During the pandemic The University of London closed and sold the 'Student Central' building, including its swimming pool, sports hall, gym, multi-use grand hall and bars to Birkbeck University. This sale was made without student consultation and without a transparent process.

Birkbeck intend to strip the building and remove these vital social and sporting spaces, but a year after closure are facing significant pressure from the local community to re-open these vital facilities. Over a year on, due to a number of ongoing pressures, including heritage assessments, funding and change of use requirements, Birkbeck are yet to start on altering the building.

Within London, accessible sporting and social spaces are extremely scarce for a large student population  and are vital to physical fitness, mental health and well-being. Student Central sits at the heart of Bloomsbury, within walking distance of UCL, SOAS, Birkbeck, LSHTM, LSE and more. Simply put, the loss of these spaces is a massive loss to the London Student experience.

We ask that Birkbeck:

• Commit to saving the pool, sports hall, grand-hall and bar spaces for vital student community use

The building itself is of considerable historical importance as it was previously the University of London Union building. The pool is by far the largest in Central London, with no facilities comparable for size, storage space and accessibility to students and staff.

UCL Union has set up their own petition to save the pool space here and has offered support to run the facilities (please sign too): https://studentsunionucl.org/save-our-pool-sign-below

If you care about the importance of social, well-being and sporting spaces for London students, please sign and share our petition.