The news comes as London Mayor Boris Johnson also gave the nod to demolish the huge Heygate Estate to make way for Lend Lease to deliver 2,500 homes on the £1.5bn south London scheme.
The former swimming pool building on the Elephant & Castle site has now been demolished to make way for a new larger leisure complex and Lend Lease’s 37-storey residential tower known as St Mary’s.
Both scheme’s have planning approval with the new centre due to be built with proceeds from the land sale for the St Mary’s residential scheme.
Balfour will shortly start work building a 25m, six lane community swimming pool, a four-court sports hall, gym and cafe.