Golden Lane Estate Leisure Centre

Cartwright Pickard did a fantastic job of producing a high quality design that allayed stakeholder concerns to secure listed building consent, whilst realising our ambitions for the centre

Brian Brierley, Project Manager, City of London

Client City of London Corporation
Location City of London
Completion 2012
Cost £2.3m

Services

RIBA stages 1-6
Architectural design
Interior design
Public consultation
Listed buildings consent

Awards

AJ Retrofit Awards - Public Building of the Year

The Grade II Listed leisure centre is located at the heart of the celebrated Golden Lane Housing Estate in the City of London, and was originally designed by Chamberlin Powell and Bon in 1963.

The centre takes an ‘L’ shaped form around a quadrangle and is the conglomeration of two formerly separated buildings – the two storey swimming pool and badminton court and the single storey club rooms.

A key aim of the refurbishment was to provide a wide range of fitness options for residents and visitors, encouraging greater use of the leisure centre, generating greater income and modernising it to a standard that allows it to continue to serve the community for years to come.

To achieve this, the design refurbished the swimming pool, badminton court and changing rooms, inserted a new gym and dance studio and created a new, fully accessible, reception area and circulation routes.

The design acknowledges the importance of maintaining the character of the original Grade II listed building while delivering a project that performs to changing patterns of use and meets modern standards for accessibility, health and safety and environmental performance.

Our design approach was to strip away non-original ‘quick fix’ interventions made over the years that compromised the original design. Where existing elements required replacement we were as faithful as possible to the original design. When creating new additions we made a clear distinction between new and old with new elements being clearly defined.

The existing building was thermally inefficient so the refurbishment sought to introduce a greater degree of insulation, reducing energy loss and heating bills. The largely-glazed façade of the swimming pool and badminton court raised the challenge of improving the performance of the building fabric while maintaining the transparency and external appearance as much as possible.

The solution was to re-create the original glazing with a modern double glazed alternative. Colours and details were carefully matched to provide a high performance envelope that is virtually identical to the original.