Spring Gardens offers fresh hopes for recovery for St Mungo’s residents
14 August 2009
More pictures of Spring Gardens
Read about Spring Gardens in The Guardian, 2 September
St Mungo's newest hostel for homeless people, Spring Gardens in Lewisham, has opened, offering a fresh approach to designing hostels as places of transformation.
The hostel in Hither Green is a completely new building which looks onto a central garden. There are 40 en-suite individual rooms for residents, with the design mirroring the idea of recovery and people moving on into their own accommodation in the future.
Homeless people, or those at risk of homelessness, are referred to the hostel through Lewisham services. New residents use the first ten rooms when they arrive. Here they talk with staff about their longer term hopes and ambitions, and any health, drink or drug issues they may face. After about six weeks, they would then move into another room in the hostel, or into appropriate accommodation elsewhere.
Five rooms are slightly larger and designed for use by people about to move into their own housing. These have a kitchen close by to enable residents to develop their cooking skills as they prepare to move on.
Spring Gardens also has a main dining room, a laundry and a purpose-built medical room for health visits by GPs, nurses or other health professionals. There are IT areas and a library, with meeting rooms for activities from education and training programmes to well-being or work-related skills courses. St Mungo's is hoping to work with Lewisham College, and make use of the large garden for programmes based around gardening skills.
Charles Fraser, Chief Executive of St Mungo's, said: "Spring Gardens is fresh thinking in hostel design, having been built from a blank canvas. Homeless people deserve decent homes and supportive environments. We have a transformational building which we hope will stimulate transformations in the lives of those who live here."
One resident said: ""I couldn't sleep the first three nights I was here because I couldn't believe this was for me - I thought they were going to realise it was a mistake and send me away!"
Mayor of Lewisham, Sir Steve Bullock, said: "I'm really looking forward to the official opening of Spring Gardens. Clearly a great deal of thinking has gone into the design of first rate facilities to help people using the service feel relaxed in their surroundings, as well as preparing them for moving on to their own home.
"I'm looking forward to touring the building myself and being able to talk to not only the people who helped design it, but the people staying at Spring Gardens, to see what they think of it."
The new build was achieved with £4 million funding. A total of £3.2 million came through the Homes and Communities Agency's Places of Change programme, with the remainder from St Mungo's and Communities and Local Government (CLG). Peter Barber Architects designed the hostel. They previously worked on St Mungo's Endell Street hostel in Covent Garden.
A second phase, yet to be completed, will provide more semi-independent, short term accommodation for a further 21 residents as they prepare to move on from hostel living back into the community. Also on the same site is Garden House - an older building which has 22 residents in individual rooms.
A formal opening in conjunction with Lewisham Council is planned for this autumn. Referrals come via the London Borough of Lewisham's Single Homeless Intervention and Prevention service (SHIP).
ENDS
Notes to editors
- For more information contact Judith Higgin, Media and Campaign Manager, on 020 8762 5645 or email judith.higgin@mungos.org
- St Mungo's is London's largest charity for homeless people. We provide emergency help and run over 100 projects that house and support homeless people's recovery and prevent rough sleeping. Every year we help thousands of people to make permanent life changes.
- Spring Gardens replaces a building formerly known as Ennersdale House. Originally a Ministry of Defence building, this was built more than 30 years ago as a housing block and subsequently used by a number of housing providers. St Mungo's took over the building in 2005, with Peter Barber Architects commissioned to work on the new build a year later. Residents were relocated in 2007, with the first new residents moving back in June this year.
- Read architectural coverage about Spring Gardens in Building Design magazine
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- About St Mungo's - Internal page