The Health Centre

Set back 100 ft. from the pavement of a quiet street, only a stone's throw from a main thoroughfare in South London, stands the building officially called the Pioneer Health Centre, but by those who use it, more familiarly known as “the Centre”. It consists of three large concrete platforms (160 ft. by 120 ft.), rising one above the other cantilevered widely over supporting pillars arranged in parallel series, surrounding a rectangular central space occupied by a swimming bath (35 ft. by 75 ft.). This form of construction on pillars allows the outer walls and those of the centrally placed swimming bath to be of glass, as indeed are nearly all the very few partition walls within the building. The front with its series of bow windows, the sections of which fold back in summer, presents to the eye a structure of open balconies one above the other, designed to be colourful with climbing creepers and to catch the afternoon sunlight. ¹