Hough End Leisure Centre in Manchester is officially open for business as Manchester City Council continues to modernise its leisure provision.

Hough End Leisure Centre is part of a major programme of investment in leisure facility being undertaken by Manchester City Council that, when complete, will have created three new leisure centres. Hough End is the second of these centres, joining the East Manchester Leisure Centre which opened late last year and the new Arcadia Centre in Levenshulme – where work is well underway.

Hough End replaces the old Withington and Chorlton facilities. The new GLL-operated centre is home to a 25m (82ft) six-lane swimming pool and a separate learner pool, both of which saw FT Leisure serve as principal sub-contractor responsible for the water treatment and filtration systems.

Technogym supplied equipment for the 90-station gym, while the facility also features two squash courts, as well as a sauna and steamroom and a multi-purpose space – which will be used as both a dance studio and community space.

Laing O' Rourke was the main contractor for the project, working to designs from architecture firm AHR.