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39
scheme. Before the appointed day the borough council, in consultation with the
Council, prepared plans for the replacement of the existing nursery by a permanent
building on another site on the housing estate. The Council agreed that the borough
council should continue as its agents with the erection of the new nursery. The
nursery has been planned and its erection supervised by a firm of private architects
employed by the borough council.
Division 5. 69, East India Dock Road, Poplar.—The postponement by the
Ministry of Health of the building of a health centre in East India Dock Road, which
was mentioned in the report for 1949, raised difficulties in maintaining the services
in that area, a large part of which was under development in connection with the
"Live Architecture" Exhibition for the Festival of Britain, 1951. The building
from which the maternity and child welfare services were provided had to be
demolished to make way for a new secondary school, and arrangements were made
for the transfer of the clinic to a school health centre at 69, East India Dock Road,
by the conversion of a few vacant rooms. This is a temporary measure as the clinic
building will have to be demolished in due course to permit the erection of a block
of flats, but before this can be done it will be necessary to erect a permanent modern
health centre to serve the Lansbury neighbourhood unit and another unit to the east.
Although the Festival of Britain, 1951, will not be able to show an example of a
modern clinic or health centre in the Lansbury neighbourhood unit, the expedients
adopted to maintain the essential health services are an example of the problems
which have to be solved when the reconstruction of an area is undertaken.
The following schemes mentioned in the report for 1949 were abandoned :—
Division 4. Ickburgh Road, Hackney.—A large permanent day nursery to replace
two war-time nurseries in requisitioned premises was planned. The Minister of
Health was, however, unable to approve this project and negotiations were commenced
instead to purchase the requisitioned premises and continue to use them.
Division 9. 23, Weir Road, Wandsworth.—The conversion of a former Civil
Defence building into an additional day nursery was planned. In view of a fall in
the demand for day nursery accommodation, especially among the younger age
groups, it was decided that the provision of additional accommodation in that area
could not be justified.
Schemes
abandoned
Accommodation for tuberculous persons
A scheme was prepared to demolish the old and derelict buildings of St. Peter's
Hospital, Stepney, which was not transferred to the Minister of Health under the
National Health Service Act, 1946, and to erect on the site a night sanatorium for
50 tuberculous men, together with industrial workshops for 150 persons. The
workshops were to be provided in conjunction with the Disabled Persons (Employment)
Corporation. It was intended, later, to build a divisional health office on
another part of the site. The scheme was submitted to the Minister who stated
that although the provision of hostels and night sanatoria by local health authorities
was regarded as an essential part of the future development of the tuberculosis services
the strict limits that the Government had been obliged to set to National Health
Service expenditure did not permit the scheme to be proceeded with for the time
being.
The Council decided, therefore, to seek the approval of the Minister to establish
hostels elsewhere for the accommodation of infective chronic tuberculous persons
by utilising savings from money voted for other health service purposes. At the
end of the year a scheme, approved by the Minister, to bring into use vacant premises
at 20-22, Highbury Quadrant, Stoke Newington, which had been purchased by the
Council as part of an area acquired for a housing estate, was being prepared. This
hostel will accommodate up to 35 tuberculous men, the majority of whom would
be in employment.