An Olympic Gold
medallist and two products of the Leyton Orient youth system have opened a new
pavilion and sports centre at Ive Farm Sports Ground in East London.
Hockey midfielder
Helen Richardson-Walsh MBE opened the Feel Good Too sports centre alongside
Orient defender Sam Ling, goalkeeper Charlie Grainger and ribbon cutter Clare
Coghill, the leader of Waltham Forest Council.
Richardson-Walsh won
gold at the 2016 Rio Games, after converting a penalty in the dramatic shootout
win over defending Olympic and current world champions Holland.
The £11m scheme in
Leyton masterminded by main contractor Wilmott Dixon is now the new home of the
Leyton Orient FC Academy, which has moved from the Score Centre, that will now
be redeveloped for housing by Taylor Wimpey.
The Feel Good Too
Centre includes two floodlit all-weather pitches, a 60m running track, six
volleyball courts, a fitness trail, 40 growing beds and a pavilion with
changing rooms and a café.
Access to the pavilion
is via three swing gates and three huge architectural tracked sliding gates,
the largest of them 4.5m wide, that are clad with 358 fencing and form part of
the building walls.
The innovative scheme
was designed by Fifth Studio Architects, supplied by steel fencing manufacturer
Zaun Ltd and installed by Zaun subsidiary Binns Fencing.
Councillor Coghill
said: “This is a great new facility in Leyton that will act as a sports hub for
the whole borough, as well as a place where local residents can come along to
keep fit, take part in sports and make new friends in the local community.”
