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69
Site and Buildings in Dawlish Road.
The buildings were erected by West Ham Board of Guardians
as a Relief Office and dwelling house in 1925.
The site covers an area of 2,253 sq. yds.
On the eastern aspect there is a vacant piece of ground—now
set out in allotments—with a road frontage in Dawlish Road of
75 ft. and an area of 7,650 sq. ft.
The road frontage of the main building is 84 ft.
Suitability of Premises.
The Special Committee appointed to consider the functions
and design of health centres to be provided under the National
Health Service Act, 1946, were unanimous in recommending that
health centres should be in new buidlings specially designed for the
purpose. Adaptation of an existing building is generally unsatisfactory,
and is often at best a makeshift arrangement; but as it
might be a long time before any new "ad hoc" building became
available, the Relief Office Building in Dawlish Road had the
great advantage that it could be made available for use in the
near future.
The main building was structurally sound. The floors, of
wooden blocks, were in good condition throughout; and the walls,
except in the room formerly used as a Committee Room, were tiled
to a height of 5 ft. with dismal, dark-brown coloured tiles.
Internally the premises had the inhospitable and severe
"institutional" appearance and atmosphere characteristic of
barracks and Boards of Guardians' institutions of the time, and they
lacked many desirable features and amenities we expect to find
in modern health centres.
Although the main building was large, so much of the accommodation
was devoted to the large central waiting hall that the
accommodation available for actual clinic purposes was relatively
small. On each side of the hall there were three rooms available
for clinics, but none sufficiently large to justify it being considered
ideal as a room to serve either as a school minor-ailment clinic or
as a weighing room for infants and toddlers.
With regard to situation, the premises had the great advantage
that they were so easily accessible to such a large and densely
populated area of the Borough. On the other hand, they were more
than 400 yards from the nearest bus route and could not be