Luxury homes plan - Derelict National Temperance Hospital for sale at £30m

Published: 06 October 2011
by DAN CARRIER

A MEGA-bucks housing development in Euston is on the cards after the Medical Research Council put the derelict National Temperance Hospital up for sale for £30million.

The hospital in Hampstead Road, which closed in the 1990s, has lain empty since the MRC bought it with the aim of setting up a high-tech laboratory for medical research.

But the building is no longer needed now that the MRC has joined forces with other research groups to build a centre in nearby Brill Place.

A sales document drawn up by the MRC with Camden Council’s planners outlines what the site could be used for – and shows the 19th-century building pulled down and replaced with a series of towers, one 18 storeys high.

The MRC has said it is duty bound as a public body to sell the building on the open market and get as high a price as possible.

It was bought for £28million seven years ago.

But critics maintain the body should hand it over for a new social housing project.

Labour housing chief Councillor Julian Fulbrook said that, while he understood the MRC was looking to maximise the money it could claw back for the public purse, other priorities should be considered.

He said: “It should be used for affordable housing, but under the present monetarist culture dominating public bodies I think that is hugely unlikely.

“However, there is no doubt in my view that we should also consider the matter at a different level.

Right up there with smoking, poor housing is the biggest health risk facing people in Britain today.

“This would offer us the chance to lifeboat people out of the private rented sector, saving money on housing benefits payment and taking people out of poor homes.”

The pre-planning document for potential buyers includes a ground floor for offices and shops and new entrances into St George’s Gardens, a park behind the hospital.

The scheme could be affected by plans to build a high-speed rail link between London and Birmingham.

Current plans show the rail line would cross Hampstead Road and head to Euston right next to the empty hospital.