The National Sports Centre (NSC) was opened in 1964, incorporating the main sports building and adjacent athletics stadium. Located in the centre of the Park, the NSC provides the focus for most of the sporting activity in Crystal Palace Park.

The athletics stadium, with a capacity of 15,500 hosts major international athletics events such as the Norwich Union Grand Prix and regional events such as the London Youth Games. Not only sport plays an important part at this venue. In June 2003 Coldplay played to a crowd of sixty thousand over two nights at the start of their world tour, whilst in the winter of 2006 Peter Pan on Ice hosted a series of sell out events.

The main sports building hosts the following sporting facilities:

• Swimming and diving in London’s only 50m swimming pool
• sub aqua diving
• 5-a-side football
• fitness centre
• badminton
• squash
• climbing wall
• group exercise studios
• trampolining
• indoor netball, basketball and volleyball
• crèche and play centre.

The NSC is managed by Greenwich Leisure Limited on behalf of the London Development Agency. The NSC is currently closed until April 2009 whilst essential maintenance and refurbishment work is carried out. Updates will be provided in the news pages of this website.

The London Development Agency (LDA) is proposing huge sporting and landscape improvements to area in and around the NSC. To view the proposals look at the new vision.