Brio Northgate is back – refreshed, reimagined, and ready for the community

After 17 months of transformation, Brio Northgate (formerly Northgate Arena) is officially back open, and it’s looking better than ever.

A part of local life since 1977, the multi-million-pound refurbishment, delivered by Read Construction and supported by Cheshire West and Chester Council and Brio, has carefully modernised the spaces people know and love. The result is a centre designed to inspire and empower people to move more and enjoy experiences that help communities thrive.

So, what’s new?

Visitors will experience a remarkable transformation and can enjoy a huge range of upgraded spaces designed to elevate the health, fitness and wellbeing experience, including:

• Beautifully refreshed pool areas fitted with new pool linings, floor finishes, improved lighting and acoustics. Plus, a brand-new flume and aqua play equipment for families (The two pools now hold over 1.3 million litres of water combined!)

• Brand-new sauna and steam room facilities

• Improved squash courts

• A fully refurbished gym space with state-of-the-art equipment

• New, versatile studio spaces and cycling studio

• Refurbished wet and dry changing areas and toilets

• Library Express, enabling customers to browse, borrow and return books as part of the Council’s public library offer

  
  
  
  

Brio Northgate has always been special to the community – which is why so much care has gone into strengthening its identity and carrying it forward into a new era. Rather than a demolition and rebuild, the decision was made to reimagine and redesign the centre. This approach helped reduce waste and material consumption, lower transport and disposal costs, and preserve the existing infrastructure (the original railway arches from the old Northgate Station can still be seen in the car park!).

And of course, the much-loved Whale remains firmly in place, freshly painted, and ready to inspire a new generation and reconnect with those who grew up with it.

A huge amount of work has also happened behind the scenes to set the pathway for a greener and more sustainable future. Major improvements include:

·       LED lighting which will help save over 90% of energy usage.

·       Upgrading pool plant systems with higher efficiency circulation pumps.

·       An additional 125kWp of solar panels to the existing scheme – estimating to save up to £33,976 per year.

Thanks for staying with Brio

During the refurbishment, Brio Northgate remained partially open, continuing to support the community with a temporary gym and racquet sports in the sports hall, and more than 74 fitness classes a week. During this time, Brio is proud to have welcomed more than 15,000 visits and retained more than 3000 members engaged each month, who engaged in regular activity.

Brio also made it a priority to keep customers and local users in the loop on social media, sharing centre updates, entertaining videos and behind-the-scenes moments throughout the transformation. Having reached more than 890,000 users and generating over 174,000 engagements, the support shown on social platforms has only helped strengthen the community into this new era. One user summed it up perfectly: “I’ve never known a place to undergo something like this and still have a lovely, friendly, happy team with minimal disruption.”

Now, enjoy your new Northgate

Whether you’re hitting the gym, enjoying family swims, rediscovering the Whale, or trying something new, this refurbishment was all about enabling happier and healthier lives through movement and experience.

If you are interested in joining, visit brioleisure.org to explore memberships and what the facilities have to offer.