Herrería Gym

Riveted plates of iron form the great winding drum at the far end of the hall, its cable long gone, a wheel taller than every gantry. Laid on the old engine bed, the battle floor is a long rectangle of oil-dark concrete, studded with bolt heads and edged in a strip of brass. Iron gantries run around three walls at two heights and serve as stands, their handrails worn bright where generations of grips have rested. High in the brick walls, arched windows of small grimy panes let in only a weak and smoky glow from the pithead outside. Most of the light comes from rows of pit lamps along the gantry rails, throwing hard yellow pools onto the floor and leaving the trusses dark. Beside the drum a brake lever as long as a rail stands chained off, among painted steel, machine oil, coal dust and cold iron.