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Poots says, working efficiency had reached such a low point that it had begun to affect operations. “No one knew who was in or out or where they were. They


were struggling to communicate – which is a large part of what a union should do.” Apart from planning to bring the country to a grinding halt,


UNISON also represents people in difficult work situations. Teams deal with legal problems. Representatives also work directly with organisations, negotiate on pay and policy. The organisation has a huge IT infrastructure and database, run by researchers. So Squire & Partners were approached to provide an antidote


to their connectivity problems. They drew up an environment having the exact opposite qualities of the previous premises: colour, connectivity and light. “We had to bring about a cultural shift,” Poots said. “The


open plan layout wasn’t in their culture. But we wanted everyone to be visually connected.” However, there was one significant feature of the job. A bulky,


four-storey building that had recently been Grade II spot listed by English Heritage (EH) sat on the best part of the site – the corner. It had caused numerous developers to thumb their nose at the site. As the first women’s hospital, the Dr. Elizabeth Garrett


Anderson Building is an historic structure indeed. Courageous Garrett fought against the patriarchy to qualify as a doctor, trav- elling to Paris and Edinburgh. Successful, she eventually founded the New Hospital for Women, to give poor women


access to doctors of their own gender. After decades of neglect, the building was sold to UNISON from University College London Hospital (UCLH). Poots said client and architect had two choices: to lobby EH


to have the building delisted and dismantle it, or make use of it. “Without question it would have been cheaper to knock it


down and start again,” Poots tells me, within the airy, square- arched building. But the architects proposed a more intriguing solution. They planned a roof bridging the space between the historic


structure and the new, nine-storey building. They would be linked by walkways, and the area underneath would become an intriguing indoor/outdoor space. Before any of this could happen, though, the former hospital


needed some healing of its own. As a result of malpractice it had ended up on the listed Buildings at Risk Register. “It had been extended by the addition of a replica building


and they had stuck another [modern] one on the end,” says Poots. “It was being propped up by steel supports so it didn’t fall into the Euston Road.” The team underpinned it, rebuilt the bay and portico, roofs and chimneys. They didn’t scrimp, mind. “We wanted to do it properly with organic materials and


proper craftsmanship,” the architect adds, referring to accreted plastic bricks. The team kept elements where possible, such as original tiles. They restored the “bell tower” (actually the lavato- ries in the former hospital, their smell isolated from the main block by a walkway and crosswinds). They saved a staircase and added a “glamorous loft conversion” at the top.


continued on page 56


The roof with its tilting panels


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