Marylebone’s 1930s leisure centre is glowing up. Westminster Council has confirmed that the Seymour Centre will get a multi-million-pound facelift, including an upgraded sports hall, a new café and a permanent home for the Marylebone Library.
It’s been a little while since the three-story building, which currently houses a five-court sports hall and a swimming pool, had some TLC. In a recent council document, the council said ‘urgent’ improvements were needed and the building had ‘a number of underused and redundant spaces’. It now promises to become a ‘multi-purpose, mixed-use community facility’.
As well as the café, sports hall and library, other rooms proposed for the swish new leisure centre include a children’s soft play area and bookable community spaces.
Planning permission for the renovation of Seymour Centre was approved in July 2023, and now it looks like the work is finally underway. The leisure centre closed at the end of February to prepare for its makeover.
Westminster Council published a notice outlining that it decided to give the ‘stage two’ building contract to construction company Willmott Dixon for a fee of £36,563,000. Councillors have until March 20 to ‘call-in’ the decision before it is made final. The notice also detailed how the budget had risen from £40.25 million to £42.5 million.
Councillor David Boothroyd said:‘Transforming Seymour Leisure Centre will provide first-class facilities for the Westminster community. The improved site will include an open plan gym, refurbished swimming pool and contemporary library with accessibility throughout.
‘There are a number of local sports clubs and businesses who currently use the centre. We are now working closely with them to find solutions either at the new site or at other facilities in Westminster so they can continue to offer their services to residents.
‘The new spaces at Seymour will be able to be used by multiple clubs and community groups.’
Marylebone residents will have to be patient, as the work isn’t set to be complete until early 2026.
Discover more of London with Time Out
If you’re excited about the Marylebone Library, you’ll probably be thrilled to hear that you can now spend the night in St Paul’s Cathedral’s beautiful hidden library. And did you see that M&S Oxford Street is being demolished after all?
Listen to Time Out’s brilliant podcast ‘Love Thy Neighbourhood’: the newest episode with Iain Stirling in Shepherd’s Bush is out now.
Stay in the loop: sign up for our free Time Out London newsletter for the best of the city, straight to your inbox.
0 Comments