Finsbury Health Centre needs ‘urgent work’

Published: 12 August, 2010
by TOM FOOT

URGENT repairs must be made to crumbling Finsbury Health Centre before the winter, an English Heritage inspector has warned.

Mike Dunn will hand NHS Islington a £50,000 schedule of works urgently needed to weatherproof the historic Berthold Lubetkin building.

Mr Dunn said: “We were working with the PCT to encourage works to be carried out to the grade I-listed building – and to this end we are preparing a schedule of urgent works for costing.”

He added that the work should be “dealt with” by December.

The building has suffered decades of neglect by the health authority and the money would be the first public cash spent on it for around 20 years.

A massive campaign was launched after proposals to sell the centre to developers were first revealed more than two years ago.

Health bosses say the centre is too expensive to refurbish – they estimate that around £10million would be needed to bring it up to scratch.

The Save Finsbury Health Centre campaign group is determined to reverse a decision last month to press ahead with the sale of the historic building designed by Berthold Lubetkin in 1938.

Islington Council’s Health Scrutiny Committee will decide at a meeting next month whether to refer the decision to the Secretary of State for a second time.

A spokeswoman said: “We have a responsibility to make sure that the building meets health and safety requirements. It is likely that we will act on the recommendations made by English Heritage when we receive them.”