The Victoria Leisure Centre extends a nationwide campaign to promote health, leisure and wellbeing as core components of contemporary city life. When our feasibility study showed that it was not possible to restore the original building to contemporary standards, the decision was made to pursue a hybrid option that retained the 1890s clock tower as the entrance to a new state of the art facility, with a community pool, fitness suite and café. The pool hall is designed to have a calm warmth, achieved by generous proportions, the use of cross laminated timber for the roof structure, an abundance of controlled natural light, and an absence of ventilation paraphernalia. The project was completed several months ahead of schedule, and has a BREEAM ‘excellent’ rating, recognising its high quality sustainable design.