Leisure centers apparently have life expectancies of ~40 years and the one named Gurnell, located in what we like to call the greater Perivale park in the late 1970s, had reached the end of its life. The original redevelopment plans, the “Gurnell redevelopment”, were rejected a year or so ago by the council planning committee and after a rethink a new team at Ealing Council has put forward what they call a very different set of proposals. A public meeting was held on 30th November to announce these plans to the public. Here I show a few of the posters and slides on show.
The plan is to have the new leisure centre finished by 2027! And a look at the layout shows it in fact to be very similar to the old Gurnell; the 50m main pool has been retained as well as the shallow pool for youngsters. The interior will have many facilities including a cafe and outdoor terraces. The 150-space centre car park will be underground and a new bridge will be built over the Brent connecting the whole area to the Longfield meadows the other side and to Perivale Park itself a little further. There is an aspiration to landscape the surrounding area with eg a new amphitheatre, a first for Ealing I think? The focus tonight was on the leisure centre, but also mentioned were the 250 new homes to be built on what is now the old car park. Oh, and the new centre will also have a projected lifespan of 40 years, taking us to 2065 or so!
The year 2024 will be for consultation and finalising plans and the build is projected to happen in 2025-2027. Lets see if all this optimism is maintained!
I forgot to mention that the architects (GT3) have designed and seen built about 25 leisure centres around the country, the closest of which is in Slough. The landscape designers are Periscope.