Kentish Town Baths
"THE people of Kentish Town will get the chance to have their say on the refurbishment of their historic Victorian baths today (Thursday 19/07/07).
Limbrick Limited Architecture and Design, which has been commissioned to transform Kentish Town baths into a 21st century leisure centre, will present the planning proposals at a meeting at 6.30pm at Kentish Town Library, Kentish Town Road.
The meeting has been organised by Camden Council's planning division to give people an opportunity to ask questions and comment ahead of the architect submitting an application.
It is expected that an application for planning permission will be submitted in September.
Camden Council will then formally consult with residents and the application will be considered by the development control committee.
The £25.3million proposals will see the Grade II listed building refurbished to include two swimming pools, a learner pool, gym and studio space. They also include plans for 10 flats and four town houses. "
(Via Camden Gazette - Have your say on Baths future: .)
...more ---> ...| Kentish Town Baths | 19 July 2007; 8:25:35 AM |# | | Discuss (1 response) |
"MULTI-MILLION pound plans to restore Kentish Town Baths have been given the green light. Council bosses approved the £25.3million scheme for Kentish Town Sports Centre, Prince of Wales Road, Kentish Town, last Wednesday."
(Via Camden Chronicle Council to splash the cash on Victorian baths: .)
...more ---> ...| Kentish Town Baths | 15 April 2007; 10:50:28 AM |# | | Discuss |
"BUDDING swimmers are being left high and dry by the closure of Kentish Town Baths - as teachers struggle to find suitable alternatives."
(Via Camden Chronicle Young swimmers left high and dry: .)
...more ---> ...| Kentish Town Baths | 23 February 2007; 11:27:23 AM |# | | Discuss |
Save Kentish Town Baths achieved a major victory for their campaign with Camden Council looking for major funds to restore the baths and reversing a decision to sacrifice the learner pool. Philip Oakley, now a Camden Councillor, who set up the campaign said "It's brilliant - a real change of attitude and approach".
Save Kentish Town Baths report the news in detail:
Subject to approval on 11 October, the Council is looking to invest a major package of funds to restore Kentish Town Baths and retain BOTH main adult pools AS WELL AS the learner pool....
So many of us reacted with surprise at the previous Council’s attempt to sell off the learner pool - surely teaching babies and toddlers water skills is the number one reason to have swimming centres! – that I’m sure you will share my delight at this news.
This new plan is a real commitment to the future of the Baths. The details of the plans for the Baths will be sorted out via discussion with local residents, schools and users of the facility very soon. I will let you know when I have more details but you might want to take a look at the Council’s press release....
Philip Oakley, Save Kentish Town Baths
...more ---> ...| Kentish Town Baths | 10 October 2006; 11:38:04 AM |# | | Discuss |
"TOWN Hall bosses have been accused of desperation after they came up with last-ditch plans to save Kentish Town baths. After months of protest by campaigners determined to save the historic pools in Prince of Wales Road, the council is today expected to p"
(Via Ham and High Express Labour performs a backflip over swimming baths: .)
| Kentish Town Baths | 15 February 2006; 10:42:44 PM |# | | Discuss |
"DEVELOPERS bidding to revamp Euston station have plans to put in a swimming pool to make up for the possible closure of Kentish Town swimming baths."
(Via Ham and High Express Take a swim at new-look Euston: .)
...more ---> ...| Kentish Town Baths | 15 February 2006; 10:42:24 PM |# | | Discuss |
"Education secretary Ruth Kelly, back left, teams up with Olympic gold medallist Kelly Holmes, back centre, and culture secretary Tessa Jowell, at Acland Burghley School
CULTURE secretary Tessa Jowell has told the Town Hall to face up to the “Olympic challenge” and resolve Camden’s swimming baths crisis as soon as possible.
She revealed yesterday (Wednesday) that she had asked for a special briefing on the Prince of Wales Baths in Kentish Town amid fears that the pool could be shut and sold off.
Ms Jowell told the New Journal: “Lots of swimming pools have been poorly maintained and they need to be refurbished. It is part of rising to the Olympic challenge.”
After their election in 2002, Labour councillors pledged to refurbish the pool, but work on the baths has yet to start. Officials estimated last year that repair work would cost a minimum of £17 million, but nobody at the Town Hall has been willing to commit themselves to that amount of spending. "
(Via Camden New Journal - News: .)
...more ---> ...| Kentish Town Baths | 7 February 2006; 12:45:33 AM |# | | Discuss |
"SWIMMING came top of a wish list yesterday at Acland Burghley School in Kentish Town when its pupils were asked by Tessa Jowell, the Olympics Minister, Ruth Kelly, the Education Secretary, and Dame Kelly Holmes, the Government’s new School Sports Champion, as to which facilities they would most like to have access to....more ---> ...This might be easier said than done as the school, which both Jowell's children attended, has no pool. Of the two local baths, one is closed and the other is under threat of closure."
| Kentish Town Baths | 6 February 2006; 11:50:57 AM |# | | Discuss |
"PLANS for a seven-storey complex on the old travellers' site in Kentish Town have been given the go-ahead.But residents have criticised the decision - saying it is 'inept' and that it adds further to Camden Council's secrecy over the future of the Kentish Town Baths."
(Via Camden Gazette: .)
...more ---> ...| Kentish Town Baths | 2 January 2006; 1:33:53 PM |# | | Discuss |
"A PETITION to save a historic swimming pool signed by more than 3,000 residents was this week presented to Camden Council."
(Via Camden Chronicle Pool fans present petition: .)
...more ---> ...| Kentish Town Baths | 14 December 2005; 7:50:54 PM |# | | Discuss |
"PROFESSIONAL squatters have been handed the keys to a groundbreaking sports centre that closed because of budget cuts by Camden Council.
