View report page

108
The centre is ideally situated in an open part of the Council's Housing Estate,
the main entrances facing Westhorne Avenue, with a pleasant outlook on the
Polytechnic playing fields. There are surrounding lawns with evergreens, flowering
shrubs and trees.
The structure is a one-storey building of the quadrangle type, having cavity
walls throughout, faced externally with Kentish sand-faced, multi-coloured bricks,
and the roof is covered with harmonising multi-coloured Kentish hand-made sandfaced
tiles. The floors are of polished (Empire) hardwood blocks. The rooms
are well lighted and ventilated by means of metal casements in wood frames,
glazed with hammered glass, and cross ventilation is provided to every room.
Vita glass is used in the weighing room.
The building is lighted by electricity with the most modern type of fittings
and the heating is provided by electric vapour radiators. Hot water, also heated
by electricity, is available in most of the rooms. The sanitary fittings are of
white glazed fireclay of British manufacture, and the accessories are of white metal,
chromium finished.
The estimated cost of the centre is £5,500.
A plan of the accommodation is given on page 109, but special attention may
be called to one or two points of interest. Perhaps the most important consideration
in planning a centre is the correct grouping of rooms with a view to
dealing efficiently and expeditiously with large numbers of persons. Careful
consideration has been given to this problem, more especially to enable the rooms
for the school services to be used, not only independently, but also, if necessary,
for the dual purposes of the school and welfare services.
By the side of the entrances, covered space is provided for prams—a great
advance on the old practice, especially in bad weather, of having pram-sheds
outside the building.
The large hall will seat 120 persons and will be used for health lectures and
demonstrations—a feature of the Council's health propaganda work. By closing
the folding partition in the middle, the hall is divided into the two waiting rooms
one for mothers and children and the other for school children.
The first-mentioned waiting room will contain show cases for exhibiting
sterilised maternity outfits, supplied under the Council's scheme, and model
garments for babies and young children's clothing, instruction in the making of
which is given at the Council's mothercraft sessions.
The ante-natal room contains individual dressing cubicles, adding very considerably
to the comfort and privacy of the mothers.