Arena Leisure Centre – Closed 2019

Surrey Heath’s Leading Leisure Provider is the Old Arena Leisure Centre in Camberley. Places for People Leisure manages the centre on behalf of Surrey Heath Borough Council and provides over 800,000 customers a year with a committed, safe and enjoyable centre for leisure.

The Arena Leisure Centre has been serving the community since its opening in 1984. As the centre prepares to close its doors, we had the opportunity to sit down with David Cross, the visionary who founded the facility over three decades ago. Mr. Cross shared his insights on the challenges and triumphs of building and running such a successful leisure centre.

Camberley Arena holds a lot of memories for residents of Camberley. In the coming months, we hope to share some stories from the staff who worked at the centre for many years. In the last few days before the centre closed, there were tears of sadness from the staff. Some of the interviews made it apparent that the staff were like a family, having worked closely together for many years. Even their children worked at the centre.

Over the years, many staff members have accumulated numerous stories, including Jane who has worked at the main reception for most of her life and whom many of you may recognize.

Arena Leisure Centre Gallery

Please enjoy our Arena Leisure Centre Gallery from 2015-2019, which includes photos of staff, Les Mills relaunches, and the demolition of the Arena Leisure Centre in 2019.

Arena Leisure Centre

Arena Leisure Centre - Staff

We have a selection of photos and interviews from former staff of Arena Leisure Centre, discussing how they enjoyed their time there and how it became like a large family before it closed down.

LesMills Re-Launch

From 2015 up until the year before the Arena Leisure Centre closed its doors for the last time, we captured all the Les Mills Re-Launch classes. We have a selection for you to remember, you never know, you might even see yourself in these photos.

Arena Leisure Centre - New Gym

Arena Leisure Centre underwent a gym refurbishment in 2016. We were fortunate enough to capture the entire build on our YouTube channel through time-lapse videos.

Arena Leisure Centre - Pool Drain

We set up a time-lapse camera to record the draining of the pools in preparation for the main work to begin.

Arena Leisure Centre - Demolition Day

We installed a time-lapse camera between September and December to capture the process of the building being dismantled in preparation for the construction of a new centre in 2020.

We have uploaded videos of classes and staff interviews that were recorded before the closure of Camberley Arena Leisure Centre in 2019. You can find them on our YouTube channel in the Camberley Arena Playlist. Take a look as you may recognize someone or even find yourself in the videos.

We would like to express our gratitude to Place for Leisure Camberley for allowing us to record a time-lapse of Camberley Arena Leisure Centre on their premises. We used two cameras to record from 7 am to 4 pm for six months. Every day we moved the cameras around to capture the best shots. It is not often that we get a chance to record history, and we are grateful for this opportunity.