The Plymouth Life Centre is a leisure centre in

Central Park, Plymouth Plymouth's Central Park is situated to the north-east of Plymouth city centre in south-west Devon, England. Covering 68 hectares, Central Park is the largest park in Plymouth. It was created in 1928 with the aim to improve the health of the ci ...

run by Plymouth Active (Previously Everyone Active) in partnership with

Plymouth City Council Plymouth City Council is the unitary authority for Plymouth, Devon. It has traditionally been controlled by Labour or the Conservatives. The council is currently in a state of no overall control, with the Conservatives governing as a minority a ...

. Its facilities include a family leisure pool, a climbing wall, an eight-lane indoor bowls centre, fitness suite, a 10 lane 50-metre Olympic standard swimming pool, an Olympic standard

diving Diving most often refers to: * Diving (sport), the sport of jumping into deep water * Underwater diving, human activity underwater for recreational or occupational purposes Diving or Dive may also refer to: Sports * Dive (American football), a ...

pool, along with dryside training facilities, showers and a multipurpose area for dance and martial arts. It is currently the only 12 court multipurpose sports hall in

Devon Devon ( , historically known as Devonshire , ) is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in South West England. The most populous settlement in Devon is the city of Plymouth, followed by Devon's county town, the city of Exeter. Devo ...

. The

climbing wall A climbing wall is an artificially constructed wall with grips for hands and feet, usually used for indoor climbing, but sometimes located outdoors. Some are brick or wooden constructions, but on most modern walls, the material most often used i ...

facility is managed by High Sports. The aquatic facilities are the largest facility in southern England and were used by several teams training for the 2012 Olympics. The Life Centre replaces the Mayflower Centre and Central Park Leisure Pools. It opened in March 2012 at a cost of £46.5m. The Life Centre hosted the 2015 British Diving Championships, where local diver World Champion and Olympian

Tom Daley Tom or TOM may refer to: * Tom (given name), a diminutive of Thomas or Tomás or an independent Aramaic given name (and a list of people with the name) Characters * Tom Anderson, a character in ''Beavis and Butt-Head'' * Tom Beck, a character ...

won the British title on the 10m platform. Following the announcement that gyms and leisure centres could open on 25 July 2020, after the UK's first national lockdown amidst the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identi ...

announced that following investigations by themselves and the contractors, Balfour Beatty, urgent repair work needed to be done to the building. This would include stripping the pool and changing rooms back to the base concrete and laying new waterproof layers. The Life Centre subsequently closed and would do so until April 2021 whilst work was undertaken. Due to the UK Government's road map out of the country's third lockdown, the Life Centre would not reopen to the public until 17 May 2021.

Clubs

The centre is home to the Plymouth Life Centre Indoor Bowls Club, and to Plymouth Diving Club.

Sporting records

Ben Proud Benjamin Proud (born 21 September 1994) is an English competitive swimmer, representing Great Britain at the Olympic Games, the FINA World Aquatics Championships and LEN European Aquatics Championships, and England at the Commonwealth Games. P ...

set the British 50 m freestyle record at Plymouth Life Centre in May 2014.

Television appearances

Lotto: 2013. Splash: 2014 The 2015 British Gas Diving Championships (British Diving Championships)

Architecture

The main contractor was

Balfour Beatty Balfour Beatty plc () is an international infrastructure group based in the United Kingdom with capabilities in construction services, support services and infrastructure investments. A constituent of the FTSE 250 Index, Balfour Beatty works acr ...

, and the Architect was Archial. Usage The centre has won several awards: *Built in Quality Awards Awards, 2013 : 'Best Community Building' *Michelmores Western Morning News Property Awards, 2013: 'Project valued at over £3million' *Institution of Civil Engineers, 2013: 'Major Project of the Year', 2013

Gallery

Architects drawings were released in 2013. The cladding for the building is glass using tiles with stainless steel and staircases. There is a flume, sauna steam room, showers and drains. Heating and low carbon technology were used.

References

External links

* https://web.archive.org/web/20141008135920/http://www.everyoneactive.com/Centre/Plymouth-Life-Centre/72/Home Plymouth Life Centre website retrieved 19 October 2014
About Olympic and 50 m Swimming pools in the UK and Ireland
{{coord missing, Devon Bowls in England Swimming venues in England Sports venues in Plymouth, Devon