The architecture of Crystal Palace was revolutionary / Shutterstock/kentaylordesign
The UK is set to gain a world-class health, fitness and sports destination with the regeneration of Crystal Palace National Sports Centre, which will see the restoration of its landmark aquatics facilities, the creation of a raft of new indoor and outdoor sports facilities and an extensive gym.
The £130 million (US$173.5 million, €149.8 million) redevelopment has been approved by the London Borough of Bromley, subject to completion of a Section 106 agreement, with work expected to start later this year on the 15-hectare site and the main sports centre reopening targeted for 2028.
The Greater London Authority (GLA) is behind the project, while Mayor of London Sadiq Khan is continuing to seek partners and funders to deliver the longer-term redevelopment of the athletics stadium.
John Powell MBE, chair of the Crystal Palace Sports Partnership, said: “After over 12 years of campaigning this is a massive moment for London as one of its most iconic sporting venues can at last rise from the ashes.
«We’re indebted to the dozens of partners, not least the GLA and the Mayor of London who have worked tirelessly with us for over a decade to guarantee the future for a huge sporting asset not only for the local community but the wider sporting fraternity.
“The work doesn’t stop here though – with planning permission in place we now need to secure willing partners and stakeholders to help with funding and renovating the athletics stadium and complete the return of world class sporting facilities in South London.”
The scheme includes the return of the 50m swimming and diving pools, which have been closed since 2020. The reconfigured aquatics hall will provide shallow-water, 25m and 50m swimming and diving on one level for the first time.
The wider indoor sports offering will include an enlarged gym, indoor 100m track, specialist weightlifting facility and climbing centre, as well as dedicated spaces for sports clubs.
Outside, the plans include a six-court padel centre, 3×3 basketball courts, five-a-side football pitches and a full-size artificial multi-sports pitch.
A new community sports and leisure space will include a café, 200m running track, 3×3 basketball court and outdoor gym, with these facilities free to access.
The athletics stadium is also earmarked for major redevelopment, with existing stands renovated and a new North Stand completing the bowl to increase capacity to around 25,000.
However, this element is dependent on further investment, with Mayor of London Sadiq Khan continuing to seek partners and funders to bring forward the stadium redevelopment.
The ambition is to restore Crystal Palace as a major athletics venue capable of hosting national and international competition. The stadium element has previously been targeted for opening around 2030.
Accessibility improvements will include accessible stadium seating for the first time and a new step-free route between the Penge and Crystal Palace sides of the park.
Khan said: “This historic and much-loved national sports facility has created so many UK sporting stars, but it needs major investment and refurbishment and I am committed to delivering this.
“We now look forward to starting the next phase of work alongside partners and the local community to create an outstanding sporting venue.”
Sustainability is also a major component of the project, with the design targeting a 98 per cent reduction in carbon emissions. Photovoltaic panels and air source heat pumps will help make the centre all-electric, while a new glazed screen between wet and dry areas will address longstanding problems with humidity from the pool.
The Mayor provided a £23 million (US$30.7 million, €26.5 million) boost from his Green Finance Fund in 2024 to support the decarbonisation work.
Morgan Sindall Construction has been appointed by the GLA to deliver the project, working with a team including FaulknerBrowns on the leisure centre refurbishment, WOO Architects on the sports masterplan, Max Fordham on sustainability and Alan Baxter Associates on conservation of the historic structure.
BACKGROUND: Crystal Palace – the architecture
Architecturally, the project will involve a sensitive reworking of one of Britain’s most important post-war sports buildings.
Designed in 1953–54 by the London County Council Architects’ Department under Leslie Martin, with Norman Engleback playing a leading role, the centre was the first indoor multi-functional sports hall of its kind designed in Britain.
The spectacular Grade II* listed building is constructed around an exposed reinforced-concrete A-frame, with the aquatics hall on one side and dry sports facilities on the other, linked visually across a central circulation and spectator spine. Extensive glazing, dramatic concrete structures and an oversailing roof lined with teak create the vast, light-filled interior for which the building is known.
However, one of the qualities that made the design so radical – bringing wet and dry sports together within one open volume – also created environmental problems. The original design provided no separation between the humid pool hall and the dry sports areas, contributing to longstanding issues with humidity and thermal comfort.
FaulknerBrowns’ refurbishment will address this by introducing a glazed screen along the line of the existing concrete A-frames, environmentally separating the wet and dry sides of the building for the first time while retaining views through the interior.
A new displacement ventilation system will also reverse the existing ventilation strategy, while upgrades to the heritage façades will improve thermal performance.
Historic England has backed the approach, saying it will improve environmental conditions without compromising the sense of a large, naturally lit, open-plan interior that is fundamental to the building.
Crystal Palace is also a physical expression of Britain’s post-war ambitions for sport. Conceived in the 1950s, it was unusual in deliberately bringing elite international athletes and ordinary local users together within the same complex – a breadth of social and sporting vision that Historic England now identifies as part of the significance of its Grade II* listing.
Its architecture embodied that confidence and ambition. The 50m competition pool and athletics facilities were joined by a spectacular sculptural reinforced-concrete diving platform, now considered a rare surviving example of its type. Together, these facilities represented a new level of investment in the infrastructure needed both to develop sporting talent and to enable the wider population to participate.
In many ways, Crystal Palace can be seen as part of the foundations on which Britain’s modern sporting culture was subsequently built – a national centre for high-performance sport that was simultaneously a place where generations of Londoners could swim, train, compete and discover sport for themselves.
