Crystal Palace National Sports Centre

We are delighted to be working as part of the Morgan Sindall team to breathe new life into Crystal Palace National Sports Centre.

Crystal Palace is synonymous with the United Kingdom’s rich cultural history. Paxton’s Cystal Palace, which was opened in Hyde Park for the 1851 Great Exhibition, was dismantled and relocated in 1854 to its permanent home at Sydenham Hill in Upper Norwood, where it remained until the Great Fire in 1936 devasted the structure. In 1964, the Crystal Palace National Sports Centre, designed by the London County Council’s Architects Department under Project Architect Norman Engleback, was completed, providing world-class sporting facilities including a 50-metre swimming pool, sports halls and an athletics track.

This is a brilliant opportunity to work within an amazing piece of architecture and resolve historic challenges, while respecting the building’s significant cultural heritage.

The proposal introduces vast improvements and benefits to the existing facility. Key elements include a new ventilation strategy for better temperature and humidity control, making the multi-levelled and complex interior more accessible and inclusive, and moving away from a reliance on fossil fuels while decarbonising the building.

Addressing the current open plan layout, a glazed screen has been introduced to achieve a more balanced environment between the pool hall and the remainder of the building.