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For more than two decades, one of south London’s grandest Victorian buildings has sat empty behind security fencing on Ladywell Road in Lewisham. Now locals finally get a say in what happens to it next.
Ladywell Playtower opened as a public baths in 1884, and with its Gothic tower and grand bathing hall, the council describes it as one of the country’s earliest public swimming pools. It’s Grade II listed, but it has spent around 20 years on the Heritage at Risk Register and has suffered fire damage since it closed. Previous rescue attempts have come to nothing, most recently a 2022 scheme for a four-screen cinema and 33 homes, which collapsed when the developer pulled out over rising costs.
Lewisham Council has now shortlisted four organisations to restore and run Ladywell Playtower, and their detailed plans are open for public feedback until 9am on Monday 16 November. More than 500 residents shared their views earlier this year, asking for a community-focused space with affordable activities that respects the building’s heritage, and the bidders were given those results to shape their plans.
You can read all four proposals in full and fill in the survey on the council’s consultation site. If you’d rather meet the teams in person, there’s a drop-in event on Thursday 15 October from 3pm to 8pm at St Mary’s Centre on Ladywell Road, SE13 7UW. The council will weigh up the feedback alongside its own assessment of the bids before choosing a restoration partner later this year. So, what does each team want to do with the building?
Pools and thermal baths
Hackit is a Black-led social enterprise that designs accessible homes and adaptations for disabled, neurodivergent and chronically ill people, and its plan is a wellbeing centre with hydrotherapy and spa facilities at its heart. Alongside family and mixed sessions there would be women-only and men-only slots, plus coworking space, a digital suite, a community garden and café, and training in trades, heritage skills and the arts. As a not-for-profit, any surplus would go back into the project, with free and reduced-cost access for residents on low incomes.
An arts and wellbeing hub
Liquid Listening would put water back at the centre of the old baths. The charity was founded in 2010 and runs Musical Hydrotherapy sessions for disabled children and adults, where music is played through the water of a warm pool. Working with architects Purcell, it wants to create the Ladywell Arts and Wellbeing Hub, with hydrotherapy pools and saunas in new spaces at the back of the building, a Grand Hall, a listening room, a café, gardens and a dedicated wing for people with special educational needs and disabilities. It would also restore the tower roof and the original well, and turn the neighbouring former Coroner’s Court and Mortuary into a music hub, bistro and treatment rooms.
Performance space and affordable homes
RUSS is a Lewisham community land trust, best known for its 36 permanently affordable homes at nearby Church Grove. Its Playtower Commons plan keeps the main bathing hall as one big space for performances, classes, markets and events, with its galleries, rose window and conical roof restored. There would be a café and affordable studios too, along with a LEYF nursery for more than 100 children, 11 affordable homes for older people and a new village green. RUSS says the site would stay in community ownership for good.
A cultural and community centre
Turner Works, the team behind Pop Brixton and Peckham Levels has pitched PlayWell, a cultural and community centre it hopes will pull in visitors from across London while still serving locals. Expect flexible event and performance spaces, a play café, studios for creatives and room for nature, wellbeing and education, with markets, exhibitions and performances running in the old Mortuary while the restoration gets going. Turner Works is the only bidder to put a price on the job, estimating around £8 million for the main building works, and it plans to help pay for it with new homes on the site, alongside grants and donations raised by a new Playtower Trust.
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