“ I’ve been working on Victorian buildings for over 25 years and I have never come across anything so complicated.” Matthew Heshmati, Wates

proceeds of developing flats on part of the site. When the project to deliver the new

Kentish Town Sports Centre began on site in January 2009, main contractor Wates’ team was daunted by the level of disrepair, says Matthew Heshmati MCIOB, construction manager. “It was all crumbling plaster and collapsing roofs, the amount of work surprised and daunted some of us and the feeling over the first few days was ‘oh my God, two more years of this!’” Demolishing the post-war internal

structures while retaining the original envelope and historic features was particularly challenging, as was the detailed services design. “I’ve been working on Victorian buildings for over 25 years and I have never come across anything so complicated,” adds Heshmati.

completed in 1960, resulted in many of the original internal Victorian features being removed or badly damaged. In subsequent years, neglect further degraded the structure, until in 2006 the Labour-run Camden Council announced plans to shut it down. A public outcry ensued, fuelled by

fervent protests from The Victorian Society, a charity that campaigns to preserve our Victorian built heritage. Later that year, a new Liberal Democrat-

run council announced a £25.3m project to revitalise the building, with a council grant that would be offset by the

Victorian engineering But despair turned into admiration when the team explored the building’s Victorian engineering, particularly two boreholes that were used to pump water from deep underground to supply the pools and facilities. “We couldn’t believe that the boreholes went down 140 metres, how they managed to dig that far without modern machinery is beyond me,” says Heshmati. The 300mm-wide boreholes have both

been repaired and relined. The former will remain in operation, pumping out groundwater at a fresh 13 deg C which is then passed through heat pumps for use in the pools and for all water services. The groundwater is also part of a

strategy to cool the fitness studios and changing rooms in the summer. The water used by the chiller system is pumped into special pipes in the boreholes to be cooled to 13 deg C, reducing the energy needed to chill it to the required temperature. The groundwater is an important part

of services engineer Max Fordham’s renewable energy strategy, and the building’s combined heating and cooling system is expected to reduce the centre’s overall energy use by 10%, helping it gain a BREEAM “very good” rating. The controversial design from architect

Roberts Limbrick involved demolishing large areas of the building’s interior, including the original boiler house, changing areas and a public laundry to the north of the site; digging a deeper basement to house the new plant and then building a new first floor mezzanine level that would slice through the double- height Grafton pool hall on the west side of the site, creating a new fitness gym. This demolition strategy is not as

reckless as it seems, says Ian Dungavell, director of the Victorian Society: “It might sound alarming, but the 1960 modernisation had destroyed most of the historic internal surfaces and the decorative finishes, apart from some original tiling, and there were few areas of significance in that part of the building.” Meanwhile, the baths’ most important

remaining Victorian features have been retained and fully restored, including the red brick and ornately-carved terracotta facades, the slate roofs, chimneys and roof lanterns, and the impressive 33m-long Willes pool on the east side

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