Ealing Council’s £125m Gurnell development will include eight main housing blocks rising to a maximum of ten storeys,
Plans have been approved for 300 homes in west London along, with a leisure centre.
Ealing Council’s £125m Gurnell development will include eight main housing blocks rising to a maximum of ten storeys, with 35% of homes designated as affordable. The scheme is designed by Mikhail Riches and GT3 Architects.
The Gurnell Leisure Centre, built in the 1970s but closed in 2020 during the covid lockdown and never reopened, will be demolished and replaced.
Detailed permission has been granted for the GT3-designed replacement building, which will contain a 50m swimming pool, 270 spectator seats, a cafe, a fitness suite and soft play.
Mikhail Riches is the wider scheme’s masterplanner and architect behind its residential component, which has been granted outline permission in the hybrid application.
The project team also includes landscape architect Periscope, project manager Gleeds, civil and structural engineer Expedition, planning consultant Tibbalds, townscape consultant Turley and fire consultant Hydrock.
The scheme’s approval comes four years after a 3DReid-designed proposal to build six housing blocks and a replacement leisure centre scheme on the site was refused by Ealing council.
The former scheme, designed by Ealing’s development arm Be Here, was refused in 2020 despite being recommended for approval by planning officers, because councillors considered it to be too large and harmful to the green belt.
The National Planning Policy Framework at the time stipulated that the development should only be approved in “very special circumstances”, which councillors decided the scheme did not meet.
The new proposals include outdoor landscaped facilities in adjoining parkland, 450 new trees, a new playground, skate park, BMX track, a bridge and new footpaths.
Ealing council leader Peter Mason said the approval was “the next big step in making good on our commitment to deliver a new, state of the art leisure centre to replace Gurnell, which will bring back a landmark location for sport and leisure to Ealing.
He added: “With the new plans now approved, we’re pleased that we are one step closer towards returning a much-loved facility to the community, and delivering the homes our borough needs.
“I look forward to getting shovels in the ground and bringing forward more development opportunities that deliver on our wider ambitions for Ealing.”
The council is now seeking a development partner to deliver the residential component of the scheme and is expecting to make an appointment by winter 2025/2026.
The planning committee’s decision will head to the Greater London Authority for stage 2 approval, after which the council will appoint a contractor to build the scheme, with demolition of the leisure centre expected to begin this spring.
Construction is scheduled to start this autumn with the new leisure centre to open by 2028.
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