I am reading Ken Worpole’s book on C20th European architecture and public space at the mo’, and there’s a great quote in there about the Peckham (Pioneer) and Finsbury health Centres. Peckham was more of a health promotion club, with emphasis on recreation and healthy lifestyles, whereas Finsbury was like a modern polyclinic. However, both are beautiful modernist buildings. Comparing the two, The Spectator said
Finsbury is not really a health centre in the same sense that Peckham is. It is a poly-clinic, organised for disease. Peckham is organised for health. Finsbury braces itself to fight disease with the best weapons in the most efficient ways man has yet devised, but insofar as its main operations begin after disease has taken hold, its whole existence is an acknowledgement of human failure to achieve or retain good health
The ‘Peckham Experiment’ was born of George Scott Williamson and Innes Pearse, a husband and wife team of doctors who believed that the social and physical causes of ill health could be addressed to bring about good health. Local families signed up for one shilling a week, which bought them facilities for physical exercise, games, workshops, and relaxation, as well as a thorough health examination once a year.
Due to lack of funding, the experiment ended in the 50’s, as it didn’t fit the technocratic, hospital centred approach of the time. I can only imagine what McKeown would have had to say. Sadly, the Peckham building has subsequently been converted into private apartments, whereas the Finsbury health centre remains an architectural landmark. Is it any wonder we have an obesity epidemic in the UK?
Pioneer Health Centre
Finsbury Health Centre
