Willmott Dixon has completed the main structural works for the swimming pools at a new health and leisure hub in Portsmouth that will bring primary care and leisure facilities together under one roof.
The Bransbury Park Leisure Centre is being delivered for Portsmouth City Council and will include a 25-metre, four-lane swimming pool, learner pool, 65-station gym, two group exercise studios and a GP surgery.
The two-storey centre is being procured through the Southern Construction Framework (SCF), with work having started on site in March 2026.
Completion is scheduled for winter 2027.
Outside the centre, the project will include an upgraded artificial turf pitch and a floodlit multi-use games area, which will be open to the public.
Willmott Dixon marked the completion of the pool structures with an event attended by representatives from Portsmouth City Council, project partner Mace, NHS Hampshire and Isle of Wight and local healthcare providers.
New neighbourhood health facility
The development is intended to provide a single community destination combining primary care, physical activity and wellbeing services.
The centre will provide opportunities for residents to be active, learn to swim, improve their health and wellbeing, and access sports close to home.
The project forms part of Portsmouth City Council's wider investment of more than £40m in sport and leisure facilities over the past decade.
Community engagement has also formed part of the project, with Year 5 pupils from Milton Park Primary School designing artwork for the site's hoarding.
“I am very pleased to see the progress being made at Bransbury Park. It is so important that we ensure healthcare services are sustainable and at the heart of our communities and this development has that aim at its core,” said James Roach, Director for Neighbourhood Health at NHS Hampshire and Isle of Wight.
Willmott Dixon said it has delivered more than 160 leisure centres over the past decade, including projects incorporating community and healthcare facilities.
Its other current community hub projects include the £20m Marple Community Hub in Stockport, which combines a swimming pool, library, fitness suite and relocated Marple Clinic, and the £30m regeneration of Barnes Hospital in south-west London, which will bring together an NHS community mental health facility and a special school.
