Kentish Town Sports Centre

The second anniversary of the Kentish Town Sports Centre's refurbishment

On the 26th July, it'll be two years to the day since the Kentish Town sports centre was reopened after a £25.3 million transformation. The former Victorian baths truly was restored to its former glory, with the new state of the art facilities seamlessly blending into the Grade II listed pool's design.

There are 14 listed Victorian and Edwardian pools in the UK which face closure. Moseley Road Baths in Birmingham, and Manchester's Victoria Baths are probably the two most high profile cases. In the current economic climate their future looks bleak at best.

As such, the timing of the Kentish Town project couldn't have been better. Especially as the Sports Centre isn't the only one in the area. Talacre Community Sports Centre is just up the road off of Dalby Street, next to Talacre Gardens. Fortunately even in these times of austerity, this proximity didn't result in the two centres being brought together as a cost cutting measure.

In fact, the Talacre Gardens Sports Centre has also benefited from recent investment in the form of the Mayor's office pledging to fund the development of a new dance/exercise studio at the Talacre Community Sports Centre. The Dalby Street centre runs extensive after-school, weekend and holiday programmes for young people and the new studio will allow them to meet more of the huge demand there is for these services.

New treetops soft play equipment has also been donated by the developers behind the Prince's Park Residential Scheme, which can be found in front of the Sports Centre in between Dalby Street and Talacre Gardens, as part of their commitment to supporting the local community.

With the London Olympics about to be officially opened it's now more important than ever to look at the legacy we leave future generations. Not just in terms of the facilities that remain in Hackney, but in terms of the whole of London. The children found playing in Talacre Gardens deserve to have facilities every bit as good as those in Stratford and if in these tough economic times, that means the public sector working with the private sector such as the developer's of Prince's Park then who are we to argue.