Dr Scott Williamson, (see founders) laid down the brief for the building to facilitate his continuing research into the nature of human health. (see history) This was HEALTH (see findings), not as a state, but as a process of interaction with the environment, using the family as the study of the research, as the family is the basic biological unit of society. The Pioneer Health Centre was built for the study of health, of health not as a state but as a process, a process of interaction with the environment.

The building, therefore, had to serve two inseparable functions:

He was fortunate in his choice of architect - Sir Owen was originally a structural engineer. His radical functionalist design principles were well matched to Scott Williamson's radical sociological brief. The final outcome was described by one of the leading architects of the time, Walter Gropius, as "an oasis of glass in a desert of brick". It is still pleasing to the eye and now has the status of being officially "listed".

The building's most striking characteristic was the way it reflected the multifarious, though independent, nature of the activities it housed. By means of open planning, every compartment was made to merge into another, visually, if not actually. Even the conventional separation into storeys was practically eliminated by the interal flexibility of levels and the linking up, through huge see-through glass panels, of rooms belonging to different floors. Circulation was not canalised, but merely consisted in linking logical progress from one activity to another. Freedom, in fact, was the salient characteristic of the plan. A plan adaptable to any alteration of use or change of emphasis experience might demand.

The swimming pool was the core of the plan. Arriving on the first floor, one was greeted by light, space and movement cased by the light shining down from the roof and reflecting the rippling water of the pool. It occupied the central rectangular space, flanked on one side by the gymnasium and on the other by an assembly hall which could be used for meetings, dances, and plays. The pool, of Olympic size in 1935, with a maximum depth of 10 ft 9" had long glass panels on either side, providing a view into it from the lounge or 'long room' and the cafeteria, and a view across it from one to the other.

The lounge has, along the whole face of the building, scalloped-glass bay windows that could be thrown open to the air - a central place of social congregation. Views through the internal windows into the hall and gymnasium expressed the interdependence of all the Centre's activities.

On the ground floor, in front, was the covered playground for children, completely open to the garden and communicating with the children's nursery. The entrance hall at the end of the building, away from the street, had space for parking prams. From it rose the corner staircases that served all floors. The flat roof was designed for open-air activities.

"How suitable for purpose it was can be judged by the research findings. However, a more personal opinion comes from some comments by the late Lord Donaldson, who was on the staff at one stage. "People met neighbours they had never spoken to before, mothers made friends while their children played together, and husbands, when not at whist or at the billiards table, could watch their young sons and daughters dive off the high board, and have a pint with their friends while they watched them. Amongst the many who made the most of it were the teenagers, freed at last from the streets, using the whole building intensively, exploring the whole community, and visibly thriving on it. The whole edifice used to rock on Saturday nights when the Long Room was packed with dancers, of all ages, dancing to the strains of the Centre's own band, directed by a most energetic member, a bookmaker by profession." (see publications)

Four and a half years after it opened in May 1935, the outbreak of the Second World War forced it to close. With so much glass used in its design, and so near to the continually bombed Docklands, it was considered too dangerous for people to congregate in it. It became a factory making spare parts for bombers, though it reopened as the Pioneer Health Centre in 1945.

Learn more about
The science behind the design see Building Design
Descriptions of the building by various writers see Building Descriptions