Changing the fate of UK leisure centres
The fate of UK leisure centres
The team
Professor Otto Saumarez-Smith, from the Department of History of Art, has worked closely with the Twentieth Century SocietyLink opens in a new window, contributed to listing consultations, worked with local conservation campaigns and undertaken public engagement activities to change the fate of UK leisure centres.
The challenge
Many people in the UK will have vivid and fond memories of visiting their local leisure centre.
Springing up across the country primarily during the 1970s, these typically council-run buildings offered affordable access to swimming, sport and other leisure activities.
But, in recent years, rising energy bills, aging structures and government budget cuts have led to many of these buildings being forced to close and facing demolition.
Today, amidst a growing health crisis and increasing obesity levels across the country, the local leisure centre is an endangered species.
Our approach
Registered charity the Twentieth Century Society has launched a campaign underpinned by research by Dr Otto Saumarez-Smith's researchLink opens in a new window. The campaign aims to get these buildings formal protection from UK government listing agencies as architectural and historically significant.
Through consultation submissions and supporting awareness-raising activities by local leisure centre campaign groups, Saumarez-Smith has played an essential role in ensuring four UK leisure centres have been listed so far.
His academic research has been cited in official listing reports by agencies like Historic England and has informed the Twentieth Century Society’s national-level lobbying work.
Our Impact
Prior to 2021, no leisure centres built during their ‘golden age’ between the 1960s and 1990s had been listed anywhere in the UK. Indeed, many excellent, much-loved examples of this architectural type have been allowed to be lost in the last twenty years.
In December 2021, Historic England successfully recommended the statutory listing of Swindon’s threatened Oasis Leisure Centre, a fondly remembered and culturally significant venue. Notably a reference to the building on another act’s tour poster inspired the then band Rain, an emerging band in 1990s Manchester, to change their name to Oasis!
The Oasis Leisure centre under construction in 1976.
Image source: Otto Saumarez-Smith via Twentieth Century Society
Historic England explicitly cited research by Saumarez-Smith in their rationale for recommending the listing. Work is now underway to restore the Oasis Leisure Centre for public use once more.
Historic England’s decision to list the Oasis Leisure Centre offered hope that other examples of these important but threatened spaces would be given statutory protection from demolition and unsympathetic alteration.
Bradford’s Richard Dunn Sport Centre opened in 1976 and was named after a West Yorkshire boxer who unsuccessfully challenged Muhammad Ali for the world heavyweight title that year. In 2022, it became the second UK leisure centre to gain listed status.
The campaign continues...
These initial successes have enabled Saumarez-Smith to play a key role in launching the Twentieth Century Society’s Protect Leisure Centres campaignLink opens in a new window, riding the crest of the wave of success from the campaigns to legally safeguard the Oasis and Richard Dunn complexes.
This produced a list of ten particularly significant leisure centres across the UK constructed between 1963 and 1993 which the campaign wanted to see protected.
Since the launch of the campaign, The Dome in Doncaster - which was one of Saumarez-Smith’s recommendations - has been listed and is now receiving a £14.1million investment from its owner Doncaster Council.
Bell’s Leisure Centre in Perth has also recently been listed, as the campaign continues to rescue and preserve these architecturally and culturally unique buildings from UK history.