Headland hotel to create multimillion-pound leisure complex

The Headland hotel in Newquay, Cornwall is set to create a multimillion-pound leisure complex including five swimming pools and a new restaurant.

The Aqua Club, due for completion in mid spring 2020, will also have a sun terrace overlooking the ocean and a new restaurant called the Deck. Three of the pools will be inside the Aqua Club: a 25-metre training pool, a hydrotherapy pool and a children's pool. Outside will be a heated infinity pool and a ‘vitality' pool.

The facility will mark the completion of a further phase in an ambitious programme of development at the four-silver-AA-starred, 95-bedroom hotel, which this year is celebrating 40 years under the ownership of John and Carolyn Armstrong.

The Aqua Club will be located on the site of three former tennis courts between the Headland hotel and its self-catering cottages. Construction of the 2,215m² club started in October 2017.

John said: "As our accommodation provision has grown, existing facilities are in high demand, particularly the spa and restaurants during high season. The Aqua Club will take the Headland into the next decade and beyond, providing the luxury experience that the destination has become well-known for."

Lilly Lewarne Architects from Truro designed the building. Mark Duston, senior associate at the firm, said: "Our challenge was to produce an exciting contemporary building that neither competes with the iconic Headland Hotel, nor visually disrupts its beautiful surroundings.

"Half of the building's volume is underground with the equivalent of 3.5 Olympic sized swimming pools having been excavated during the groundworks stage. By the time the Aqua Club is finished, more than 400 tonnes of Cornish stone will have been used in its construction, and the roof will be planted with indigenous coastal plants and allowed to be colonised by the local flora, naturalising it into the landscape."

Work currently underway on the Aqua Club is being undertaken by JE Stacey of Holsworthy in Devon, with SCB Groundworks of Redruth having completed the substructures and enabling work.

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