Replacing a healthcare facility first opened in 1908 as a 20-bed cottage hospital, the recently opened ‘new’ Finchley Memorial Hospital in north-west London was designed by architects, Murphy Philipps, ‘to be at the heart of a health campus’, surrounded by green space for use by both the hospital itself, and the local community.
The £28 million hospital, which has achieved a BREAAM Excellent rating – with an annual energy target of just 35 GJ/100 m3 set by SHINE, the Department of Health-backed learning network for sustainable healthcare buildings – has also featured as one of only 20 projects in the RIBA Health Buildings Exhibition. HEJ editor, Jonathan Baillie, met with lead architect, Marc Levinson, to find out more about the key elements, and the thinking, that went into the design.
A9,800 m2 new build community hospital incorporating intermediate care facilities, an outpatients’ department, a rehabilitation inpatient unit, 49 beds, diagnostic facilities, an infusion unit, X-ray, a GP practice area, minor treatment rooms, and significant office space, as well as a multi-faith area and leisure amenities, the new three-storey Finchley Memorial Hospital also provides primary care and stroke rehabilitation facilities to the local population. Since the recent changes to the healthcare ‘landscape’ on 1 April, head tenancy for the new Hospital has been held by NHS Property Services. One of the organisations providing a number of healthcare services from the new facility is the Central London Community Healthcare NHS Trust, which serves the London Boroughs of Barnet, Hammersmith and Fulham, Kensington, and Chelsea and Westminster. When I met recently with the lead architect at Murphy Philipps, Marc Levinson (the project architect was the practice’s Xav Roberts), at the new hospital, he began by telling me a little about the history of the ‘old’ Finchley Memorial Hospital, which sits about 100 metres from its successor, on Granville Road. The original community hospital’s construction had, he explained, been facilitated by a local benefactor, Ebenezer Hoffman, who offered to buy a two-acre site for it at Fallow Corner, at the junction of Finchley’s Bow Lane and Granville Road, if the estimated £5,000 needed to construct the new buildings could be raised by 1907. The Finchley Cottage Hospital duly opened in May 1908, with 20 beds, 10 for men, and eight for women, with two separate isolation rooms, and a small operating theatre.
Serving a growing population
Log in or register FREE to read the rest
This story is Premium Content and is only available to registered users. Please log in at the top of the page to view the full text.
If you don't already have an account, please register with us completely free of charge.
