The Later Years, 1960s-1990s

The growing student numbers (especially residential students as a result of the opening of several new halls in the period 1959-1965) meant that there was increased demand for both indoor and outdoor sporting facilities in the second half of the twentieth century.

Despite only being completed in 1938, the Walter Harding Gymnasium was to be demolished and replaced with the Students' Union extension (1964). The site for the new Sports Centre project was allocated in 1958. It was reported to the first meeting of this Sub-Committee that the University's Walter Harding Gymnasium would be demolished shortly and that after this only temporary facilities would be available in the old Trinity Methodist Church in Grove Street. Building began in 1963 and the completed Sports Centre (above) opened in 1966, housing a swimming pool (below), sports hall squash courts, a dance studio and a climbing wall (visible in the below image of the interior hall).

Wyncote 

Wyncote was extended to include a running track in 1960 and a new pavillion was completed in 1962. The new pavilion was celebrated with an Open Day, whereby Nineteen separate departments/faculties took part in an Inter-Faculty competition. As with many other universities, Wednesday afternoons are often reserved for sport. The photographs below show students in several outdoor sporting games between the 1970s-1980s. Wyncote remains in use to this day. 

The opportunity for students to take part in a wide variety of sports has increased. By 1984, the one hundred year anniversary of the Athletic Union, the number of member clubs had grown from the original five to forty.