Once voted the greatest building of the 20th century, the Finsbury Health Centre is about to get a £1.25 million restoration of the building.
The roughly H-shaped building was constructed in 1935-38 by the Georgian-British architect Berthold Lubetkin and benchmark for the modernist design of many of the NHS’s subsequent health centres and hospitals. The entrance, as it was originally built is a sweeping curved frontage surrounded on either side by two glazed wings, forming an H shape when seen from above. Slightly sadly, the sweeping frontage is obscured today by trees, but that’s nature for you.
Image: Avanti Architects
Lubetkin famously believed ‘nothing is too good for ordinary people’ and he characterised the buildings form as: “[a] curving façade and outstretched arms, intended to introduce a smile into what in fact is a machine.”
Partly restored in the mid-1990s, the building is Grade I listed.
NHS Property Services (NHSPS), the building’s owners since 2013, have been working with Avanti Architects and consulting with The C20 Society to develop a programme of works that would repair the 85 year old landmark, which has suffered from water ingress and general deterioration in recent years.
Following maintenance to the roof last year, the next phase of work is beginning, with a focus on elements of the façade that have fallen into disrepair, including the glazing, spandrel panels, glass blocks and façade tiles. The project involves careful sourcing of materials including Thermolux glass from Switzerland, tiling, window and glass block systems.
Catherine Croft, Director of C20 Society says that the “Finsbury Health Centre is a mini- masterpiece of modernism. It was Innovative with materials, designed to be flexible and highly serviced to deliver exemplary medical care in an accessible and comfortable environment. This is still a place to make one proud of British architecture and of the NHS. It’s idealistic in all the best and most important ways.”
Avanti first surveyed the building back in 1988, followed by initial repair and conservation works in 1994, and this latest phase of works closely follows the ’94 template and aims to complete a project that first started some 25 years ago.
Image: Avanti Architects
