The end is coming for the old Waterfront Leisure Centre in Woolwich after formal plans to demolish the complex were published.

After 37 years as the borough’s main leisure centre, the Waterfront closed on New Year’s Eve and was replaced by Woolwich Waves, which took its first customers the following day. 

Greenwich Council plans to demolish the riverside complex and sell the site for housing. Berkeley Homes, which has built on the leisure centre’s old car park, has long been linked with the site, but the council said last year that a buyer had not been formally identified.

After demolition, the site will be fenced off until it is redeveloped, the documents say. 

The council’s draft local plan – not expected to take effect until next year – suggests that 310 homes in towers of up to 20 storeys could be built on the Waterfront site, with commercial units on the ground floor. 

The entrance to the Woolwich Foot Tunnel – which is currently hidden behind the Waterfront – should be at the centre of any public space, the plan suggests.

In 2012 the council published a masterplan for the area which suggested extending Hare Street to the riverside, restoring the street pattern before the Woolwich Ferry terminal moved to its present location in the 1960s. But the draft local plan suggests that developers will be encouraged to focus on the foot tunnel instead. 

Waterfront Leisure Centre entrance
The last days of the Waterfront before it closed in December. Image: The Greenwich Wire
Woolwich Foot Tunnel entrance
Care will be taken not to damage the Woolwich Foot Tunnel, the document says. Image: The Greenwich Wire

The documents say that “a controlled deconstruction approach will be adopted in place of more aggressive demolition techniques” to protect the foot tunnel, which opened in 1912. The walls of the swimming pools will remain but be filled in.

Greenwich Council will be hoping that development is quick to avoid a repeat of the time before the Waterfront was built, when the site remained empty for about a decade. The land was cleared in the mid-1970s but plans for offices, homes, a sports centre and riverside promenade were scrapped amid the economic crisis of the time.

The saga ended when the Waterfront opened in 1988, replacing Woolwich’s original swimming pool behind the town hall, which is now  Greenwich’s University’s Bathway Theatre. 

The demolition plan for the Waterfront is on the Greenwich Council planning website. 

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