Sports Leisure Legacy Project Editorial Background

Article by Gerry Carver

‘Harlow to K2 and beyond’ - How we got here

The Sports Leisure Legacy Project was launched at a seminar in 2015 and it has taken 8 years to research and develop the very extensive website story.

The story of the UK sports centre is epitomised by its title – Harlow was the first community indoor sports centre in 1964, and the expansive K2 centre, in Crawley in 2005, marked a new era of centre renewal, and the view forward to 2023 and beyond suggests the concept and social phenomenon of the public sports & leisure centre will continue to evolve and thrive.

How the Project has grown from those early days! It quickly became clear that there was exciting potential to tell a full and expansive story and provide contemporary evidence for future generations. Gradually it turned into a significant history and heritage venture, and became a monumental planning, research and editing exercise spanning seven years.

It was interest in the subject, the contact with and support of numerous other professionals and the opportunity to unveil a largely hidden heritage that was the incentive. It was decided to develop a website to tell the story (a ‘book on a website’). The story has encompassed the resources, places, buildings, organisations, philosophies, politics, sports and people that delivered the community opportunities offered by centres. Sports and recreation professionals across the six decades have contributed to the story. Sadly, during the Project we have lost some of the early generation of managers who contributed information. They are acknowledged elsewhere on the website.

It was important to access a broad base of knowledge, resources and experience to do justice to the subject. To start this process a national launch seminar was organised in July 2015 at the K2 Centre. 26 experienced professionals who were involved with sports centres over the previous decades attended. This included Keith Ashton, CEO of Space and Place, leading sports & leisure architects, who had by then agreed to be the main sponsor of The Sports Leisure Legacy Project.

The support of all the leading national organisations representing sports and leisure management was also gained. Access to the Sports Council Archive held by the University of Central Lancashire was a valuable resource, especially for the formative years of sports centres. From the seminar an Editorial Advisory Group was formed. The group has provided editorial contributions and rigour to the text and excellent advice and support throughout what turned out to be a very long, evolving and challenging exercise.

In 2022 we celebrated the Diamond Anniversary of the first planning of Harlow Sports Centre, the UK’s first public sports centre, which then opened in 1964. Four decades later, in 2005, the K2 Centre in Crawley opened and broke new ground in the scale, design and facilities of a public centre. We have moved a million miles forward from the Wolfenden Report (‘Sport & the Community’ 1960) and Harlow, to today. There are now thousands of centres, and numerous registered trusts managing those facilities for their local authority owners. Over time public sports and leisure centres have woven their way into UK political and social history and become a phenomenon of the late 20th and early 21st centuries.

We started out from the original definition of a sports centre which was an indoor centre with a sports hall and some other facilities, which may include a swimming pool and has significant use by the general public. Over time, as can be seen through the chapters, changes saw the definition evolve a little.

Once thoughts turned to publication, modern technology took over and the concept of creating the story digitally on a website was adopted, as opposed to a more costly printed publication. Website designers were recruited and produced an eye-catching and flexible website structure. An advantage was the ability to include special sections on the website and also hyperlinks in the Chapters, providing additional interesting facts or background. A ‘book on the website’ is the clearest definition of our achievement.

The production of the historical record has involved the most extensive research exercise ever undertaken on the subject. We arranged the loan of 300 selected national and regional publications related to sports centre development from the Sports Council Archive held by the University of Central Lancashire (UCLan). Several small archives were also made available, including that of Harlow Sports Centre, Brighton University and records of the former ISPAL professional association. All these, plus an expanding in-house library of relevant books, revealed information that would not otherwise have seen the light of day.

The Project theme also sparked two Advisory Group members, former Sports Council officers Mike Fitzjohn and Malcolm Tungatt, into research mode again. They produced two original and highly valued research documents on sports centre provision for the website. They had also visited UCLan and sourced the loan of the relevant Sports Council records. In total, in excess of 430 publications were used in the Project research. In addition, a huge amount of internet research was undertaken, especially for 21st Century facts. Mike has also produced the comprehensive Index of all the centres included on the website.

Overall, writing and editing the story has been like putting together a huge jigsaw puzzle! I hope we have achieved an accurate and interesting professional record that will be valuable to anyone with a keen or passing interest, long into the future. We have tried to understand the past and bring it into the present for generations old and new.

In going forward, the past trends and changes in the provision and operation of sports & leisure centres should be helpful to planners, designers and managers, even if only as broadly indicative experiences.

The Editorial Advisory Group

• Gerry Carver (Founder and Editor)
• David Fisher (1946 – 2022)
• John Birch
• Hywel Griffiths
• Jack Wilkinson
• John Thorpe
• John Stride
• Mike Fulford
• Mike Fitzjohn
• Malcolm Tungatt
• Website Manager – Jo Smith-Wood