New leisure centre to open in Barking

It has been announced that the brand-new Abbey Leisure Centre will open on March 16th, following an open weekend throughout March 14th and 15th to showcase the state of the art facilities.

At a total cost of £14 million, this marks the borough’s second major sports and activity centre in under three years.

The new facility is built on the site of the old Abbey Sports Centre, and has both a 25 m main pool and a learning pool for children. There will be over 70 aerobics classes on offer every week, spread over the three dedicated studios and the pool.

In addition to this, there is a 140-station gym with interactive screens and built-in TVs, along with a children’s soft play area designed by Turner Prize winner Marvin Gaye Chetwynd. The play area will open after the rest of the centre, on March 19th.

The centre is also home to the borough’s first luxury spa, the Abbey. As well as the usual range of beauty treatments on offer, the spa includes a hydrotherapy pool, a rock sauna, three steam rooms (crystal, salt and aromatherapy), experience showers and a relaxation room.

Darren Rodwell, leader of Barking and Dagenham Council, said: “There is no doubt that this new facility is going to be of huge benefit to borough residents and another great addition to our already fantastic leisure offer. With the pool at Becontree Heath being the busiest in the UK and the centre continually growing in popularity we know we can provide a great service and now with the addition of Abbey Leisure Centre I think we probably have some of the best facilities of any London borough.”
The latest developments build on the area’s history of providing high-quality sports facilities, including the Becontree Heath Leisure Centre, which opened in 2011 and the Jim Peters Stadium in 2012. Both of these locations were used as training facilities for the London 2012 Olympics.

Published 2nd March, 2015

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