Hackney Council is working in partnership with the Football Foundation and the England and Wales Cricket Board to build a new high-quality changing facility at North Marsh.

The pavilion will replace the current changing room building which has reached the end of its useful life and will complete the Council’s wider transformation programme for the Marshes. It will include 16 full-size changing rooms and four officials’ rooms alongside a new social space that will overlook the cricket show-pitch. It is a one-storey building designed to be as unobtrusive as possible within the existing landscape and incorporates a variety of sustainability features.

The new facility will be complemented by new landscaping and a new stand of poplars to be planted along the southern face of the building. The parking area will incorporate a sustainable drainage design meaning that the surface will be fully permeable.

Cllr Feryal Demirci, Cabinet Member for Neighbourhoods, Transport and Parks, said:

“Lots of people told us they wanted this new pavilion, so it’s fantastic that we’ve finally been able to start building it. We’ve worked closely with the architect and landscape architect to make sure it complements the beauty and wildlife of the Marshes as much as possible. I can’t wait to come back next year to officially open the high quality facility that a world famous space like Hackney Marshes deserves.”

Site Manager Evan Kinch, Architect Kai Fabiunke, Cllr Feryal Demirci, Contracts Manager Dean McCluskey, Project Manager David White, Landscape Architect Elsie Josland breaking ground at the site of the new pavilion.

David McDermott, Chief Operating Officer of the Football Foundation, said:

“We look forward to the completion of the redevelopment of the Hackney Marshes site with great anticipation. The Football Foundation targets its Funding Partners’ investment into those projects that will achieve the greatest impact and demonstrate the greatest need. We fully expect that the newly-developed Hackney Marshes facilities will significantly increase participation and deliver a range of other key outcomes, as outlined in the project’s development plans, and become a key hub for local people for decades to come.”

During the construction period the Council will work with the contractors to minimise the impact of the works on local residents and that the Marsh can be accessed as normal. A section of the cycle route that runs past the existing changing facility will be diverted for the duration of the works – the diversion will be clearly signposted. The work is likely to be completed in early 2018.

The existing changing room building.