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ISLEWORTH HEALTH CENTRE.
This new building was opened on the 24th April, 1937, by Sir George Newman.
It is well to look at what happened before we saw the official opening. The Board of
Education set down the sum of £4,500 as the amount which they considered should be spent.
The plan which I made for the Clinic to carry out the work in that part of the Borough cost
£7,800. I ought to have spent £10,000 as the rooms are practically all just that little bit too
small which " spoils the ship for a hap'orth of tar " or £2,200.
The Clinic is quite unlike anything in the district, as I intended it should be.
The parents using it are delighted with it and it is serving its purpose admirably, but
with the rapid progress of things for the betterment of the health of the children in the district,
it is going to be too small before very long. I do feel that in these matters vision is wanted. It
is little use designing these buildings for the immediate present in order to keep the expenses
down, and the rates down, incidentally, but surely in all these matters broader vision is more
valuable than parsimony.
I purposely designed the building in a form different from anything else in the district so
that it stood as a permanent indication of the activities of the Education and other Committees
whose services were functioning in it.
There are other clinics, not many miles away, which are designed so that they look just
like a house, a little larger than the villas nearby. Personally I think that this sort of architecture
is a mistake. The building can be made to be its own advertisement by reason of the
architecture which has gone to its erection.
A plan of the building showing the arrangement of the accommodation is given on the
next page.
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