It’s not every manager that gets to open a new centre. If that is not enough at Concordia we also got to have an official opening by HM Queen during her Sliver Jubilee Tour. As manager I would say that the public opening of the Centre was the most daunting but the official opening is […]
The first ‘benchmark’ in the operational management of centres came as early as September 1968 when a Recreation Managers Symposium was held at Billingham Forum. This was a forerunner to the forthcoming formation of the Association of Recreation Managers. This was to be a new professional institute that, initially, was almost entirely focused on sports […]
Denis Howell was the first UK Minister for Sport and played the foremost political role in the establishment of The Sports Council following the Wolfenden Report in 1960. His influence on the sporting scene was enormous. He was a Birmingham City Councillor between 1946 and 1956, MP for Birmingham All Saints from 1955-59 and for […]
Reproduced with kind permission of Leisure Media Peter Sargent was one of the founding partners of sports and leisure architectural practice Sargent & Potiriadis (S&P), along with business partner Mark Potiriadis. The pair were among a small group of creative thinkers who transformed leisure architecture from the late 1970s onwards, with the creation of innovative […]
Billingham Forum, conceived in 1960 but not completed until 1967, was dubbed “the grandfather of leisure centres” by the art historian Sir Nikolaus Pevsner, and “without question, the father of the British leisure centre” by Lance Wright, editor of the Architectural Review. It was designed by Elder Lester Architects. Billingham Forum anticipated the shift that […]
John trained as a PE teacher at Loughborough from 1951-54. After teaching he undertook further training at Carnegie before joining the CCPR as Research Officer in 1965. He was responsible for the first ever research study on Indoor Sports Centres in 1970-71. He transferred to the new executive Sports Council in 1970 and in 1974 […]
The nomination form HERE is for you to print and post. It enables you to acknowledge one or more personalities who have influenced sports centre provision and operation at some stage over the last 6 decades.
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