleyways. You stumble across the buildings and wharves that have supported the river and its trade for hundreds of years.
Southwark was historically outside of the jurisdiction and strict rules of the City of London, making it a magnet for playhouses, brothels, bear baiting, and gambling dens. I love the juxtaposition of the huge Cathedral evolving amid all the wildness.
Caffe Paradiso, 45 Shad Thames, SE1 2NJ
This Sicilian coffee shop opposite our studio is my favourite stop for a dirty chai latte – a chai latte with a shot of espresso!
themoco.uk, 3 Copper Row London