The Jubilee Waterside Centre in King's Cross shut after 30 years when its £64,000 annual grant was cut this year. "
(Via Hampstead and Highgate Express - Fury as sports centre is given to squatters: .)
...more ---> ...| LB Camden | 15 September 2007; 8:52:25 PM |# | | Discuss |
"A controversial £85m redevelopment in north London has opened to the public.
Replacing the existing swimming baths, the centre in Swiss Cottage boasts a theatre, library, gym, swimming pool and 22 affordable homes."
(Via BBC NEWS | England | London | Controversial pool open to public: .)
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"Swiss Cottage Leisure Centre is now completed. The phased opening of the leisure centre for public use begins on Monday 20 March 2006.There are many launcevents taking place during March."
(Via Camden Council Camden Council: Swiss Cottage Leisure Centre: .)
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Ham & High - Camden News - Back in the swim at Swiss:
...The 25-metre competition-length pool is smaller than the original 33-yard metre pool.
Last month the council announced its £175 swim cards will no longer be available from April 1.
The cheapest membership deal will instead be the £480 Wellness scheme
Fiona Deane, Camden's assistant director of culture, said: "This is on a par with facilities in the private sector. We are blurring the distinction between public and private facilities....
...Greenwich Leisure Limited (GLL), which took over the contract to manage Camden's leisure centres last April, will split profits beyond a target level with the council..."
A more cynical person might wonder why Kentish Town Baths were put 'into play' recently just as these proposals were nearing the time for their publication.
(Via save Ladywell Pool The Swiss Cottage pool non-option: .)
...more ---> ..."AFTER four years without a pool residents will celebrate the opening of the revamped Swiss Cottage sports centre this month. The £27million centre, designed by world-famous architect Terry Farrell, opens for tours from 10am next Saturday, and for sport th"
(Via Ham and High Express Back in the swim at Swiss: .)
...more ---> ..."SHOCKING health figures show Camden is one of the sickest parts of the country."
"The report pulls no punches," said John Carrier, chairman of Camden's PCT. "Smoking, alcohol excess, lack of exercise, obesity, teenage pregnancy and homelessness are all ongoing challenges.
"However much the PCT does to remedy the conditions that cause ill health in Camden, much will also depend on the ability of the population to change their behaviour from health damaging to health improving. The PCT aims to help people make those healthy choices."
In a separate report to Camden council's executive last month, assistant chief executive Philip Colligan, admitted Camden was the "sick man" of London.
"There are significant inequalities in the levels of exercise undertaken by black and ethnic minority residents and older people as compared with other parts of the population.
(Via Camden Chronicle Camden the 'sick man' of London: .)
Oh and remember to check out the Kentish Town Baths pages on this website. ...more ---> ...
"PRESSURE was last night (Wednesday) growing on the (CAMDEN) Town Hall to come clean over its plans for the historic Prince of Wales swimming baths as campaigners geared up to fight any closure plan.
Anxious users inundated the New Journal with letters and phone calls this week after council chiefs refused to categorically rule out closure.
Author Hunter Davies and Fiona Millar, the former Number 10 press aide and partner of Tony Blair's former spin chief Alastair Campbell, added their voices to the growing concern.
Ms Millar, a governor of Gospel Oak school, who took the government to task two years ago over school funding cuts, warned that pupils would lose out if the baths, opened in 1901, closed.
"ALL the schools throughout Camden use it," she said. "It is so important. I know pupils at Parliament Hill and William Ellis (schools in Highgate) rely on it. I hope the council find the cash. It's part of our heritage. "
(Via Camden Islington & West End - News Reviews Listings: .)
...more ---> ...Pool cash crisis
LABOUR party chiefs admitted last night (Wednesday) that their pledge to refurbish Kentish Town swimming baths could fall apart due to spiralling costs.
Stumped councillors said they could not guarantee that funding would be available to save the crumbling sports centre in Prince of Wales Road.
They are now investigating the possibility of building homes behind the 100-year-old pool and selling them off to a property developer to raise cash for the urgently needed improvements.
But such a deal would still cost around £17 million – spending that nobody at the Town Hall is willing to commit to. Leisure chief Councillor Phil Turner told a cabinet meeting last night (Wednesday): “It is still a fantastic amount of money to keep the centre going. We can not make a commitment to spend that kind of money.”"
(Via Camden Islington & West End - News Reviews Listings: .)
"The Sport England sports facility calculator (SFC) helps you to estimate the amount of key community sports facilities required to meet the needs of the local population." It says Camden requires 2,179.65 sq.m. of water which is 41.03 Lanes or 10.26 pools.
More than £2.4 billion is lying idle in the National Lottery's reserves because distributors are overly cautious about committing funds to community projects, a committee of MPs has said. ...more ---> ..."Camden residents will soon have chance to give their views on a possible design for redeveloping Kentish Town Sports Centre.
The proposed design would create top quality modern leisure facilities, renovate the existing building and provide much-needed new and affordable housing. Camden Council's Executive selected this option from a short-list of three last night (12 October). The Executive agreed to further investigate the feasibility and affordability of this suggested scheme. A public consultation, asking local residents, sports clubs and other members of the local community for their feedback on the proposal will be launched over the next couple of months.
The suggested design for the centre on Prince of Wales Road NW5 would include a new and enhanced gym, changing rooms, three exercise studios and health area, as well as completely renovating the building. Housing would be created within the building and on a separate piece of land behind, to provide 26 new flats, 50 per cent of which would be affordable housing. "
(Via Camden Council: Next step for Kentish Town sports centre: .)
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