My name is Amanda Day and along with many people in Tower Hamlets have battled for years to get better facilities and protection for St George’s swimming baths. In 2018 we tried to get the pool listed by Historic England, but failed. St George's was designed by Reginald Uren, an architect from New Zealand whose other buildings to name but a few such as Hornsey Town Hall and the Sanderson Hotel in central London are Grade II listed. St George's was and remains astonishingly modern. Two pools, one 33 metres in length, built on a modest footprint and above ground providing maximum light. In the midst of the current pandemic we face a daunting task and need a beefed up friends of St George’s group to work alongside the Council to get a proper feasibility study looking at full refurbishment of the building, water treatment and heating system and additional income generating activities.

At present the Council has closed the building temporarily, but that could become permanent given the likely cuts to local authority spending. Local authorities do not have a duty to provide leisure facilities, which makes centres requiring proper investment vulnerable. St George's has been limping from one crisis to another for too long now and is always under threat of closure. While Historic England may not agree, it remains our iconic building and up to us to protect and guarantee its future.