ABSTRACT
Chuni Lal Katial was a member of Krishna Menon’s India League, which campaigned for Indian self-rule. At the British Medical Association Congress in November 1932, Katial heard about plans for a tuberculosis clinic in East Ham, designed by the architect Berthold Lubetkin. Lubetkin had a reputation for rational responses to social needs. Traditional general practice waiting rooms were generally damp, cold and dark; the proposed building would be well ventilated and able to adapt to medical advances. Katial commissioned Lubetkin to design the Finsbury Health Centre on Pine Street, which opened in October 1938. The reception area was open plan and consulting rooms were all on the ground floor for accessibility. Katial then travelled to Delhi to become the director-general of the Employees’ State Insurance Corporation of India, steering the first statutory social security scheme for workers in India.
