New £3.6m pavilion proposed for Hackney Marshes
Plans have been submitted for a new £3.6 million sports pavilion on Hackney Marshes.
If approved, it would mark the completion of a long-term project called Remaking the Marshes with the goal of making facilities on the marshes fit for the 21 Century.
The building in North Marsh is designed to blend in with its surroundings and provide modern cricket and football changing rooms, as well as a social space and viewing gallery for the ‘show’ cricket pitch created in 2010.
It will replace the current changing facilities next to Cow Bridge, off Mandeville Road, which have reached the end of their life, are often vandalised, and do not meet current guidelines and regulations.
Hackney Marshes is widely considered the home of grassroots football with more than 60 football pitches, the greatest concentration anywhere in Europe. It also has 10 cricket pitches and three rugby pitches.
People wanting to play sport on the southern area of the marshes are well catered for by the Hackney Marshes Centre, off Homerton Road.
However, the pitches in the northern area are poorly served by the existing changing block meaning players and teams are often put off from using them.
Proposals for a new pavilion and its suggested location were supported by the majority of Hackney residents during a public consultation last year, which also found 63 per cent of respondents would be encouraged to play more sport if one was built.
The Football Foundation and the England and Wales Cricket Board, which have contributed £2.7 million towards Remaking the Marshes, have also backed the pavilion proposals.
Part of the planning application also seeks retrospective permission for the East Marsh car park to replace the one which was built over to create the temporary transport hub and other facilities for the 2012 Olympic Games.
Hackney Marshes is a fantastic asset for the borough and is renowned across the world as the home of grassroots football. It’s also increasingly become a centre for cricket in London. “The current North Marsh changing rooms are not fit for purpose. The marshes needs modern facilities that are accessible to the widest possible range of people. “A new pavilion would allow us to realise the full potential of the marshes and encourage even more people to get active - vital in a borough which has some of the highest child obesity rates in the country. “When not being used for sport this is a beautiful and tranquil area and, as such, we’ve tried hard to ensure the new pavilion will be as unobtrusive and eco-friendly as possible, not detrimental to local wildlife and shielded by greenery. The development will actually increase the number of trees on the marshes.Cllr Jonathan McShane, Cabinet Member for Health, Social Care and Culture, Hackney Council