The Elephant, Coventry | |
---|---|
The Elephant viewed from the corner of Cox Street and Fairfax Street | |
![]() | |
Alternative names | The Elephant Building |
General information | |
Type | Leisure centre |
Architectural style | Brutalist |
Address | Cox Street |
Town or city | Coventry |
Country | England |
Coordinates | 52°24′32″N1°30′12″W / 52.40878°N 1.50338°W Coordinates: 52°24′32″N1°30′12″W / 52.40878°N 1.50338°W |
Construction started | 1974 |
Completed | 1976 |
Owner | Coventry City Council |
Design and construction | |
Architect(s) | Terence Gregory, Harry Noble |
The Elephant Building is part of a leisure complex in Coventry city centre, England. [1] It was intended to extend the pre-existing Coventry Central Baths building, to which it is connected with an enclosed walkway (the "elephant's trunk").
The main building of the leisure complex was opened in 1966, providing Coventry with the region's only Olympic-size swimming pool with seating for spectators, making it a focal point for swimming in the West Midlands. [2] A ring road around Coventry was completed in 1972, leaving a small area of land either side of Cox Street at the end of the Coventry Baths building. The city architect's department designed a building to straddle the road, and construction started on the Elephant building in 1974. [1] After construction finished in 1976, it was used as part of Coventry Sports & Leisure Centre until it was closed by Coventry City Council in February 2020. [3] The main building was Grade II listed in 1997, but the Elephant itself is not listed. [4]
The building is designed to look like an elephant in reference to the coat of arms of the city of Coventry, which shows Coventry Castle being carried on the back of an elephant. [5] Elephants are a popular motif in the civic life of Coventry, appearing on the logo of Coventry City F.C. and Coventry R.F.C. as well as the badge of HMS Coventry. [6] [7]
The future of the Elephant building is uncertain after the closure of the leisure centre in 2020. Coventry City Council is yet to announce firm plans for the building's redevelopment, but it may become a community art space. [8] On May 15, 2021, as part of the launch for Coventry being UK City of Culture 2021, the words of local author George Elliot "It is always fatal to have music or poetry interrupted" were projected onto the building. [9]
Sir Basil Urwin Spence, was a Scottish architect, most notably associated with Coventry Cathedral in England and the Beehive in New Zealand, but also responsible for numerous other buildings in the Modernist/Brutalist style.
Warwick is a local government district of central Warwickshire in England. It borders the Borough of Rugby and Stratford-on-Avon District in Warwickshire as well as the West Midlands County. The City of Coventry is to the north and northeast, the Stratford-on-Avon District to the southwest and south, the Borough of Rugby to the east, and the Borough of Solihull to the west and northwest.
Kirkby-in-Ashfield is a market town in the Ashfield District of Nottinghamshire, England. With a population of 25,265, it is a part of the wider Mansfield Urban Area. The Head Offices of Ashfield District Council are located on Urban Road in the town centre.
The Coventry Building Society Arena is a complex in Coventry, England. It includes a 32,609-seater stadium which is currently home to football team, Championship club Coventry City F.C. along with facilities which include a 6,000 square metres (65,000 sq ft) exhibition hall, a hotel and a casino. The site is also home to Arena Park Shopping Centre, containing one of UK's largest Tesco Extra hypermarkets. Built on the site of the Foleshill gasworks, it is named after its sponsor, Coventry Building Society who entered into a ten-year sponsorship deal in 2021. For the 2012 Summer Olympics, where stadium naming sponsorship was forbidden, the stadium was known as the City of Coventry Stadium.
The Belgrade Theatre is a live performance venue in Coventry, England. It was the first civic theatre to be built in Britain after the Second World War and is now a Grade II listed building.
The Birmingham Baths Committee was an organisation responsible for the provision and maintenance of public swimming and bathing facilities. Birmingham City Council funded, constructed and ran bathing facilities throughout the city. The movement to develop baths and wash houses in Britain had its impetus with the rapid urbanisation of the Industrial Revolution, which was felt acutely in Birmingham, one of England's powerhouses.
The Alan Higgs Centre is a leisure centre situated in about 80 acres (32 ha) grounds near to the River Sowe, on Allard Way in the south-east of Coventry, England.
The Public Baths are on the north side of Union Street at its junction with Bath Street in Chester, Cheshire, England. The structure is recorded in the National Heritage List for England as a designated Grade II listed building.
Camberwell Public Baths opened in 1892 and has been in continuous operation as publicly funded community baths and more recently as a public leisure centre.
Braunstone Park & Rowley Fields is an electoral ward and administrative division of the city of Leicester, England. It comprises the western Leicester suburbs of Braunstone Frith, Braunstone Park and Rowley Fields.
Kings Heath is a suburb of south Birmingham, England, four miles south of the city centre. Historically in Worcestershire, it is the next suburb south from Moseley on the A435, Alcester road.
Mansfield is a market town and the administrative centre of the Mansfield District in Nottinghamshire, England. It is the largest town in the wider Mansfield Urban Area. It gained the Royal Charter of a market town in 1227. The town lies in the Maun Valley, 12 miles (19 km) north of Nottingham. It had a population of 110,500 at the 2021 census, according to the Office for National Statistics. Mansfield is the one local authority in Nottinghamshire with a publicly elected mayor.
Pools on the Park is a Grade II listed swimming pool and leisure facility in Old Deer Park in Richmond, London. Construction on the 6.5-acre (2.6 ha) site started in 1964 and was completed in 1966; the architect was Leslie Gooday. The pool replaced the previous Richmond baths nearby which had been built in Parkshot in 1882.
CU London is a Higher Education institute owned and governed by Coventry University. CU London began offering courses to students in September 2017. It currently operates out of two sites, one in the former Dagenham Civic Centre in the London Borough of Barking and Dagenham and another in the Mitre Passage building in the Greenwich Peninsula. It includes Coventry University's second and third campuses in the capital alongside Coventry University London.
The venues for the 2022 Commonwealth Games will be based in Birmingham, Cannock Chase, Coventry, Royal Leamington Spa, Sandwell, Solihull, Warwick, Wolverhampton, and London.
Jacobs Wells Baths, formally called Hotwells Public Baths, is a former public baths on Jacob's Wells Road, Bristol. Built in 1889 and designed by Bristol City Surveyor Josiah Thomas, the baths closed in the late 1970s and were converted in the 1980s into a community managed dance centre, which closed in 2016. In 2018 Bristol City Council transferred responsibility for the building to the charity Fusion Lifestyle on a 35-year lease with a peppercorn rent. The building is Grade II listed and recognised as an asset of community value by Bristol City Council.
Coventry Central Baths is a leisure centre in Coventry, England. It is located on Fairfax Street in the city centre, and was the main building of the Coventry Sports & Leisure Centre until its closure in February 2020.
The Ripon Spa Baths are a grade II listed building in Ripon, North Yorkshire, England. It was built between 1904–05 as a spa but failed to compete with the larger facilities at nearby Harrogate. In 1936 a new pool was constructed to the rear and the facility converted to a swimming baths. The building is noted for its ornate terracotta-clad frontage and received listed building protection in 1980. Harrogate Borough Council proposed selling the building for housing development in 2008 on the grounds that it required significant structural repair. The sale was cancelled but in 2021 the council made a new proposal to sell the structure.