Britannia is a reflection of one of London’s most diverse boroughs. When creating the masterplan, we collaborated with local students, sports teams and trusts in 59 community consultation events. This included working closely with groups such as the Black Swimming Association and Project Indigo—Hackney’s LGBTQI+ youth group—to understand the barriers to participation in sport and leisure.
This engagement informed features such as inclusive and accessible changing areas, pool areas that can be screened for privacy for specific user-groups, accessible pool facilities for wheelchair-users and special educational needs sessions.
The result is a welcoming and inclusive building that has improved health and wellbeing in the community. By ensuring sport and movement are accessible to all, Britannia has increased local participation in fitness, swimming and sports by more than 160%.