Musings on bricks and mortar

Abstract

House at Elephant and Castle, which was the Department of Health and Social Security’s headquarters for 25 years. Now converted to apartments, it has recently been Grade II-listed, an illustration of the fact that there is no accounting for taste. Some buildings go out of favour before being restored in the public fancy, as has happened to one of Lasdun’s other major creations, the National Theatre, saved by the clever coloured lighting that illuminates it at night. Buildings and organisations have their history, which may or may not reflect their nature. The still fledgling Royal College of General Practitioners moved into August premises in Prince’s Gate in 1961; acquired, one cannot help but feel, to impress. The most exciting event in its history was when the SAS took it over in 1981 to deal with the Iranian embassy siege next door. In 2012, the college moved into 30 Euston Square, a refurbishment of a building that once housed the headquarters of the national association of approved societies which helped fund health care before the NHS. Its entry security makes getting past the stereotype of a draconian GP receptionist feel easy. The anaesthetists have moved from the Regency of Russell Square in Bloomsbury to the thoroughly modernised Churchill House in Red Lion Square. The General Medical Council’s shift away from its glowering court-like headquarters in Hallam Street to the airy glass and steel of its Euston Road head office felt part of a deliberate statement that this most change-resistant of organisations was finally adapting to the modern world. The physicians built their new college from scratch on the bombed out end of the mighty and, at the time of planning, decidedly run down Nash terraces that face on to Regent’s Park. The physicians like to think of themselves as ‘the thinking man’s doctor’ and a huge amount of thought, inspiration and indeed vision, went into not just the building, but the garden, which is a riveting repository of the history of medicine and plants. Inside it is a stunning blend of the old and what feels even now (50 years on) the very new. It crouches on the edge of the park as a modest but decidedly firm statement that this place is different. An exhibition at the RCP to celebrate its creation runs from September to February. Love it or loathe it, it is something to go to see. BJHCM Nick Timmins, senior fellow at the Institute for Government and the King’s Fund comments on where our national medical associations are housed Musings on bricks and mortar