New Private Health Club planned in Grove Park CHISWICK

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Chiswick Stadium to get new lease of life

Approval given to plans for a new inclusive health club and tennis courts

Plans to rejuvenate a historic sports ground in Chiswick have been given the final go-ahead by councillors.

The unanimous vote by Chiswick Area Committee (Planning) will bring new life to the Polytechnic Stadium on Hartington Road.

It was once home to British Olympic trials, an athletics club, and other local clubs and schools, as well as Fulham Rugby League Club. But over the last few decades the stadium and its grandstand have fallen into disrepair.

Construction work is now set to start within months to upgrade the derelict grandstand, which cannot be used at present because it does not satisfy the requirements of the Safety of Sports Ground Act. It will form part of an intermediate, inclusive health club with associated sporting facilities.

These will include seven new tennis courts, replacing six worn-out hard courts at the other end of the site - the home of local community club Chiswick Poly Tennis, which has fully supported the development. The vast majority of its members are residents of Grove Park and other parts of W4.

The club has seen the loss of ten grass courts as part of preparatory plans to switch to new tennis facilities in the long-awaited new development, which reverses years of decline on site.
Planning permission was originally granted in 1997. The first phase, now completed, involved construction of two international hockey pitches with floodlighting. Work on this second phase is expected to take 12 months.

The new development incorporates and retains the grandstand, now a Grade II listed structure. English Heritage were consulted and say the scheme will bring a threatened building back into use.

Both grandstand and stadium form part of the much larger Quintin Hogg Memorial Ground, a multi-sports site managed by the University of Westminster - formerly the Polytechnic of Central London - but ultimately run by a charitable trust.

In agreeing Listed Building Consent, Hounslow Council’s planning report pointed out: “This development will enable the sports ground to be a centre of sporting excellence as it was for many years.”

Ian Wylie
Club Secretary

October 23, 2003