Southern Campus Development

Setting

Winchester College’s Southern Campus is located between the playing fields on Kingsgate Park and Norman Road. It was the focus of the school’s indoor sports facilities, and included the Physical Education Centre (PE Centre), swimming pool, rifle range and squash courts. It was also home to the Works Department, and the Design & Technology Department. 

Driving the Modernisation

The decision to modernise the Southern Campus was driven by the age of the old facilities. The PE Centre was over 50 years old. In the 1960s when the PE Centre was built, Winchester College was home to 550 boys, with a handful of sports on offer. Today the school has up to 700 pupils and offers a diverse range of nearly 30 sports. The school also opens its doors to the local community with a wide variety of members, clubs and societies enjoying the facilities. Increased activity had placed an insurmountable demand on an ageing PE Centre which also presented long-term maintenance difficulties. The redevelopment of the site to create a state-of-the-art Sports Centre will allow pupils to enjoy and participate in a variety of sports and provide much improved facilities for the community.

The Redevelopment Plan

In order to replace the old PE Centre with modern buildings on a similar footprint, the school moved the Works Department in to a new Support Services Building. As part of the redevelopment, access and car parking was relocated and accessed via Norman Road. Alongside approval for the new Sports Centre, planning permission was also granted for an extension to the school’s Design and Technology Centre (known as “Mill”), the relocation of the school’s Medical Centre and a new domestic residence on Kingsgate Road. 

Timeframe

We are currently in discussions with Kier about the practicalities of potentially making partial use of the new Winchester College Sports Centre from summer 2024, with the swimming pool to be opened at a later date. We hope that this arrangement would allow pupils to make the most of the extensive facilities during Autumn term 2024. This would include the double-sized sports hall incorporating a climbing wall, indoor cricket, badminton, futsal, volleyball, tennis and netball courts. In addition, there are 6 squash courts, 6 fives courts, the new Dojo, gym, and the exercise and dance studios.

 Community Use

Members of the public, clubs and other organisations will be able to use the new facilities when they open. You can find out more and register your interest via the Wykeham Sports Club link below.