real time web analytics
Report - - The Arches Leisure Centre – Greenwich – November 2018 | Leisure Sites | 28DaysLater.co.uk

Report - The Arches Leisure Centre – Greenwich – November 2018

Hide this ad by donating or subscribing !

mockney reject

Moderator
Staff member
Moderator
The History


The Arches Leisure Centre boasted a 110 station gym, two swimming pools – one a fitness pool, allowing lane swimming throughout the day and the second a leisure pool including a spa pool, two exercise studios, a Crèche and a Sauna. It was also home to various swimming and sports clubs.

It was confirmed at the Greenwich Society's AGM that the Arches Leisure Centre was to close on the 12th Jun 2015. At 86 years old the leisure centre was offered for sale for redevelopment.

This now shabby looking neglected building has an interesting history.

It was built to the designs of Horth and Andrews, the winners of a National Architectural Competition of 1923 to replace the original 1850s building. The 1850 baths were among the first in England to be built to the recommendations of the 1848 Baths and Washhouses Act designed to give workers in the hurriedly built bathroom-less terraces a chance to wash as well as to learn to swim.

This building proved inadequate for the number of men returning from the forces after WW1 to take up jobs in the then flourishing Industry in Greenwich. The new Baths extend across a whole block of the Trafalgar Road. It is the largest building in this domestic shopping street.

The arched design was inspired by Roman baths. It was original and symmetrical. It gives the street order and dignity, a worthy approach to the famous buildings of Wren. It has a character all of its own yet fits into the modest scale of its immediate neighbours and of Hawksmoor, which it does not compete with or ape. Renamed the Arches after the slipper baths (individual private bathrooms) in the centre of the complex were replaced by a gymnasium.

The Arches is a ‘Locally Listed’ building and its design has inspired many later swimming pools—Bryanston Baths, Ironmongers Row, Porchester Place, all of the 1930s, statutorily listed and in full working order. The Greenwich Society, anxious not to lose this fine, character-full building in the Trafalgar Road prepared a study in 2012 showing some of the unusual and original details of the design which won the competition in 1923.

The Society was pleased that after the original intention for the Arches to be sold for demolition the Council included the following ‘Planning Guidance’ with the advertisement for its sale planning guidance was provided with the marketing particulars and this stated that as a locally listed building located on a busy road and in a conservation area, the potential for development is subject to certain constraints and that the preference would be for sympathetic conversion/extension.



The Explore



I first checked “The Arches” back in late 2015 with the usual crowd of people but we ended up bailing. A combination of being tied, cold, hungry and stupid lol

So fast forward to 2018 and it cropped up in conversation, I’d driven passed it a few times on the way to other stuff and it spiked my interest again. Fuelled further by @oakley dropping a few pics of it into our group chat when he was working nearby.

Myself and @UrbanDuck decided to bowl into town and have a butchers. Parking up and having a quick wander things didn’t look too promising. A van and motorbike were parked just inside the hoarding and we almost bailed. After 15 mins we decided to give it a go.

43963672810_38c9af3b16_b.jpg


31909586888_29355c6f10_b.jpg


43963671350_30e4d158a9_b.jpg
43963672810_23e2604cd7_b.jpg


We headed in not sure what we were going to find, sadly we found a really decent place that was in the middle of being stripped out. Kicking ourselves for not going back sooner we had a wander round and snapped a few pics.

The leisure pool was the first pool we walked into.

Pic shamelessly stolen from google earth

51842093872_f4d45fdd33_b.jpg
45104012884_9f5f7a6be1_b.jpg


Yeah it didn’t look like that anymore lol

Spot the Urban duck?
43963664160_5f230431d2_b.jpg


43963664160_3f4ed64de9_b.jpg


43963663100_f049baae7c_b.jpg


45056178794_e749212711_b.jpg


30841094377_d20cd26788_b.jpg


45730758972_2f8b27d99d_b.jpg


45730757202_ab14160641_b.jpg


Making our way out of the leisure pool we headed into the exercise studios

Again pic shamelessly stolen from google earth

51843398724_b32f31e7ee_b.jpg
31957832398_026ab27929_b.jpg


This was a little dull and fairly dark so I only ended up with one picture from this part

30841085657_06c0c765c2_b.jpg


You can see from the door halfway up the back wall that this part had originally been split into two levels.

Next came the fitness pool

Thanks again google earth

51843142048_c6eac36870_b.jpg


Again ripped to bits, but still with the balconies and an odd stage area full of old doors and chairs

45730752662_29071c799f_b.jpg


30841083007_90cd9b7d33_b.jpg


45730750772_ce2d8f1936_b.jpg


45730749652_81d047cb05_b.jpg


45730747112_e8a9512891_b.jpg


The rest of the building was pretty much standard leisure centre

43963670000_b7fa0e5672_b.jpg


43963668540_7b40c7fb84_b.jpg


It was a little sad to see this lot left behind though, all that history left to go rusty and be forgotten

43963667130_d3ba767d9b_b.jpg


43963666130_307c7ea5ea_b.jpg

 

Who has read this thread (Total: 210) View details

Top