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club


overhaul


THE RISE OF THE I


n its heyday, The Pyramids – an iconic 1980s building on Portsmouth’s Southsea seafront – was seen as the south coast’s


‘complete indoor resort’, offering a leisure pool with wave machine and flume, various bars and cafés and two large function rooms. However, the rest of the centre’s


large footprint was excess to requirements and generally unused, with the business ultimately threatened as a result. Due to lack of investment, escalating running and maintenance costs and a strategic review of leisure facilities in the Portsmouth area, the site was therefore put up for disposal by the local authority in 2008. Unless a suitable business proposition – other than residential units – was forthcoming, the site would be pulled down, leaving Portsmouth without a fun pool. Gary Milne, director of Southsea Community Leisure (SCL) – which


The Pyramids is open to both day visitors and local members


48 Read Health Club Management online at healthclubmanagement.co.uk/digital january 2011 © cybertrek 2011


now leases The Pyramids building from the local council – comments: “The location and demographics of the site were ideal and presented a phenomenal opportunity for redevelopment. We therefore formed SCL and proposed a vision for the site to the council. “The thrust of the plan was to turn


wasted space into income-generating areas, putting life back into the building and transforming the space into commercially viable leisure facilities


that could be used by both day visitors and local customers.” Whereas most redevelopment


opportunities rely on extensions and gaining space from small, under-used areas, the proposition for The Pyramids was the exact opposite, with vast amounts of under-used space in need of a new lease of life: existing spectator viewing galleries, balconies, huge café seating areas, large reception areas and wide corridors. This provided a


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