The Herne Hill Velodrome dates from 1891 and was the venue for the 1948 Olympic cycling events. Having fallen into disrepair, the Save the Velodrome Campaign was launched in 2010 to secure its long-term future.

As architects for the 2012 Velodrome, we wanted to help ensure that this historic and illustrious cycling venue was not threatened by its London counterpart, and joined the campaign to restore it. The Hopkins team led extensive consultations with local communities to determine the brief and work up design options for planning. Not having a single client body meant the scheme had to respond to the demands of the many end-users and still satisfy the local amenity groups, funding bodies and freeholder.

Within a challenging construction budget, restoration included the resurfacing of the 450m banked track, a new 250m children’s’ track, flood lighting, a new community pavilion, storage and a covered activities space.  New accommodation comprises changing rooms, first aid room, toilets, coaches’ office, and a generously sized club room overlooking the entire site at first floor. The upper level is accessed directly from the top of the grandstand and provides panoramic views around the track and has a kitchen, servery and meeting room which can be hired out for community use. Behind the pavilion, the original bike storage containers are discretely reordered with a tensile canopy stretched between them to create a versatile year-round covered space for activities.

The remodelled venue opened in 2017 on the 125th anniversary of its inauguration and has since record levels of participation rising from 15,000 riders in 2011 to over 55,000 today.