design et al are delighted to announce the further shortlist success for Henley Homes, this time with The Annie McCall project for the Regeneration Award.
The conversion and renovation of this famous, listed Victorian former maternity hospital is handily located in Stockwell, London, SW4. This project created the opportunity to restore the notable Victorian and Edwardian architecture on this historic site to its former glory, thus creating a new chapter for these well-loved buildings, creating 30 contemporary apartments.
The Clapham Maternity Hospital was founded in 1885 by Dr Annie McCall and was the first hospital to be founded, staffed and run entirely by women. It was re-named the Annie McCall Maternity Hospital in her honour in 1936.
Consisting of the main building, the front to McCall Close and the two neighbouring houses which were purchased by the hospital in 1938. The buildings were all linked and extended following a design by the architect Gertrude Leverkus (who incidentally was one of the first three women to be admitted to RIBA and later became one of the first two female RIBA Fellows). The design challenge therefore was to create a pleasing whole – a development that worked with the best of the old to create a unique new chapter. The design identifies common themes that exist across all the buildings – wide corridors, sweeping staircases, high ceilings, huge windows, large grounds – and combines them with cutting edge build technology in order to create generous communal areas and show-stopping modern apartments, filled with light and with as much period detail as could be restored. From a home for new births to the birth of new homes, a very pleasing symmetry.