Green light for new sports hall at Kingston University's Kingston Hill campus

Posted Monday 11 July 2016

Kingston University has been given the green light to create a sustainable sports hall at its Kingston Hill campus, providing new indoor sporting facilities for students.

Councillors on the Malden and Coombe neighbourhood committee approved the proposals for the new building at a meeting on 7 July. Catering for a range of sports including netball, badminton, basketball and five-a-side football, it will become a central hub for the University's indoor students' sports clubs.

Kingston University's Sports and Active Lifestyles manager Ian Jennings said creating the new facilities was part of the University's ongoing commitment to encouraging student participation in extra-curricular sport and recreational activities. "Improving the provision of indoor facilities, particularly through the development of an indoor sports hall, has long been an aspiration of the University," he said.

"The sports hall at Kingston Hill will increase opportunities for student sport and create a fantastic new home for our indoor sports clubs that currently play out of rented facilities elsewhere in the borough. It will complement the excellent outdoor facilities already on offer to students at the 55-acre Tolworth Court sports ground that caters for sports such as American football."

The multi-use hall will be built with recycled and reusable materials and incorporate a host of energy efficient measures, such as a living wall of climbing plants and solar thermal panels to provide hot water for the showers. Local sports clubs will also be able to use the facilities by arrangement, when not in use by students.

Kingston University's Director of Estates Sean Woulfe said: "We are delighted to be able to move ahead with this project which will provide the University with fantastic new indoor sports facilities. We look forward to delivering a high quality, sustainable and well-designed building which will be of huge benefit to our sports clubs and promote an active lifestyle for students and staff as well as benefitting the local community."

Construction work is set to start in early 2017 and is scheduled to be completed towards the end of that year.