The steel frame of the new £22m West Wickham Leisure Centre is largely up and it is due to open in early 2028, four years after the old centre shut.
The new West Wickham Leisure Centre is taking shape. Piling for the foundations is finished and much of the steel frame is now in place, Bromley Council said on Friday. Work to prepare the utilities is under way (Bromley Council, 2 October).
The council says the £22 million centre is on track to be completed by early 2028. That will be about four years after the old centre closed without notice in February 2024.
What the new centre will have
The council’s release lists:
- a new competition-length swimming pool
- the existing learner pool hall, refurbished
- a gym 40 per cent larger than the old one
- a family soft play zone
- a café and social space
- Changing Places and accessible toilets
- a Poolpod lift, so people who find steps difficult can get into either pool
Residents should soon see brick detailing on the building that echoes the new West Wickham Library nearby, the council says. The library reopened last year.
Councillor Yvonne Bear, the council’s executive member for renewal, recreation and housing, said the council had prioritised the £22 million “despite the significant financial pressures facing local government”.
How the date moved
The centre shut on 15 February 2024. Survey work for a planned refurbishment had found problems, and the council closed it the same day as a precaution (Bromley Council, 15 February 2024). A later update said the issues were in the plant area, away from public parts of the building, and were not linked to RAAC concrete (Bromley Council).
Since then the reopening date has moved twice:
- May 2024: the council brought the refurbishment forward and expected the centre to reopen “in around 18 months” (Bromley Leisure Works).
- September 2024: it described a £16 million refurbishment “set to be completed in Spring 2026”. Extra asbestos had been found, with costs said to be within contingencies (Bromley Council).
- May 2025: once the asbestos was out, engineers could examine the structure more closely. Part of the building was found to be beyond economic repair. The plan became a £22 million partial rebuild, with reopening put back to early 2028 (Bromley Leisure Works).
The old building was demolished in 2025, apart from the learner pool. The Development Control Committee approved the new centre unanimously on 27 November 2025 (Bromley Leisure Works). Etec is the main contractor, with Alliance Leisure delivering the project for the council.
The Walnuts comparison
The rebuild follows the reopening of the refurbished Walnuts Leisure Centre in Orpington this summer. Mytime Active, which runs the borough’s leisure centres, says it welcomed more than 39,000 visitors there in its first month.
The Walnuts also ran late. In May 2024 the council expected its pool to reopen by March 2026. The Mayor of Bromley reopened it on Thursday 2 July 2026, after a £17 million transformation (Bromley Leisure Works).
What it means for you
- There is no pool or gym in West Wickham until early 2028. The council has not given a month.
- The nearest Mytime Active centre is The Spa at Beckenham, which has a 25-metre pool, a learner pool, gyms and soft play. Mytime Active says it is about 10 minutes from West Wickham (Bromley Leisure Works).
- Members can use any Mytime Active centre. That includes Biggin Hill and Darrick Wood pools, The Pavilion in Bromley and the Walnuts. Extra classes run at Shirley Baptist Church and Wickham Halls.
- The plans and renders are on the council’s Bromley Leisure Works site.
For other changes in the borough, see our planning applications page.
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