Britannia Leisure Centre | London

Britannia Leisure Centre

LONDON

Year:        2019 - 2022
Cost:        £45.6m
Sector:    Sport  |  Leisure
Client:     London Borough of Hackney

Britannia Leisure Centre was built as part of the largest public-sector investment in the London Borough of Hackney for a generation. The local council sought to address community health inequalities by creating a welcoming and accessible sports centre. Our solution features stacked training and recreational swimming pools, a café, a sports hall, squash and tennis courts, five-a-side football pitches and a fitness suite - all overlooking the green expanse of Shoreditch Park.

The thoughtful design of Britannia makes it feel energising. Its pools and exercise studios are arranged around the outer edges, meaning passers-by get a view of people moving and playing inside, hopefully encouraging participation. From inside, there are expansive views over Shoreditch Park.

Britannia is a reflection of one of London’s most diverse boroughs. When creating the masterplan, we collaborated with local students, sports teams and trusts in 59 community consultation events. This included working closely with groups such as the Black Swimming Association and Project Indigo—Hackney’s LGBTQI+ youth group—to understand the barriers to participation in sport and leisure.  This engagement informed features such as inclusive and accessible changing areas, pool areas that can be screened for privacy for specific user-groups, accessible pool facilities for wheelchair-users and special educational needs sessions.

The result is a welcoming and inclusive building that has improved health and wellbeing in the community. By ensuring sport and movement are accessible to all, Britannia has increased local participation in fitness, swimming and sports by more than 160%.

COLLABORATORS

London Borough of Hackney | GLA | Faulkner Brown | Buro Happold | Van Zyl De Villiers