Ladywell Playtower is a Grade II listed former swimming pool and public hall that opened in 1884 and closed in 2004. Fire damaged the building in 2006. In 2022 a development plan agreed to build new houses around the site and restore the pool building as a cinema. The developer has been unable to secure funding because the scheme became unaffordable despite council offers of financial support. Restoration costs rose from an original estimate of £4.5 million to about £7 million, prompting an increase from 21 to around 33 flats in the proposals. The council is cancelling planning permission, terminating the development agreement, and will issue fresh tenders later this year to seek a viable proposal to save the building.
Fire damaged the building in 2006, but in 2022, the council agreed a development plan that would have seen new houses built around it, and the swimming pool building restored, although this time as a cinema. Restoration work should be underway by now, but the council now says that the property developer has been unable to secure funding for the development, citing the affordability of the scheme.
The cost of the restoration had already risen sharply before the deal was signed, from an original estimate of £4.5 million to the £7 million it's expected to cost now. That also meant that original plans for 21 flats in the new homes had to be increased to a likely 33 flats to cover the extra costs. However, it seems that even that wasn't enough to cover the cost of restoring the Playtower.
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