Waltham Forest Council has published outline design plans for the shuttered cricket pavilion at Rolls Sports Ground in Chingford — six years after the building closed because of subsidence concerns.
The cause was the ground itself. Nearby trees drew moisture out of the soil, destabilising the earth beneath the building's foundation and causing the pavilion to sink.
The redesigned clubhouse keeps the shape of the old building, but reworks the inside: more internal open space for community use, level access, improved kitchen and catering facilities, and accessible toilets with baby-changing facilities. The council also says the new building will offer "better views" of the cricket ground from a covered terrace with seating for spectators.
Two of the changes are direct answers to what went wrong. The flat roof becomes a pitched one, and the building will sit on a 'piled' foundation — driven deeper than a conventional slab, and therefore less vulnerable to the moisture movement that undermined the original. Hot water will come from air source heat pumps.
Getting to this point has taken several turns. In late 2023 the council announced it would use a £1.17million insurance award payout to demolish and replace the pavilion, aiming to deliver the new building before 2025 with work starting on site in June 2024.
That timetable did not hold. The project was delayed and then scaled back to roughly a third of its original size, after the council ran into build cost inflation and identified both difficult geological conditions and a Thames Water main close to the pavilion.
The reduction drew sharp criticism from pavilion users West Essex Sports Club, who said "the ongoing lack of a proper clubhouse was severely limiting the club's appeal to new members" — a reasonable concern for a club whose facilities had been unavailable for years.
Then, in what the Echo describes as a surprise move earlier this year, the council committed fresh funding to the scheme.
West Essex Sports Club has welcomed the new design. "We have worked closely with the council and the local councillors to get to this point and are delighted that everyone is fully supportive of delivering a replacement Clubhouse for the benefit of all the local community," the club said.
The design is due to be formally submitted to the council's planning department later this autumn. The council has been asking for community feedback on the clubhouse design until Friday 2nd October.
