6 MAY 2026
At Community and Children’s Services Committee on Tuesday 5 May 2026, the City agreed to pause the long-term refurbishment of Golden Lane Leisure Centre for further community “engagement” and to reconsider the options for the £10.3m project.
For over a year now, the Forum has queried the rationale for converting the multi-use hall (a rarity in the City) to a gym which would not be in the same building as the showers and which could struggle to compete with the 45 or so other gyms in the City. On Tuesday, the committee agreed that the business case they considered in January was not good enough and they have commissioned further work on it.
The Forum’s submission to the committee is here [see intro letter below]
Our original concerns, dating back to March 2025, remain unanswered and we have, so far, only had one short meeting (in December 2025) at which there was only about 30 minutes for debate. The Forum rejects, therefore, the Committee chair’s view that appropriate consultation has taken place. When the Centre was closed prematurely on 30 April, the sheer number of user groups that the City had no knowledge of stands as evidence of insufficient outreach by the project.
The Forum wants to see a viable Leisure Centre, run for social value and restored to the highest heritage standards. Improving health and wellbeing for as many people as possible has to be the priority. There is much more to do.
If you want to see the Committee debate it is here Community and Children’s Services – Tuesday 5 May , 2026. – YouTube
Thank you and please let us know if you can help with our ongoing work to scrutinise the City’s plans, market research and business case – contact info@bglnf.london
Barbican and Golden Lane Neighbourhood Forum
intro letter to CCS members
4 MAY 2026
Dear Committee Members,
We share committee members’ wish to secure the long-term viability of Golden Lane Leisure Centre as key to preventing poor health in the neighbourhood, in line with City’s Health & Wellbeing Strategy and good practice.
With this in mind, we urge you to vote in favour of a short pause for careful analysis and engagement before pushing ahead with costly design and construction work that cannot be unpicked. As we understand it, this project is already running behind schedule and pre-application engagement has not yet started. Now is a good time to take stock properly. Our concern is that if the consultants’ market research and modelling are not suƯiciently robust, or sufficiently scrutinised, the committee cannot take comfort in projections based on them.
Golden Lane Leisure Centre is small. It is a treasured heritage asset. To be sustainable for the long term it has to be clear about who it serves, at what price point, and what the Health & Wellbeing benefits are. Please take the time now to look again at these fundamentals.
Thank you.
Sue Pearson and Randall Anderson
Co-Chairs on behalf of the BGLNF Steering Group
Read the full submission for supporting information, timeline of engagement, Forum response to engagement, original survey questions and other background information.
