The reopening of the facility’s training pool this week completes a mammoth project to fully renovate the leisure centre

Council leader Ergin Erbil helps reopen Edmonton Leisure Centre swimming pool — Olympic gold medal winner Kieran Bird helps reopen Edmonton Leisure Centre swimming pool

Edmonton Leisure Centre’s full refurbishment has finally been completed with the reopening of a training pool – marking the end of a two-year wait.

While the centre’s non-swimming facilities were reopened in April, further work was needed on the main 25-metre swimming pool and the smaller training pool. The former reopened in August and the latter followed this week.

The centre had initially been closed in December 2023 upon the transfer of all Enfield Council leisure centres from previous managers Fusion Lifestyle to new operators Greenwich Leisure Limited (GLL), to allow for an inspection, but after a series of major maintenance issues were discovered it was realised that significant repairs would be needed before reopening.

A multimillion-pound repairs programme had been underway since autumn 2024 when the council struck a £7.5m deal to fix and upgrade the whole facility, although it meant the civic centre giving up the lease to the building.

The completion of the two-phase refurbishment was marked by a special event on Tuesday (2nd) attended by a number of key people from the council and leisure providers GLL, including council leader Ergin Ergin, head of leisure Matthew Watts and GLL’s CEO Peter Bundey. Olympic gold medal-winning relay swimmer Kieran Bird also attended as a special guest.

Pupils from St John and St James School were invited to try out the new pool in a free swimming session and a number of free sessions were available for local people.

As part of the refurbishment, the training pool, splash pool and surrounding areas have been re-tiled throughout and new LED lighting installed. The pool – which has been designed with learners in mind – offers a “warm, shallow environment for building water confidence, helping babies, children and adults to take their first steps in swimming”. It is now available for public and private swimming lessons, including parent and baby classes.

Sabri Ozaydin, cabinet member for environment and placemaking at the council, said: “We know how important Edmonton Leisure Centre is to the health, wellbeing and social life of local people, so we are delighted that this major renovation project is now complete with the reopening of the training pool.

“We have invested not only in this facility but also the health and wellbeing of the local community, who now have a leisure centre they can be really proud of.”

Vishal Karia, GLL partnership manager, added: “The event has been a huge success with really positive feedback from swim customers on the look of the refurbished teaching pool.

“The family fun swim sessions also proved really popular and the pupils from St John and St James had a great time trying out the new facilities.

“Now the renovation is complete, we will continue to improve our offering to customers starting with an investment in our programme for juniors and growing our Better Swim School.”

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