Crystal Palace National Sports Centre

Bringing a landmark venue back to life.

The Crystal Palace National Sports Centre is one of the UK’s most iconic multi-sport venues, originally opened in 1964. Led by the Mayor of London and the Greater London Authority, the redevelopment programme is one of the most significant public leisure projects in the country. It will restore the Grade II* listed facility to full competition standard and make it more accessible and inclusive for communities across London.

The scale of the scheme is considerable. The works include:

• a full refurbishment of the main leisure building
• restoring the diving pool and 50m swimming pool, both currently out of use
• a new learner pool, a 25m pool and a competition-standard 50m pool
• refurbishing the indoor athletics track and weightlifting areas
• new padel courts, 3x3 basketball courts and five-a-side pitches
• a full-size artificial multi-sports pitch
• a new North Stand alongside refurbished stadium seating

DRS’s role

DRS was brought in early, ahead of any works on site, to support the commercial and contractual set-up for the project team. On a scheme of this size, the decisions made at this stage shape how smoothly everything runs later.

The project required the coordinated appointment of over 30 consultants and specialist contractors, covering design development, surveys and early-stage investigations. DRS helped develop and implement the procurement strategy across all of these appointments, making sure each one aligned with the programme, the project’s risk profile and the GLA’s requirements.

We negotiated terms across multiple disciplines and drafted bespoke consultant and contractor appointments, along with the full set of supporting documentation: scopes of service, schedules and ancillary documents. Throughout, DRS managed the commercial risk and contractual obligations sitting across the team. The aim was to define every party’s responsibilities clearly and join them up properly, so that no gaps or overlaps could cause problems later.

DRS also coordinated contract execution and stakeholder engagement, working with project leads, consultants and legal teams to keep documents moving through to agreement and signature without losing momentum.

The result was a well-structured contractual framework that supported the project through the early RIBA stages towards planning submission, and set the foundations for the delivery phases still to come.

Did you know?

Crystal Palace National Sports Centre hosted the first official Women’s FA Cup Final in 1971, a landmark moment in the history of women’s football in England.